HC Deb 25 May 1994 vol 244 c323
6. Mrs. Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what resources he has allocated to community care for the current financial year; and if he will make a statement on the Government's policy for developing this programme.

Mr. Stewart

In the current year, about £170 million has been made available to Scottish local authorities for the implementation of the community care policy—an increase of £88 million over the previous year.

Mrs. Ewing

Despite that figure, will the Minister explain why he believes that a community care policy is being evolved, when our elderly, our disadvantaged and our disabled are to be subjected to the added burden of VAT on domestic fuel? When we consider that against the background of the Government's failure to recognise the need for a carer's premium and their failure to recognise all aspects of care in the community, how can he say that there is a community care policy in place? Many people, especially those who are disadvantaged, do not believe that that is so. Exactly what does the Minister have in mind?

Mr. Stewart

I congratulate the hon. Lady on her ingenuity. However, she has failed to recognise the package of measures that my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced to assist the elderly and those on low incomes with VAT on fuel. On her more general point, the Government's objectives for care in the community are very clear and, indeed, in principle, they have very wide acceptance.

Mr. Robert Hughes

Is not the Minister aware of the very great concern—indeed, resentment—in and around Aberdeen over the proposal by Grampian health care trust to close a number of hospitals on the ground that it is necessary under community care, when the trust itself concedes that there are no places in the community available? How on earth can that be justified, and why does not the Minister have a policy that insists that, before there is any mention of hospital closures, there are suitable places up and running and available in the community to take people who are discharged?

Mr. Stewart

Of course, there have to be available places in the community. No one can be discharged until there is a community care individual assessment by the key agencies on housing and on social and community needs. May I also point out to the hon. Gentleman the bridging finance that is available to assist that process, which totalled £60 million between 1991–92 and 1995–96? That is in addition to the figures to which I have already referred and in addition to the extra resources that Scottish Homes, for example, is using to play its part in the effective implementation of care in the community.