While the professional political blogs invent possible rifts in the coalition, NICE - which says we cannot afford cancer drugs which other EU countries can - proposes that parents of children under five should be able to get home checks to ensure they are keeping their youngsters safe.
The draft guidance, we are told, recommends introducing new regulations requiring the fitting of permanent safety equipment in all social and rented housing, including hard-wired smoke alarms, thermostat mixer valves for baths, window restrictors and carbon monoxide alarms. Equipment should meet British or European safety standards and inspectors should take into account the developmental age of the child, cultural and religious beliefs, disabilities, literacy levels, and whether English is the family's first language when making checks.
This is not just some bureaucrat's draft report. Guidelines for inspections have been drawn up on the instructions of the Department of Health, we are told, in a bid to prevent injuries among under-15s in the home. We are told 208 under 15's died in 2008 from injuries in the home. What we are are not told is how many were under 5 (the age limit for these inspections). Nor are we told how many inspections are envisaged, how much they might cost, and who would pay for them.
Optional Home Risk Assessments would involve "systematically identifying potential hazards in the home, evaluating those risks and proving information or advice on how to reduce them".
Who thinks those most at risk would systematically set about putting these problems right? What is the cost/benefit case? What of the privacy issues?
NICE said that the assessments would form part of the Health Child Programme, a Labour scheme to provide health, childcare and advice to families, particularly those in the poorest areas.
So where is Andrew Lansley while the bureaucratic machine grinds on, untouched by a change of government? How is this compatible with The Big Society?
More importantly, there is no more money. Did no one tell NICE? We can't afford it. So stop invading our privacy.
1 comments:
"inspectors should take into account...cultural and religious beliefs"
That'll be the get-out for Muslims, then.
Have these people no shame at all?
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