Mr. Wm. Rossasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will detail the statutory obligations and the allocations of funds for the Special Care Service to provide aids for community patients.
§ Mr. Concannon,pusuant to his reply [Official Report, 14th June 1976; Vol. 913, c. 60], gave the following information:
Health and social services boards have powers under Section 2(2)(f) of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland) 1961, and a duty by virtue of Articles 7 and 15(1) of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 to provide, to the extent which they consider necessary, aids and support services for persons requiring special care who are living in the community. The financial allocations made to boards by the Northern Ireland Department of Health and Social Services do not earmark amounts in respect of overall or individual services for the mentally handicapped; nor is information readily available as to the amount of expenditure incurred by each board in respect of aids provided for mentally handicapped persons.