Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I am sure that we will continue this subject through the subsequent stages of this Bill. The noble Lord, Lord Graham, suggested that I wrote down ““Too soon to change””, and then I wrote ““Exactly!””— for the benefit of Hansard, there is an exclamation mark after that. My noble friend Lady Scott has made the point well that effective leadership is not the same as so-called strong leadership. Leadership can be shown not merely through the Government’s formal leadership models; there were some good examples of it under the old style. We are told that the new models will help with—it is so full of jargon—place-shaping. The noble Baroness’s description of that as moving away from local administration of services dictated centrally made me think, ““Yes, that was what we had before there was so much dictation from the centre””. I agree with her analysis that there is a problem there, although not with her solution. As my noble friends and others have said, there is further debate to be had on the role of the ward councillor, so I wish to make only one further comment. It was suggested that, currently, where a strong leader is identified, the council’s relations with its partners have been improved. I find that a curious concept. If relationships with partners depend on there being an individual to whom they can relate, that is a poor state of affairs when we are talking about public services. As I say, I am sure that we will come back to this area. I am grateful to the noble Baroness for explaining my Amendment No. 125. I knew that I had a good reason for tabling it. I was confused when I looked at it again today and thought, ““Aren’t we letting the Welsh do their own thing?””. That would be the right thing to do, but my analysis of it in the first instance was better than I had realised. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 113A not moved.]