My Lords, I support the amendment and in particular speak to my own Amendment 78ZA, which seeks to place the concepts of dignity and respect on the face of the Bill at the outset. I should declare an interest as chairman of the Social Care Institute for Excellence.
A week or so ago I visited a residential home in Edgbaston, Birmingham, and I came away convinced that I could happily live there. I am not sure that they would want me but I was convinced that I could live there if they would have me. As I reflected on that visit I asked myself why I felt so positively, because I do not always feel that way about a visit. The accommodation was comfortable, clean and not overly institutionalised. The staff were skilled and well qualified. There was a rich programme of voluntary recreational activities and a great deal of interaction between the local community and the home. A special school was visiting on a regular basis and there was clearly a bond between the residents and the students at the special school.
All very impressive, but above all, I experienced a place where residents were treated with dignity and with respect by staff who seemed to understand that people’s greatest need at a time when they have to receive some support is not to lose their dignity. Those residents wanted, above all else, to retain their dignity, and so would I.
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Recently, we have all seen distressing coverage of care—residential or domiciliary—which falls below anyone’s acceptable standards. Although I am sure that we have all been shocked by the nature and level of abuse and neglect which have been exposed, I, for one, found the most heart-rending thing was the way in which all that had stripped people of their dignity. The fact that someone in a caring profession could treat another person with such a lack of respect and basic humanity—whatever the pressures, and we know that those pressures are considerable—is what I found truly shocking. To see vulnerable people stripped of their dignity is, frankly, devastating.
Dignity and respect are the basic rights which those in care have the right to expect, but they also provide the benchmark by which professionals should be judged as they go about their work. Whatever else carers do, it is simply not acceptable to treat people with a lack of dignity and respect. That brings me specifically to the Bill and my amendment.
Many of us have said on Second Reading and already today that in many respects this is a mould-breaking Bill, much of which is to be welcomed, but because it is so significant it will long be a reference
point for those in the caring professions and a place where people look for definitions of good care. They will look for a clear statement of what users and professionals should expect and should be expected to provide. That is why I think that it is so important that we ensure that the Bill captures and articulates boldly what we expect. As it stands, Clause 1 says much that is important, as it is intended to exemplify what is meant by providing well-being. In Clause 1(2), there is even a cross-reference to personal dignity. I suspect that the Minister may well suggest that that deals with the thrust of my amendment, but for me, it is lost in a series of other references. It just does not stand out boldly enough and its impact is diminished.
Well-being is a phrase well used now in the world of health and certainly within the Department of Health. There is nothing wrong with it, but for me, it just does not quite capture the essence of good care. It is also not a phrase in common usage. It does not encapsulate the fundamentals of good care in the way that “dignity and respect” do. My amendment would state boldly at the outset of the Bill that dignity and respect is what we are all about. They encapsulate the cornerstones of good care. They are the foundations on which everything else should be built. Even in an age of austerity and cost-reduction, they cannot ever be compromised, because they are, in many ways, our most basic human rights.
The amendment is really meant to help the Government and the Minister, to enable them to make at the outset that bold statement of intent and expectation. It does not need additional expenditure—that must be a good thing—it just involves us being prepared to state simply and unambiguously what the Bill is about and what good care is about.