§ Mr. Robert Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the form of discussions between his Department and local authority associations which led to the issue of Forms SSDS 001 to 013.
§ Mr. DeakinsAt its sixth meeting on 28th September 1972, the National and Local Government Statistical Liaison committee (NLGSLC) invited my Department to set up a sub-group to enable local 227W authority views on developments in statistics of the personal social services to be put forward and discussed. The subgroup had the following terms of reference:
(1) To examine the form of statistics relating to local authority social services and to advise the Department of Health and Social Security on the way that the needs of both central and local government could be met most effectively (the advice to be made available within time limits which would enable local authorities to have due warning of any changes to be introduced).
(2) To consider the form by which these statistics could be fed back to local authorities in a useful way.
The sub-group, which met six times, had representatives from the County Councils Association, the Association of Municipal Corporations, the London Boroughs Association and the Greater London Council. A report was presented to the ninth meeting of the NLGSLC on 4th October 1973 and was accepted. The report covered the whole range of personal social services statistics, including staff statistics, and the forms SSDS 001 to 013 were proposed. Subsequently the local authority associations agreed to the introduction of these new staff forms on 30th September 1975.