I have to confess to not being an expert on the arrangements for the conservatoire, although it is the case that where a student is studying a degree in dance, they are eligible for student funding in the normal way that a student would be. If the noble Baroness sends me further details about whethe…
My Lords, this group of amendments seeks to establish an opt-in model for healthcare professionals, as explicitly requested by the various royal colleges, including the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal College …
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for this extremely interesting and long debate. I do not think I can possibly sum up in any better way than the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, did. I felt that she summed up brilliantly the issues that have been raised over the last three and a half hour…
My Lords, I want to bring your Lordships back from Wales to the speech, language and communication issues that affect everybody equally right across the United Kingdom. My amendments in this group, Amendments 167 and 546, seek to ensure that people who have serious speech, language and communication…
I thank the noble Lord. By probing the words “seek assistance”, I am trying to explore what assistance is provided. The noble Lord is quite right in the example of his friend. There are people who cognitively can absolutely understand what is going on. Therefore, in the context of this Bill, they wo…
My Lords, I thank my noble friends Lord Jackson and Lady Monckton—whose speech was quite spectacular—for raising the example of DNRs. It is very good example when we are talking about who can raise assisted dying in preliminary discussions.
I want to give a very brief illustration. When my father w…
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for opening this after-lunch debate and outlining that an alternative is possible. I will speak to my Amendments 835 and 868, which I added to this group because they seek to ensure that an assisted dying service is clearly separated from NHS provision, and that the…
This year, as has been the case since 2010, we have maintained the value of the funding for the music and dance scheme, and we have provided an additional £4 million to support parents having to pay for the impacts of VAT on private schools. We have done what was necessary to maintain it this year a…
My Lords, I was not intending to stand up today, so I apologise, but this group has not gone at all how I thought it would.
When I looked at Amendment 771 and the proposed assisted dying help service, I was confused. I had thought that navigators might take a similar role to that of independent adv…
I thank the noble Baroness for her intervention. I think both would help us, because there is confusion about the future of support for palliative care, and confusion as to whether the funding of an assisted dying service will take away from other services within the current NHS provision.
Finally,…
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 17 and 309A in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Beith, which I have supported. The noble Lord sends his sincere apologies that he cannot be here today. I will also speak to Amendment 62 in my name. I thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, for his dis…
I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this short debate, and I thank the Minister for her words. We all want to ensure that the Bill is coherent. We all appreciate that it is an evolving situation and that there might be consequential things that need to happen down the line. I just fear th…
As I think the noble Baroness is aware, the Government have removed the VAT exemption for education and boarding services provided by private schools and removed the eligibility of private schools that are charities for business rates and charitable relief. The Government are taking these steps to r…
The noble Baroness raises a very important question; I am not surprised, given her charity work, that she is aware of this and the role of carers. Let me mention a couple of quick things. What DWP and other parts of government do is support those events which highlight them. For example, as I am sur…
Does the noble Baroness accept that someone can take their own life now? They are dying; it is completely legal for them to commit suicide without anyone doing any checks about whether they have capacity, ability or anything else. So the Bill is in fact adding a safeguard that is not there at the mo…
Is the difference not absolutely fundamental? The Bill allows the state to enter into this discussion and allows somebody in fact to kill somebody else. That is wholly different from suicide, and the noble Baroness is wrong.
First, the learning disability improvement standard supports trusts in setting out the guidance on safe and—I emphasise—personalised high-quality care provision as a general umbrella, but specifically the reasonable adjustment digital flag is going on to care records, which makes sure that people re…
My Lords, following on from what the noble Baroness said about the BBC having voices from across the country, we have heard a lot about the problems occurring at the BBC emanating out of London, but I am sure the noble Baroness knows that BBC Scotland is in crisis at the moment. We have a long-stand…
My Lords, the music and dance scheme or MDS is a vital gateway for talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds to access world-class training. It is a success story that we must protect to ensure the future pipeline of talented musicians and dancers in the UK.
Schools such as Chetham’s School …
My Lords, I apologise for giving you three very personal examples. When I was in my late twenties, we had a baby son who died, and I almost died giving birth to him. For a few short hours, while our lives held in the balance, it looked as if choices would have to be made. In fact, this was not the c…
The noble Baroness has often raised the importance of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary to the Royal Navy, and we will continue to look at what more we can do with respect to it. I was recently in Singapore, where, as well as seeing the carrier and HMS “Dauntless”, I went to see the RFA ship—I can remember …
Thank you very much. I declare my interest as chief executive of Cerebral Palsy Scotland. I want to continue in the tone of my noble friend Lady Stedman-Scott and support the Minister on the importance of supporting people to work. She will know, because she confirmed in a Written Question to me in …
My Lords, I will speak in support of my noble friend Lord Lucas’s Amendment 155. It is a great honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, and I agree with everything that she said; I therefore also support her.
What prompted me to look at this space were the government Amendments 157 and 1…
I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and declare my interest as chief executive of Cerebral Palsy Scotland.
My Lords, the Government are reducing reliance on international recruitment in adult social care and working to improve domestic recruitment and retention. In England, we are introducing the first fair pay agreement for adult social care, implementing the first universal career structure and providi…
My Lords, I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, and generally offer my support for the review. Everything that we have talked about has to be underpinned by good logistical and operational support. The Minister will not be surprised that I immediately looked to find where the R…
My Lords, I rise very briefly in support of the proposed new purpose clause from the noble Baroness, Lady Barran. This is an enormous Bill on children’s well-being and schools. It could be two enormous Bills. What we have seen in this House with many other Bills is that, when we have an enormous Bil…
My Lords, I hear what the Minister says—that this is about a new scheme that will encourage volunteers within the NHS. However, sadly, data shows that instances of volunteering are declining across this country. Does the Minister know what measures will be put in place to ensure that all the volunte…
The noble Baroness raises a specific point, although her broader point about the need for earlier assessment is one that the Government wholly recognise. We are, for example, providing further training for those in early years settings to be able identify needs earlier. As she says, we need to get b…
My Lords, I will focus on the aspects of this Bill relating to academies, and I have two points. First, I have read the Second Reading and Committee debates in the other place very carefully, and especially the evidence given about the performance of academies. This was to the effect that 87% of the…