Speeches by Coleman.

“I was a cabinet member during covid, responsible for public health. As I listened to my right hon. Friend’s statement, I felt so relieved that we are about to replace the chaos experienced by me and so many people across the country at that time with a forward-looking, orderly and strategic approach. Among the many thi…”

“Does that mean that you are considering it as one of the options?”

“Forgive me—I will look forward, rather than backwards, on this, because there is a huge amount to do and to make better. What sort of background would you expect your chief inspector for adult social care to have?”

“It is good to see you here, Sir Julian and Mr Dilks. You just touched on the suspension of the ICS assessment programme. What needs to be in place for you to restart that programme, and what timetable are you working towards?”

“That is helpful. What about the timing within which you hope to be able to achieve this?”

“Interesting. That is helpful. Just a declaration: I used to sit as the local authority representative on an ICB. It is fascinating; the NHS part does not integrate; all the mental health hospitals, primary care and all those bits do not integrate well—and the other side with the local authorities is a challenge. I note…”

“Thank you very much. That is very helpful. You have slightly distracted me from the final question that I was going to ask. I want to go back to the ICSs. There are many, many differences, and the different parts of the NHS do not work well together, but there is a fundamental difference of governance between the way l…”

“I appreciate that. I was just seeking clarity on whether the possibility of a one-word assessment is on the table for discussion at the moment as part of the process that is taking place. I am still not quite clear whether it is.”

“Will that be one of the options that you will consider in making a recommendation?”

“But you are going to be making a recommendation to the Secretary of State.”

“Can I just come back to what my colleague Jen Craft said about one-word assessments? The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association and others have said you should look at what Ofsted has done and stop going for the overly simplistic one-word assessments. Will you do that?”

“Thank you. By the way, I think your thematic approach is a good one, based on experience.”

“My constituents, many of whom work in financial services, will have been amazed, just as I was, when the shadow Chancellor, in a fit of pique, demanded that the Chancellor should come home from China to talk to him in this House, rather than staying to promote growth, increase access to the world’s second largest marke…”

“And the disabled.”

“I want to throw something in. We are talking a lot about evidence and the cost of care. Andrew, your report talks about the problems of having different funding streams for health, which is free, and social care, which is not. Simon, you have said that there isn’t the money to make it free, and Kathryn, you have said t…”

“I would like to have Andrew’s view as well, but I have to say that you are making an extremely strong point. I think the council does not have the resources to undertake the depth of academic study—rigorous study—that would be needed to identify the answers to the questions you have raised. It would be helpful if that …”

“Kathryn, you suggested that you have some concerns about how well the NHS gets it, and that it needs to sort out social care in order to achieve its own ambitions. As a former cabinet member for adult social care and health, I share those concerns. Would you like to say a bit more about that?”

“Happy new year, Mrs Harris. I appreciate that everyone is looking forward to the final speech—perhaps this will be the final speech before the Front Benchers. I did not know how this debate would go, so I was very interested to come here to hear what people would say. I hope it has been somewhat useful to people who ar…”

“Forgive me. Thank you very much, Mrs Harris—I appreciate that reminder. I apologise to those in the Public Gallery for turning my back on them, if I may say that through you, Mrs Harris. As we are accused of not keeping our promises, I will boringly quote from the manifesto. On new homes, we said: “Labour will get Brit…”

“I am not here to say what should happen to the free breakfast clubs in secondary schools—we can have that debate another time. I am here to respond to anybody in this Chamber who says that the Labour party is not keeping its promises; I am reading out those promises word by word. I will talk about sewage, of which ther…”