National Assembly Committee calls for more detail in Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Bill

18 July 2013

A National Assembly for Wales Committee has agreed the general principles of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Bill but raised concerns about whether it will realise its objectives.

The Bill, which has been put forward by the Welsh Government, is designed to empower people in need of social and well-being services by giving them more of a voice, while also streamlining and integrating social and health services across Wales.

In agreeing with witnesses who contributed to the inquiry that the Bill was necessary, the Health and Social Care Committee pinpointed a lack of detail concerning key elements of the Bill and called on the Welsh Government to add more detail for the next stages of the legislative process.

The Committee was concerned with the lack of information surrounding the national eligibility framework, the criteria by which a person’s needs are assessed, and called on the Deputy Minister for Social Services to make a major policy statement on this area so that the Committee could robustly scrutinise the draft regulations.

Doubt was also cast on the claim that the Bill would be cost neutral. The Committee found no evidence to convince them of this assertion but noted that the size and complexity of the Bill would make it difficult to cost accurately.

“This is a particularly complex and wide-ranging Bill which has the potential to affect some of the most vulnerable members of our society ,” said David Rees AM, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.

“In accepting that there is a need for this legislation the Committee also raises concerns about the level of detail which we believe is absent from the Bill itself as well as a lack of guidance on how Welsh Government intends to go about achieving some of its intended objectives.

“We urge the Deputy Minister for Social Services to add this much-needed detail during the further stages of the legislative process so that the Committee and the National Assembly respectively can give this Bill the thorough and robust scrutiny it requires”.

The Committee makes 61 recommendations in its report including:

• We agree with the views of witnesses that statutory principles should be included on the face of the Bill. We believe that such principles would assist practitioners and service users in understanding the ethos of the Bill. Whilst we accept that Codes of Practice are important, we believe that statutory principles on the face of the Bill would help create a framework for delivery against Codes of Practice.

• We note the Deputy Minister’s commitment to bringing forward a major policy statement on eligibility and recommend that she supplements this with an oral statement in Plenary before the end of Stage 2. Eligibility is central to the success of the Bill and therefore we believe that this Committee should have the opportunity to robustly scrutinise the draft regulations on eligibility with sufficient time to review, question the Deputy Minister, and report as a Committee on the draft regulations before Stage 3 proceedings take place in early 2014;

• We are persuaded by the evidence received in favour of fully integrated health and social care and believe that a separate Bill on integrated care, such as the legislative approach currently being considered in Scotland, would provide a better opportunity to address barriers to integrated working. We recommend that the Deputy Minister considers bringing forward a separate Bill on this issue.

We are not satisfied with the information that has been made available on the total cost of the Bill and have not received any evidence to convince us that the Bill will be ‘cost neutral’ in the long term. However, we are mindful that the size and complexity of the Bill make it extremely difficult to cost. We also recognise the concerns of witnesses with regard to the current challenges facing public sector funding which will shape the context within which this Bill is delivered.

Link to more information about the Health and Social Care Committee

Link to more information about the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Bill