§ Mr. Jack Straw (Blackburn)I beg to ask leave to present a petition organised by the National Society for Mentally Handicapped People in Residential Care that has been signed by a grand total of 58,395 people. It expresses the concern of those humble petitioners about the operation of the so-called community care policies with reference to adult mentally ill and mentally handicapped people.
The Petitioners pray that this Honourable House should halt the community care policy and reappraise the full range of provisions necessary for the overall care of mentally handicapped people by Royal Commission,504reverse the planned rundown and closure of hospital homes for mentally handicapped people and provide the means for them now to develop their own caring community with those suitable transformed to the proven, and successful village concept, thereby giving them their necessary place in the whole spectrum of care facilities for mentally handicapped people.
§ To lie upon the Table.