Or the Secretary of State for Transport would have to phone the office to say, " I regret that I cannot come in this week because there is a Crisis of Care in my family.

The Crisis in Care in the community relates not to the intention or the policy, but to the realisation of intention and policy.

That is why Quality Protects--the Government's important response to the Crisis in Care for young people--ensures that, for the first time, young people's voices are heard in the care system.

What offsetting arrangements is he making to get over and solve that Crisis in Care?

The simple answer to his question is that the debate has revolved around beds because it is about the Crisis in Care.

Before considering tackling the problems of delayed discharges and the underprovision of funding to deal with the Crisis in Care for the elderly and for children, the Government should deal with the £218 million overspend and the £1 billion reality gap between what social services departments are having to pay and what the Government say they should be spending.

There is a Crisis in Care - a crisis for the elderly, a crisis for the defenceless, a crisis for the frail and a crisis for the vulnerable.

It is early-day motion 1670, and it states: "That this House expresses its grave concern about the Crisis in Care for the elderly in Birmingham and elsewhere in England; is alarmed that over 80 care homes have closed in Birmingham over the last 18 months; and recognises that a main contributory factor to this crisis is the decision by Birmingham Social Services to pay substantially less than the real cost of providing care for the elderly in care homes and that this practice is threatening to force good quality independent care homes out of business, causing grave distress and confusion to vulnerable, frail and elderly residents in Birmingham".

The Government have failed to accept the inherent Crisis in Care for the elderly.

The care home sector will be deeply distressed that the Minister seems to be in total denial of the Crisis in Care.

I beg to move, That this House expresses its profound concern at the continuing Crisis in Care for elderly people; deplores the Government's over-prescriptive, expensive and bureaucratic regulation of the care home sector, which has greatly exacerbated the crisis in care and has led to many care home closures; condemns the loss of over 70,000 long term care places since 1997 and is gravely concerned that the number of people receiving domiciliary care has fallen by 100,000 since 1997; is further concerned that the implementation of the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.

In addition, since 1997 we have experienced the Government's over-prescriptive, centrally driven approach, which I believe has contributed to the current Crisis in Care.

The previous Conservative Government created the supposed Crisis in Care.

Yet again, we are debating long-term care and the Crisis in Care for the elderly, whether at home or in residential care, about which we have held numerous debates.

It is a Crisis of Care.

We need clear policies for how we will deal with the Care Crisis that is ruining older people's lives now.

All parties have signalled a desire for a long-term, all-party solution to the Care Crisis.

He will make us all the more happy if he can confirm that it is the Government's intention that the document will introduce proposals to ensure that we are able to deliver sustainable long-term funding to tackle the existing Care Crisis and provide for growing demand.

I urge the Government to get round the table so that we can tackle the Care Crisis and find a fair and sustainable solution for the future.

This week many of us were involved when about 1,000 campaigners and 60 organisations lobbied Parliament for the urgent reform of social care and an end to the Care Crisis.

So far, between us, Parliament has failed to face up to it, and as others have said the result is a developing Care Crisis in England.

Reform of the legal basis and structure of social care cannot solve the current Crisis in Care unless it comes hand in hand with reform of social care funding.

We cannot tackle the Care Crisis without tackling the funding crisis, so will the Secretary of State now agree to Labour's call for legislation on a new system for funding social care in this Parliament?

I hope that this Government will build on many of those developments in their long awaited White Paper, but we shall not be able to tackle the Care Crisis unless we reform care funding.

The White Paper shows that the Government are completely out of touch with the scale and urgency of the Care Crisis.

Let me say this to the Government: if they offer a genuine, two-way discussion on the funding of care, with honesty about existing pressures and the difficult options, we will play our part, but they cannot expect us to provide political cover for a failure to face up to the scale and urgency of the Care Crisis in England.

Given the scale of the Care Crisis in Wirral, I have listened to my constituents at a number of public meetings.

The Government have failed to take proper action to tackle the Immediate Care Crisis, and they have failed to confront the difficult funding decisions that we need for the future.

The Government have failed to take proper action to tackle the immediate Care Crisis, and they have failed to confront the difficult funding decisions that we need for the future.

I was stating the facts about the Care Crisis, which have been made clear not by me but by organisations representing older and disabled people, by local councils and by the NHS.

We know that demographic pressures are increasing the demand for care services, which is often described as the Care Crisis.

My experience of the Crisis in Care relates to my nan, who sadly passed away last year.

However, I am old enough to remember, as I am sure other colleagues in the House today are, when the life chances and quality of life of many disabled people meant that they often lived at home with increasingly elderly parents, the inevitability of which was that at some point there would be a Crisis in Their Care when the parents were no longer able to look after them, so that they, as disabled people, had to face decisions about their future at a point of crisis.

There is already a Care Crisis in this country, with cuts to adult care services in the NHS, and this will only get worse, not better.

In talking about the Care Crisis, I always tell people that I have received five letters about the care crisis in my constituency and 99 about saving forests.

We need a bold response to the Crisis in Care, greater investment in social care and genuine integration of health and care services.

The Bill appears to focus on the elderly and does not address the Care Crisis facing disabled people.

The Government remain in complete denial about the scale of the Care Crisis we now face.

It is not just about the “new costs” impact of the Bill itself that were cited by the committee, such as those resulting from the huge increase in the number of care assessments under the new capped system; the Government also need to recognise the scale and urgency of the Current Care Crisis and that their proposed Dilnot solutions need to extend to self-funders, the millions of people with limited means and those who are unable to pay for adequate care and support.

The Care Crisis facing this country is not simply one of an ageing population but also one of co-morbidities and many more people living with long-term health needs.

We do have concerns because there is an Immediate Care Crisis that needs to be tackled now.

The Care Bill will not resolve this Crisis in Care if the regulations are set at the level currently proposed.

The excellent report, The Other Care Crisis, illustrates the impact that this has had.

If we are going to solve the Urgent Care Crisis we have to bring in mental health services and mental health commissioning as equal partners.

I beg to move That this House, whilst affirming its belief that the Care Bill [Lords] is a modest step towards a better social care system that protects some people from catastrophic costs, and welcoming the new rights for users and carers that the former Labour Government initiated, notes that the Bill's deferred payment scheme will result in people continuing to have to sell their homes to pay for care; disagrees with the Government's assertion that their proposals will cap care costs at £72,000 given that self-funders will face far higher bills; further notes that it includes provisions which could put NHS hospitals at risk of having services reconfigured without adequate consultation and without clinical support; further notes that the Bill fails to include measures to address the current Crisis in Care and meet the needs of the UK's ageing population, including a genuinely integrated NHS and social care system; and therefore declines to give a Second Reading to the Care Bill [Lords] because it is an inadequate response to the scale of the challenge facing social care and fails fully to implement the recommendations of the Francis Report.

However, let me be clear - this answers the points raised by Government Members - that this Bill is not equal to the scale and the urgency of the Care Crisis in England.

I have spoken before in this place about the Care Crisis in this country, not least because of my own family's direct experience.

As my right hon. Friendthe Member for Stirling (Mrs McGuire) mentioned, there is Another Care Crisis, because a third of the total of those requiring care are working-age adults.

The main concern, raised repeatedly by hon. Members today, is that the Bill does not address the fundamental issue facing elderly and disabled people and their families or put in place the really bold reforms we need to tackle the growing Care Crisis in England.

First, I will set out the full scale of the Care Crisis facing young people with complex health and care needs; secondly, I will explain why that is an issue not simply for individual families but for society at large; and thirdly, I will touch on some of the areas that need attention to make life better for those young people, particularly those receiving palliative care.

As I think we will hear from my noble friend Lady Thornton, affordable childcare is one of the biggest barriers to women entering and remaining in the workforce, and today we heard more about the Care Crisis, exacerbated by cuts, which affects carers, who are predominantly female, and those they care for.

He has a deep understanding of how the NHS works and, I believe, a deep commitment to tackling the Care Crisis we face.

Worse, it is no answer to the problems posed by an ageing society, and it is not equal to the scale and urgency of the Care Crisis that the country faces.

The right hon. Gentleman expresses concern about the Care Crisis.

First, as I have said, it is no answer to the Care Crisis.

We will not get the care that we want until we are able to face up to the Care Crisis that this country now has.

My Lords, does the noble Earl accept that the real Crisis in Care for older people is the closure of many beds within local communities, which forces hospitals such as my own, Barnet and Chase Farm, to hold on to those people when they should not be in a hospital?

This Government have introduced the street triage pilots, the liaison and diversion services, and the Care Crisis concordat, which has been signed up to by 20 national bodies and which is having a real impact out on the streets.

When someone is caught in the middle of a Care Crisis as a result of an accident or a fall, and they have to juggle working responsibilities with child-raising responsibilities and uncertainty about the quality and reliability of care, that often becomes the trigger - the final straw - for them to decide that they cannot carry on working.

The Impending Care Crisis will heap even further pressure on our hospitals.

Delayed discharges reflect the Care Crisis, with £3.