Context and aims

1. From Here to Modernity: Accountability within the Health and Social Care Bill Janet Goddard LLM LLB (Hons) MCIArb k0520208@kingston.ac.uk Context and aims To consider accountability as a concept and to discover a useable template with which to look at the roles of the Secretary of State for Health and the newly formed bodies that are created in the Health and Social Care Bill in order to assess whether accountability remains realisable. To consider what mechanisms of accountability will be in place to challenge any potential inability to provide services as accountability shifts from the Secretary of State for Health and is divided amongst the recently formed bodies under the new Health and Social Care Bill Analysis and Discussion Accountability is highly subjective and therefore, discovering a useable interpretation firstly required a journey backwards to its historical construal in order to chart its change into the concept recognised today. Accountability was constitutionally given to the Secretary of State for Health and therefore, it is of concern that this duty is being capped. That said, the Health and Social Care Bill does not take accountability entirely out of the hands of the Secretary of State for Health but rather, it limits this apparent power with Clause 4 s1 (c) which operates as an effective ‘hands-off’ section. It promotes the autonomy of the private providers, leaving the Secretary of State ostensibly impotent to intervene. Methods The methodological approach to the thesis has been a blend of legal theory research, socio-legal and expository doctrinal research. This combined approach lends itself naturally to an analytical paper on Accountability in the Health and Social Care Bill and was considered the best route to examining what the law is and how society understands it. It starts with using Dicey as a platform to discovering what accountability is in order to apply that interpretation to the Health and Social Care Bill to examine where accountability may fall within the new healthcare regime Implications and Impact The reforms to the healthcare system are far more complex than any past reorganisation with many new layers of administration. For consideration is whether these extra layers will offer a more failsafe system of accountability or whether it will prove too cumbersome and therefore, open to misuse and/or failure. The thesis will examine whether these changes to the Secretary of State for Health’s remit will be relevant or whether the proposed changes will prove to be exactly what was required to take the healthcare service forward.