HC Deb 20 February 1990 vol 167 cc704-6W
26. Mr. Cunliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage the development within the community of alternatives to the use of institutional care for elderly and disabled people.

79. Mr. Dunnachie

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage the development within the community of alternatives to the use of institutional care for elderly and disabled people.

85. Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage the development within the community of alternatives to the use of institutional care for elderly and disabled people.

Mr. Ron Davies

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage the development within the community of alternatives to the use of institutional care for elderly and disabled people.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The Government's White Paper "Caring For People" published in November 1989 included as a key proposal that domiciliary, day and respite services should be developed to enable people to live in their own homes for as long as possible. Existing funding structures have worked against the development of home based services. The Government seek to establish the right financial and managerial framework to help local authorities to provide the services that are needed. That objective is central to the new community care arrangements in the National Health Service and Community Care Bill currently before the House.

Mr. Harry Greenway

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision he is making to take back into psychiatric hospitals those patients released into the community who have not succeeded in establishing themselves there; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Freeman

Where it seems likely to a consultation psychiatrist that a patient discharged from hospital would benefit therapeutically from readmission, it is open to the consultant to propose, and if the patient agrees, seek to arrange, readmission.

87. Mr. Roger King

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has any plans to visit Birmingham to discuss community care.

97. Mr. Sims

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he plans to make an official visit to Bromley to discuss community care.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

I recently visited both Bromley and Birmingham as part of a series of visits planned to see how community care services are being developed and improved at a local level. The visits are proving highly informative and have provided valuable insights into how the Government's proposals for the future organisation and management of community care can be implemented successfully.

Mr. Win Griffiths

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received regarding the Government's proposals for community care.

60. Mr. Graham

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received regarding the Government's proposals for community care.

110. Ms. Gordon

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received regarding the Government's proposals for community care.

118. Mrs. Fyfe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received regarding the Government's proposals for community care.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

I refer the hon. Members to my replies on 23 January at column663. We have received further representations from voluntary organisations and others on the Government's proposals for community care and will be taking careful note of them as part of our preparations for implementation of the main proposals in the White Paper "Caring for People".

42. Mr. Day

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision is being made to provide community facilities for the mentally ill and handicapped.

Mr. Freeman

It has long been policy for health and social services to collaborate to provide such facilities as resources allow. As a consequence there has been substantial growth in places in local authority, voluntary and private homes; day centres, day hospitals; mental health centres and in the number of community psychiatric nurses.

I refer my hon. Friend, for statistics on the growth of community facilities, to statistical bulletin 3(2)90 "Personal Social Services Provision for Mentally Handicapped People in England 1978–88" and statistical bulletin 3(4)89 "Personal Social Services Provision for Mentally Ill People in England 1977–87". Copies are available in the Library.