Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, my name is not under any of the amendments, but I want to say briefly how much I support what has been said by the noble Lords, Lord Warner and Lord Harris, and the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley. Following on from the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, I think that, while Healthwatch will have some opportunity to look at the CQC, it will usually look at the negative side. However, I thought HealthWatch was going to be a body that might be able to influence future policy. Certainly, when I had the experience of sitting on a CHC board, it was able to contribute to the future policy of a new development. I feel we are looking very much at the negative, rather than the positive and the contribution that can be made by members of HealthWatch, possibly to future national policies. Thinking back to the changes that took place in mental health and learning disabilities, I think that it would have been very valuable to have had the contribution of the HealthWatch group of people. We did not have it at that stage. Somehow we need to weave into this the positive side of policy-making and strategy that HealthWatch can often contribute in a very positive way. While HealthWatch will have a contribution to make in looking at the negative side—which usually means the critical side in relation to the CQC—I do not think that that should be its sole role. I hope the Government will take that away and perhaps feed it in.