HC Deb 11 May 1983 vol 42 cc846-7
Mr. Kenneth Clarke

I beg to move amendment No. 1, in page 2, line 43, after '1957', insert `towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred by them'. This is a drafting amendment to an important part of the Bill which improves the rules on the joint finance of social services provision by means of health authority moneys. This is a part of the Bill that was generally welcomed when the Government brought forward their proposals. Last year we launched our "care in the community" initiative to enable health authorities, local authorities and voluntary societies to make the best provision for the patients and clients in their care. It is our belief that there are still too many elderly and frail people who are staying for long periods in hospital wards when they would prefer to be cared for either in their own homes or near to them. We believe that it would be of benefit to the hospitals to be able to transfer those patients and to free beds for those awaiting hospital treatment. It would be of especial benefit to the patients themselves, and their relatives and friends, if more suitable provision were made available near their homes.

The Government's policy involves giving health authorities an entirely new power to move resources with patients so that they can give long-term financial assistance to local authorities or voluntary societies to provide community care for a patient who moves out of hospital.

We are building on the long-standing joint finance arrangements whereby, by agreement, a health authority and a local authority social service department or a health authority and a voluntary body can agree to use so-called joint finance moneys for the capital development of a new community care scheme, or to provide the revenue cost of a community care scheme that will either look after those who have moved out of long-stay hospital wards to be nearer their family and friends or look after those who would otherwise have had to be admitted to hospital because it was not possible to care for them properly outside.

The amendments and improvements that we made to the joint finance provisions were in addition to the provision of extra resources. The last increase in joint finance moneys was announced in July last year, and an extra £6 million was put into the pool. I will not give the House all the figures at this stage in the Parliament, but the Government's record on joint finance has been excellent. We have increased joint finance funds by 51 per cent. compared with the funds being expended when we took over from the previous Labour Government four years ago.

There were defects in the rules, apart from the lack of resources in the joint finance pool. At the moment, it is not legal to incur expenditure using joint finance moneys on any project that has an educational or housing content and that unnecessarily inhibits the schemes that could qualify for help because, when one is dealing with better provision for mentally handicapped children, one needs to have a look at the education provisions that one might require. For many elderly, frail or ill people, sheltered housing can be a far better environment than a hospital ward, so a housing content had to be introduced as well.

Unfortunately, when drafting this provision, which enables joint finance money to be expended on schemes that have a housing content, a small drafting error was made and amendment No. 1 is to correct that. When the Bill was drafted the words towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred by them were inadvertently omitted from paragraph (d) of clause 1 and the other four similar paragraphs in subsection (2) do contain them. If we did not amend the Bill it would mean that there might be technical difficulties occasionally in providing for funds for schemes with a housing content, which everyone wants to be assisted. I therefore commend it to the House as putting right a last minor defect in a policy that has otherwise been widely welcomed and which it will be necessary for the Conservative Government to press on with and improve further once we are returned to office.

Amendment agreed to.

Back to
Forward to