§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if his Department has made an estimate of the requirements for different types of care in the future for the disabled and aged; what emphasis it proposes to lay on each type of care in planning future expenditures on the care of the disabled; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what study his Department has made of the pattern of care for the disabled which permits integration with the community as a whole; if a study has been made of the economic and social balance between care at home, in institutions and in group dwellings; and if he will make a statement;
(3) if his Department has now made an estimate of the number of disabled people who will have to be cared for over the next 20 years; if it has made an estimate of the need for an increase in social services to meet this requirement; and if he will make a statement;
(4) what assessment his Department has made of the comparative costs of caring for disabled people at home, in hospitals, in institutions and in group dwellings; if account has been taken of the social costs involved in providing care; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir K. JosephIn the light of such knowledge as is at present available suggestions as to the need for services were made to local authorities in August last to assist their planning, and I am sending to the hon. Member a copy of the circular concerned. All the matters to which the hon. Member refers are under constant review by my Department.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proposals his Department is prepared to make to encourage community care as official local government policy; what financial support will be made available to allow local authority social services departments to keep the disabled and aged within the community; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Sir K. JosephThe responsible local authorities are aware of the Government's policy to develop the provision of services in the community as rapidly as resources permit, and I am sending the hon. Member copies of circulars sent to them. The recent rapid growth in the expenditure on personal social services shows that local authorities have given these services high priority.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he accepts the projections made by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Action Research for the Crippled Child monograph "Care with Dignity" regarding the needs of the disabled in the future in terms of social and economic costs; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir K. JosephI would refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Alfred Morris) on 24th May.—[Vol. 857, c.122–3.]
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if his Department will allow disabled persons who have production line vehicles issued by his Department, to have this vehicle purchased by a surviving disabled person when the other disabled member of the family has died, become bedridden or house-bound; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AlisonCars withdrawn, for whatever reason, which can be reconditioned economically, are reissued to other eligible disabled people already on the waiting list; those that cannot are normaly sold by public auction, though exceptions have been made when justified by circumstances of individual cases.