Care homes ‘left out in cold’ on assisted suicide Bill

The independent private care sector has been “largely under consulted” on Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill, Care England has warned.

In a survey to “assess preparedness”, the country’s largest representative of the sector found care homes “uncertain” of their role and “dangerously unprepared” if the Bill were to become law.

Earlier this week, the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee advised Peers that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill gives ministers too much power to decide on its practical outworkings. This view has since been backed by the Lords Constitution Committee.

Conscientious objection

Care England found that 84 per cent of providers said “they had not been consulted on the Bill or its implications”.

The charity reported that almost a quarter of respondents (24 per cent) feared “staffing would become very difficult as many staff would conscientiously object”; just 14 per cent said workers would be “willing to participate in the whole procedure”.

Only around one in ten providers (13 per cent) said they could manage assisted suicide in their Homes. Many requested “more information about implementation before commenting further”.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said the survey demonstrated that engagement “with the sector so far has been minimal” and urged the Government “to take these survey results as a serious reflection of the sector’s concerns”.

Danger of delegated powers

This week, the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee indicated that the Bill’s “highly inappropriate” design leaves “so much to delegated legislation that there is insufficient detail or principle evident for proper Parliamentary scrutiny of the underlying policy”.

Subsequently, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean – who has strongly backed allowing assisted suicide – and Lord Bridges of Headley emphasised in a letter the Times that the Bill “might also enable ministers to use delegated legislation to create criminal offences and penalties; amend primary legislation, such as the Medicines Act; and create new public bodies”.

According to a Whitestone Insight survey of 2,090 Brits, 63 per cent agreed that the cost of implementing assisted suicide would be better spent on other services such as cancer care and disability assistance.

Under the Bill, patients deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live would be allowed to receive help to kill themselves. The legislation is being debated in the House of Lords for the first time today.