My Lords, we have Amendments 180, 271 and 273 in this group, which I shall address. We have touched on personal budgets in a previous debate. At that time, the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, spoke movingly about some of the problems experienced by those in adult social care in managing employment challenges when they had to employ staff and the financial complexities of the budgets that they were expected to manage. We understand the concerns that have been expressed and share a number of those that were raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. We have taken a slightly different approach to the issue. In principle, we support the concept of personal budgets and direct payments, which give parents more flexibility and say over the support that their children get. It is a principle that we have supported for other forms of care in the past.
This is a new area of social policy. We feel strongly that these reforms are based on evidence and are not rushed through. As we know, the pathfinder pilots have been extended and now will not finish before the autumn of 2014. We very much appreciated the chance to meet with some of the pathfinder champions a couple of weeks ago when there were some very good examples of the improved quality of life that personal budgets could bring, as well as some of the difficulties and challenges that they presented.
It seems that the rollout of personal budgets is the least well researched and analysed, not only the impact on the individuals concerned but also on the institutions from which the services will be procured. Our Amendment 180 would build in essential time to reflect and learn from the pilots by requiring regulations to be made by affirmative resolution and a report to be published after the pathfinders have concluded, setting out the evidence and guaranteeing proper scrutiny by Parliament.
It very much feels as though we are legislating on this issue prematurely. Given that we are considering the Bill now, it is not clear how the Government plan to take account of the findings of the pathfinders. There are many things on which we remain unclear—for
example, how devolving budgets will work on a practical level; how they will impact on the quality of provision and on costs; and how we can ensure that providers are reliable and accountable. It is also unclear how institutions with devolved budgets—for example, academies—can be required to make a contribution to personal budgets from their own funds. These are some of the issues that we feel need to be debated further.
As we know, interim findings from the pathfinders were published in June. In a subsequent letter, the Minister stated that they show,
“a clear appetite for parents to be involved in the decision making process and to have choice and control”.
However, he also referred to the challenges that the pathfinders faced in implementing personal budgets, particularly direct payments. He stated that the department has established an “accelerated testing group” to make progress in this area. I would be very grateful if he could update us on that work and explain how the conclusions from this group will impact on the provisions in the Bill.
The findings also made clear that there were complexities about resources being calculated and allocated. Such concerns are exactly why we think that these reforms should not be rushed through. We should take time properly to consider the evidence, and we believe that our amendment provides the mechanism to do that.
Our Amendments 271 and 273 reflect some of the concerns flagged up by the Delegated Powers Committee. It stated:
“We take the view that, because these are novel proposals and the whole system of personal budgets will be set out in the regulations, the regulations should be subject to the affirmative procedure at least in relation to their first exercise”.
We agree that these changes are too big and too significant to be dealt with by negative resolution. Our amendments would guarantee a positive decision of both Houses as these regulations go forward.
We are grateful that, belatedly, the Government have agreed with this view and have gone some way to meeting our concerns. However, we feel that our amendments are more comprehensive than those tabled by the Government. I hope that I have persuaded noble Lords that we should delay a decision on the regulations on personal budgets until the pathfinders have concluded and that noble Lords will agree to support our amendments.