§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps his Department is taking to ensure provision of an adequate number of special care visits for severely handicapped young people over school leaving age who continue to live at home but are unable to take advantage of facilities in adult training centres for the mentally handicapped; and when the promised guidance will be issued to health and local authorities.
§ Dr. OwenI presume the hon. Gentleman has in mind special care units rather than visits. Some adult training centres for the mentally handicapped do have facilities for special care and an increasing interest is being shown by local authorities in providing this type of care for severely mentally handicapped young people. The provision of adult training centres is a suggested first priority in the mental handicap field in the Consultative Document "Priorites for Health and Personal Social Services in England" but it is for individual local authorities to decide how many places in these centres should be devoted to special care.
The National Development Group for the Mentally Handicapped is looking at the whole question of day services for mentally handicapped adults, including the role and function of adult training centres and special care. Their advice will be published as soon as possible. Domiciliary visits may, of course, be made to severely handicapped adults where special care units are not yet available.