§ 31. Mr. McTaggartasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the number of local authority home helps for each of the regional councils in Scotland; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John MacKayThe information requested will be published shortly in a further edition of the Social Work Services Group's Statistical Bulletin "Home Care Services, Day Care Establishments and Day Services". A copy of the bulletin will be placed in the Library. I am arranging for provisional figures for 1985 to be published in theOfficial Report.
The home help service accounts for some 16 per cent. of total expenditure on local authority social work services. Individual regional and islands councils determine their own pattern of service provision within the resources available to them. Numbers of home helps and clients helped in 1985 were both higher than in 1979. Home help and client numbers both increased in 1984 and again in 1985, when the total for clients was 19 per cent. above the figure for 1979.
Region Number of home helps at 31 March 1985 (whole time equivalent) Borders 101.1 Central 448.3 Dumfries and Galloway 303.0 Fife 586.0 Grampian 733.7 Highland 301.4 Lothian 1,477.4 Strathclyde 4,715.2 Tayside 553.7 Orkney 65.9 Shetland 48.4 Western Isles 167.7 Scotland total 9,501.8