My Lords, in the unavoidable absence of my noble friend Lord Warner, I shall move Amendment 74 and speak also to Amendment 75.
These two amendments give an opportunity to put into the Bill further emphasis on the importance of integration. Amendment 74 requires reviews by CQC of regulated health providers to cover the integration of those services with other relevant services. Amendment 75 does the same for reviews of local authority adult social care services. They are a clear reminder in the Bill that when CQC carries out such reviews it will have to pay attention to the issue of integration of services for the benefit of patients and service users.
I shall not detain the Committee today with yet another speech of a kind that I have made many times before on the importance of integration of health and social care services from the point of view of patients, service users and their carers. We all know how important that is. The Committee is familiar with the arguments and, more importantly, so is the Minister. Indeed, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, no less, acknowledged this in his announcement in the comprehensive spending review in regard to joint budgets. The announcement has been widely welcomed, although caution has been expressed about how these budgets will operate in practice.
The amendments are a modest attempt to give some practical effect to the aspiration for integration which we all share. I hope the Minister will say that it is a good idea, “Let’s do it”, and get us off to a cracking start this afternoon. I beg to move.