argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Social Care and the Role of Carers — House of Lords, 2021-06-24
Topic: Social Welfare
Rosalind Altmann (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, and echo the thanks for the wonderful work done by carers. Our care system is broken: every part of it is in need of radical change, from the arbitrary distinction between what counts as social care and what qualifies you for NHS healthcare, the healthcare lottery; to the way in which care is provided, the postcode lottery; to the standards applied to the workforce of 1.5 million people, such as social care nurses relative to NHS nurses, an employment lottery; to the lack of funding that has increasingly rationed care; to the draconian means test and funding shortfalls, which force the entire cost of care on to the most vulnerable, who pay not only significant sums for their own care but usually a 20% or 30% surcharge to subsidise council underfunding as well, whereas those who do not need care pay nothing; to the lack of support for unpaid carers; and to the financial fragility of care home operators, who can load their business with debt, extract equity, take rental income to their offshore companies, and have provided handsome profits to hedge funds, which buy and sell their distressed debt Each of these parts of the system needs reform, and there is no silver bullet. Extra funding is of course needed, but system redesign is also required. Leaving social care to cash-strapped councils leaves more than 1 million people who need care. The demographics are such that, within the next 10 years, the enormous bulge of baby boomers will start to enter care needs. At the moment, the current cohort is rather small. Social care seems to have been the forgotten front line at the start of the pandemic, and it was used by the NHS as an overflow service, perhaps being considered as part of the private sector rather than part of the health service. If someone has a health problem, however, and they need social care, why should that not qualify for free basic care at the point of need? It could be modelled on the lines of our pension system Carers have suffered significantly; unpaid carers have often been taken for granted. They have lost, according to Carers UK, an estimated 25 hours per month of extra support that they would have had before the pandemic from support services, family and friends. I am keen to see how we can better recognise their needs. Will the Minister agree to meet Peers from across the House and Carers UK to learn from the new measures that have brought together for the first time the various parts of our service to help vaccinate carers?
Social Care and the Role of Carers — House of Lords, 2021-06-24
Topic: Social Welfare
John Astor (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it is a real honour to follow the noble Baroness, who does so much for carers. I declare an interest as the father of a profoundly autistic daughter. My experience with our daughter, whose residential care was disrupted during the pandemic, was a real eye-opener. It is an exhausting business looking after a disabled adult, tending to their well-being 24/7. I have nothing but admiration for the carers who dedicate themselves to this task and I join the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, in thanking them all Greater than the physical demand is a concern that our loved ones will be properly looked after when we are no longer around. A social care system for the 21st century needs to make us feel more secure on that score. Others are far worse off than my wife and me. I know a family with two profoundly disabled sons, aged 28 and 32, the elder in a wheelchair—sadly not electric because the parents are not disabled, so do not qualify. They have relied on carers provided by their local council to help with this full-on exhausting care, day after day. There is a chronic shortage of carers, who are on very low wages, in the care industry, so I join other noble Lords in asking the Minister how the Government plan to address this. Will the Government consider increasing the carer’s allowance to the minimum wage? The closure of day centres, which provide much-needed respite from the constant, round-the-clock supervision, as well as swimming pools and places of worship, was a blow to this couple. Could special exemptions be considered in future lockdowns for disabled people and their families in well-supervised, safe environments? The imposition of strict procedures to limit the spread of the pandemic has weakened an already fragile and fragmented system, causing untold suffering. Covid exposed a plethora of gaps and shortfalls, in addition to contradictory and counterproductive measures, which unwittingly endangered people’s physical and mental well-being. In short, instead of social care, we had social carelessness The NHS will continue to suffer, as long as the social care structure is neglected, whether we are facing killer viruses or not. How do the Government propose, in practical terms, to better integrate adult social care services with services provided by the National Health Service?
Social Care and the Role of Carers — House of Lords, 2021-06-24
Topic: Social Welfare
Peter Lilley (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the first duty of the state in social care is financing its provision to those who cannot pay for themselves. Yet local authority budgets have been cut to the bone, despite rising costs and increasing numbers This primary duty has been eclipsed politically by the natural fear of home owners and their heirs that potentially catastrophic costs of social care will consume the value of the parental home. Most proposals to deal with this involve setting a maximum amount anyone has to pay—say £80,000—after which the taxpayer would meet the costs. That gives the greatest benefit to those with the most valuable homes, particularly in the south. The owner of a modest or a partly mortgaged house who needs three years’ care would still lose nearly everything, while someone in a London home worth £1 million could bequeath more than £900,000 even if they spend more than 20 years in care. How is that fair, popular or levelling up? Moreover, extending free social care to some, let alone all, home owners would pre-empt public funds desperately needed to ease the pressure on councils’ social care budgets and on the many care homes that were barely viable even pre-Covid Yet there is a solution to the risk of catastrophic costs of elderly social care that does not pre-empt funds needed by the existing care system. It is insurance, which was one of the first solutions to be considered by Dilnot and others but was rapidly dropped because the insurance industry said that it would not provide policies to protect people from having to sell their homes. It could not do so because of uncertainties about future government policy and possible medical advances prolonging frail longevity. Moreover, working people will not pay for such policies on top of saving for their pensions and repaying their mortgages But an alternative to private insurance has been ignored: that the state offer such insurance. The alternative to asking people to contribute during their working lives is not taxing them but enabling them to pay for such insurance after they retire by taking a charge on their homes. The state insurer would then be reimbursed when they die or sell their homes. I have set out the details in the Civitas pamphlet Solving the Social Care Dilemma, and in a Private Member’s Bill coming before this House on 16 July, when I hope to see all noble Lords once again. Meanwhile, can my noble friend the Minister confirm that this option has been considered by his department, to which I sent it many months ago?
Social Care and the Role of Carers — House of Lords, 2021-06-24
Topic: Social Welfare
Howard Emerson Flight (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it is clear that the occasion of a pandemic means that reform of carers and social care cannot be put off, but it is a big and difficult task. There are big regional differences in patterns of social care and care arrangements, mostly determined by local authorities and the shape of the population. Care is also provided to all groups: children, the young, people of working-age and those who are older. Carers can be provided by local authorities, private companies and charities and, most of all, informally by families and neighbours. It is estimated that 1.6 million people work in the adult social care sector and 7% of the population provides unpaid family-type care services. The biggest territory is the old, although there are still significant differences in longevity around the UK, which affects care needs There is major reliance in the UK on family carers, which consists of one partner in a marriage looking after the other and children helping. There is nothing wrong with that. I remember that my parents looked after each other and all my grandparents looked after each other, but they had to be in a position and willing to do so. Post-pandemic, the UK simply cannot afford huge increases in care costs, but spending on care is more justified than spending on the NHS, which is already huge. There is the problem that care home costs have risen substantially over the past 20 years, largely reflecting regulatory costs I was very interested in the comment made by the noble Baroness, Lady Blower, about children. While working as a councillor, my wife found that there were child providers, some as young as eight, whose parents were bedridden. They were wonderful young children and pleased to do it I fear that the major political issue will be whether individuals have to sell their houses and use the proceeds to finance the provision of care until the funds run out. The free provision of care where individuals do not have such savings is clearly some incentive not to save during working life and one reason why the UK savings rate is, surprisingly, massively less today than it was 100 years ago. I think the Foresight report is crucial to reform. I agree with it and am disappointed that it has not been implemented sooner. I also think there is scope for state provision of insurance, but we need to get a move on.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: Foreign Trade
Michael Bates (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the UK-US relationship has been the cornerstone of our shared prosperity and security for over a century and should remain so. Therefore, I warmly welcome the New Atlantic Charter. The original charter was a catalyst for promoting free trade through the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Given that the pandemic has hit the world’s poorest hardest, with an estimated 150 million people pushed back into extreme poverty, while the world’s richest have seen their fortunes increase by over 25%, how can this new charter emulate its predecessor by re-energising free trade, which benefits the poorest people in the poorest countries, and steer us away from protectionism, which favours the rich in the richest countries?
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: Foreign Trade
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my noble friend. When the Prime Minister and the President met in Cornwall, they agreed that the revitalised charter was a fitting testament to the sheer breadth and depth of co-operation between our countries. They have resolved to take this co-operation further by expanding trade and progressing towards a UK-US free trade agreement and of course, as he rightly said, by continuing to promote the benefits of free trade more globally.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord and assure him that the proposition will now be worked up by a designated task force that will consult with developing countries and other key partners and will report back to leaders on progress in the autumn.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I am certainly happy to reiterate at the Dispatch Box that the UK is a world-leading aid donor. We have the third-largest budget in the G7 and will spend at least £10 billion in aid this year. We remain one of the highest contributors to overseas development in the G7, as a share of GNI and pound for pound.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Catherine Fall (Conservative, Centre-right): The original vision of the G7 was a fireside chat, where the world’s most powerful men and women addressed the world’s most pressing problems—and there are certainly many of those. Sometimes these meetings can miss the mark, but I was proud of this one. However, as usual, the devil is in the detail and the execution. Therefore, I will ask about the language on climate change: what is their plan to bring China, India and Brazil to the table ahead of the COP and to boost global partnerships for education? What about the drastic cuts to other funds for girls in education? In Carbis Bay, we saw a welcome return to multinationalism, including a consensus on how to manage China, but there is way more work to be done. I am sure that, like me, the Minister was proud of Britain’s hosting of the G7, but will she agree that we have our work cut out to ensure that we can be proud of its legacy?
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: Environment
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): As the noble Baroness will be aware, China is one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases and accounts for more than half of the global demand for coal—so we want to work with China in the run-up to COP to raise its ambition on climate change and find a path to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees at COP 26.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: Macroeconomics
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said, this was a major breakthrough, and different countries of course have different views on what the minimum rate will be. Compromise is necessary to reach the final agreement among the 130 members of the OECD inclusive framework, but we think that the position agreed at the G7 is one that the OECD and G20 can coalesce around.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
David Arthur Russell Howell (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I give a warm welcome to the aim to expand the G7 into a D11—a new grouping of democracies. Will that consist purely of heads of nation states or will it continue to include the two chief EU figures, as hitherto? I particularly welcome the Prime Minister’s aim to move on from the outdated "special relationship" phrase, which was used so much with the USA. Does my noble friend recall the observation of our noble friend Lord Hague a decade ago that our links with America should be "solid but not slavish"? Does she agree that a revised US connection should be based more on partnership than on simple followership? Should we not have our noble friend Lord Hague’s wise adage very much in mind?
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government’s aim in inviting Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa to the G7 summit was to increase co-operation among democratic like-minded partners on global issues, reflecting our shared value of openness. We do not see this grouping of 11 democracies as fixed, limited or replacing the G7, but it was a symbol of our desire with others to strengthen like-minded international co-operation. We look forward to the US-hosted Summit for Democracy, which will take place later this year On my noble friend’s point about America, he is absolutely right. The original Atlantic Charter demonstrates that the UK-US relationship has been one of partnership rather than followership for decades. We look forward to that continuing.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): At the summit, the G7 leaders announced plans to deepen the G7’s current partnership with developing countries and deliver a new deal for Africa, including magnifying support from the IMF for countries most in need. The increased funding for COVAX will help with the vaccine rollout within countries in Africa.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): As I have said in response to previous questions, we remain and will remain a world-leading aid donor. Officials are currently looking through the implementation plans for our spending and I am sure that the noble Lord’s comments will be taken into account.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: Energy
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): The new approach is intended to give developing countries access to more, better and faster finance while accelerating the global shift to renewable energy and sustainable technology, and it is intended to expand the current investment offer by bringing in private finance for clean and green infrastructure in developing countries, to ensure that they have autonomy over their climate investments and ensure financial sustainability and access to cutting-edge technology and financing projects. As I said, a designated taskforce will look at the details, consult developing countries and other partners and report back on progress in the autumn.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Sugg (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I welcome as a first step the proposal on the 100 million surplus doses that the UK is now committed to. As we know, low-income countries desperately need more vaccines, and quickly. The PM confirmed yesterday that those vaccines will be donated on top of the existing aid budget, which is great news, but does that mean that they will be funded on top of the 0.5% of GNI or on top of the £10 billion of aid already committed? The former would be very welcome, and I hope the first step on a road back to 0.7%, but the latter would mean that these vaccines were paid for by the surplus of mistakenly overcutting our life-saving aid programmes. Can my noble friend clarify that point?
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not think that any of us want a nuclear war—I certainly do not —so I am certainly happy to put that on the record. We will work with partners globally, internationally and through all fora, including NATO, in relation to Russia.
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Stuart Polak (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I congratulate the organisers of the summit, including the police and other authorities, in ensuring not only its success but its safety The Foreign Secretary said yesterday in relation to the JCPOA that Iran must return to full compliance—and it is not just the stockpile of enriched uranium, which is 16 times the permitted limit, but the operation of centrifuges and production of uranium metal that is of deep concern. The opening paragraph of the statement says that the aim of the G7 summit "was to demonstrate how the world’s democracies are ready and able to address the world’s toughest problems, offering solutions and backing them up with concrete action".—[Official Report, Commons, 16/6/21; col. 283.] What are the solutions and concrete actions in relation to Iran?
G7 and NATO Summits — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): The G7 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon, and they welcome the substantive discussions between the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action participants and separately with the United States to accomplish a return of the United States and Iran to their commitments. The leaders agreed that a restored and fully implemented plan of action could also pave the way to further address wider regional and security concerns, and condemned Iran’s support for proxy forces and non-state armed actors, including through financing training and the proliferation of missile technology and weapons.
Ofsted Review of Sexual Abuse in Schools and Colleges — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: Education
Elizabeth Rose Berridge (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, in relation to the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance I have outlined, it was changed fundamentally in, I think, 2014 to become a framework document so that schools and institutions know their duties and can put in place the policies they need for their particular setting. There are different risks in a rural primary school from those in a busy secondary school in an urban setting. It will be up to schools to frame particular lessons so that the instances the noble Lord outlined can take place. However, I recognise that there are specific issues related to PE and music lessons, particularly given the dynamic in specialist institutions. The noble Lord will probably be aware that that was a concern of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which had to investigate whether it was something to do with that particular environment. However, Keeping Children Safe in Education gives all schools the framework to put in place for their setting and for particular subjects, so that they can work out how to keep children safe.
Ofsted Review of Sexual Abuse in Schools and Colleges — House of Lords, 2021-06-17
Topic: Education
Ralph Matthew Palmer (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I declare my interest as editor of The Good Schools Guide. A good pastoral system is effective and open, particularly with regard to communication within the school, so that everyone feels comfortable about talking to teachers and pupils alike. It is effective and open about taking action when something goes wrong so that everyone knows what has happened, what is being done and how the matter is to be resolved. It is also effective and open in its liaison with parents and outside agencies so that the whole problem is treated, not just the little local bit which has appeared within the school The Government can make a substantial difference in this regard by requiring Ofsted and the Office for Students to keep their eyes open. We will come back to that in one of my amendments to the skills Bill. That will enable schools to know that this issue is going to be looked at, so they will keep it at the top of the list of things they are trying to do. They will know that this is something that cannot be neglected. As the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, said, this has been going on for a very long time, but it has just been ignored or accepted as something that it is hard to talk about. A real opportunity has been provided by the Everyone’s Invited website. This is a moment when we can change things and we should take advantage of that The Government also need to provide a structure for sharing best practice because it is really quite hard to get this right on your own. A school needs to have the confidence to reject bad advice. Indeed, that is needed at university as well. Look at all the problems that universities have had in dealing with students with mental health issues and the knots they have tied themselves in because they have not understood what the correct procedures are when a student is in severe distress A number of charities are circulating material to schools that is actively against involving parents and actively against going to outside safeguarding agencies, as well as being greatly biased against girls in terms of their relationships with their fellow pupils. This sort of problem needs to be dealt with by the Government, because only the Government can provide that security of reaction and the confidence that you are doing something right. You cannot ask schools, with all the pressures on them, to try to discern the difference between good and bad advice coming at them from charities and pressure groups. I hope my noble friend will confirm my reading of the Statement: that the Government will be doing just that.