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1779 Augmentative and Alternative 6 JUNE 2013 Augmentative and Alternative 1780<br />
Communication Services<br />
Communication Services<br />
The new arrangements will be introduced in 2014,<br />
<strong>Parliament</strong> allowing. Twenty pathfinder local authorities<br />
are piloting new approaches to integrated assessments<br />
and the plans currently. The amended Bill now includes<br />
a duty on CCGs to secure the services that they agree<br />
the individual needs and which comprise the education,<br />
health and care plan. We have specifically required in<br />
the mandate for the NHS—the Government’s priorities—<br />
the need for improvement, through partnership working,<br />
to support children and young people with special<br />
educational needs and disabilities, and for ensuring that<br />
children have access to the services identified in the<br />
agreed care plan. AAC support will be a significant part<br />
of these plans for many children.<br />
NHS England and CCGs will need to work closely<br />
with local authorities and, of course, health and wellbeing<br />
boards, which will include the local authority director<br />
of children’s services and the local healthwatch. That is<br />
the vehicle for a consensual local identification of needs<br />
and a local strategy for meeting them. The health and<br />
wellbeing board must, as our guidance makes clear,<br />
have particular regard for hard-to-reach groups and<br />
those with complex conditions, which will require more<br />
specialised health services, as well as ensuring it has an<br />
in-depth understanding of more widespread health needs<br />
among the population.<br />
Mr Andrew Smith (Oxford East) (Lab): I congratulate<br />
the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys<br />
(Paul Maynard) on initiating this important debate. In<br />
the allocation of resources and the approval of plans,<br />
what mechanisms for appeal will t<strong>here</strong> be for individuals<br />
who feel that they have not been fairly treated, or indeed<br />
for areas that feel that?<br />
Norman Lamb: T<strong>here</strong> will be the potential to challenge<br />
and question to ensure that the individual is satisfied<br />
that their case has been properly heard, but I will also<br />
write to the right hon. Gentleman to fill in the details<br />
further to ensure that he understands the position fully.<br />
Let me make a quick point about the historical<br />
budgets to which my hon. Friend the Member for<br />
Blackpool North and Cleveleys referred. To start with,<br />
NHS England has worked on the basis of the amount<br />
spent hitherto. It is important to say that work is very<br />
much ongoing on this matter, and it is absolutely recognised<br />
that it is important to get it right and to assess the level<br />
of need so that we can identify how much needs to be<br />
spend on it. This is not a done deal and he should not<br />
assume that this is the end of the story. He also made a<br />
point about organisations with great expertise which<br />
could be excluded from being able to play a part in this.<br />
I can reassure him that they will be able to bid to do<br />
work. He also made the point about loss of equipment<br />
on leaving school, and it is really important that that is<br />
avoided; that sort of thing is utterly crazy and we must<br />
ensure continuity. As he rightly said, this is a health<br />
issue and it must be recognised as such. He talked about<br />
the hub-and-spoke issue. The relationship between the<br />
expert team nationally and the CCGs has the potential<br />
to work well to build capacity within the system to<br />
improve the level of expertise available and to ensure a<br />
more consistent approach.<br />
I hope that what I have said today provides significant<br />
reassurance to hon. Members about the robustness of<br />
the new approach to deliver AAC aids, not least in the<br />
role of NHS England in leading the development of<br />
expert service specifications and implementing them in<br />
a national programme of commissioning to deliver<br />
improved and responsive communication support. We<br />
are not complacent and, together with NHS England,<br />
we understand that more needs to be done to ensure<br />
absolute consistency across England, so that everyone<br />
who needs it has access to high-quality, equitable and<br />
effective AAC support. But we have in place the right<br />
system to deliver that; my profound belief is that we<br />
will shortly be able to recognise NHS England, in this<br />
regard, as an exemplar of the effective design and<br />
commissioning of specialised services.<br />
Question put and agreed to.<br />
5.29 pm<br />
House adjourned.