§ Dr. Kim HowellsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the amount of the increased administration revenue funding, directed towards family practitioner committees and family health service authorities, referred to as objective 9, of the Welsh Office NHS directorate "Agenda for Action".
§ Mr. Nicholas BennettFamily practitioner committee —since 17 September 1990, family health services authority—administration revenue funding in Wales has increased from £3,420,000 in 1988–89 to £6,333,000 in 1990–91. This is a cash increase of 85 per cent. and a real-terms increase of 61 per cent.
This increase in funding reflects our commitment to strengthen the management capabilities of these authorities, in line with the expanded role envisaged for them in our White Papers, "Promoting Better Health" and "Working for Patients".
§ Dr. Kim HowellsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what voluntary, private and other resources, referred to in objective 5, of the Welsh Office NHS230W directorate "Agenda for Action", have so far been identified to enhance the cost effectiveness or quality of the service, or to generate funds; by how much the effectiveness has so far been improved and the quality of service improved; and what funds have been generated.
§ Mr. Nicholas BennettThe corporate management programme for the NHS in Wales published in 1988 placed clear responsibility for pursuit of this objective on district health authorities and family practitioner committees—now Family Health Services Authorities. As the "Agenda for Action" makes clear, the NHS in Wales continues to attach considerable importance to the benefits, in terms of health gain as well as cost improvements, which can result from developing inter-agency partnerships in health care.
Voluntary organisations are fully involved with health and social services authorities in the county joint planning mechanisms concerned with the development of new patterns of service for people suffering from mental illnesses or with a mental handicap. In addition circular WHC(90)55, a copy of which is in the Library, requested authorities to prepare local strategies for health and required them to involve voluntary and other groups in this process.
Information on the impact achieved at a local level by this objective is not held centrally, with the exception of income generation activity; this resulted in £983,000 new income being made available to the NHS in Wales in the two-year period 1988–89 to 1989–90.
§ Dr. Kim HowellsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what savings, by district health authority in Wales, have resulted from 1989 to 1991, from the review of energy targets listed as objective 24 in the Welsh Office NHS directorate "Agenda for Action"; and what are the estimated projected savings, by district health authority, for 1991–92 and 1992–93.
§ Mr. Nicholas BennettThe Welsh Office energy efficiency monitoring and targeting exercise relates to a base year of 1984–85. Since that time, cumulative savings from enhanced efficiency have been achieved by the district health authorities in Wales as follows:
Approximate £ million1 By 1988–89 4.00 By 1989–90 6.25 Expectation for 1990–91 8.75 Target for 1991–92 12.00 Estimated projected savings by 1992–93 15.50 1 Hospitals only, excluding savings arising from reduced fuel prices since 1985 and from the effects of combined heat and power schemes.
§ Dr. Kim HowellsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) what additional costs will arise from the establishment and administration of the all Wales manpower strategy referred to in objective 18, of the Welsh Office NHS directorate, "Agenda for Action";
(2) what is the budgeted cost, per district authority, of the establishment and administration of the all Wales training programme, referred to in objective 20 of the Welsh Office NHS directorate "Agenda for Action" in 1991 and 1992.
§ Mr. Nicholas BennettThe objectives referred to were contained in the corporate management programme 231W published in 1988 and which has been superseded by "Agenda for Action". Objective 18 referred to the implementation and development of the manpower strategy published in 1987 which has been undertaken under the auspices of a manpower steering group established by the Department. The strategy outlined a comprehensive and coherent approach to manpower issues in the NHS in Wales at both all Wales and local levels. To a large extent the implementation of the strategy has brought together a number of existing initiatives as well as initiating new developments. A key element has been the integration of manpower issues into the ongoing management process of the NHS. It is not realistic, therefore, to identify separately the costs of the strategy from the mainstream costs of the service. As indicated in "Agenda for Action", it is now intended to update the strategy in the light of developments since its publication.
The all Wales training programme referred to in objective 20 has been pursued by the training and development group (sub-group of MSG), and has been funded by district health authorities pro-rata to the recurrent element of their discretionary allocations. Its projected outturn for 1990–91 and budget for 1991–92 are £1,091,000 and £1,320,000 respectively. On a pro-rata basis the distribution by district health authority would be:
1990–91 £ 1991–92 £ Clwyd 136,375 167,640 East Dyfed 87,280 116,160 Gwent 162,559 203,280 Gwynedd 81,825 106,920 Mid Glamorgan 189,834 260,040 Powys 39,276 55,440 South Glamorgan 220,382 186,120 West Glamorgan 140,739 172,920 Pembrokeshire 32,730 51,480 The future of the training and development group and the all Wales training programme and its funding, are under review in the light of revised arrangements to be implemented at the all Wales level for manpower planning, training and education.
§ Dr. Kim HowellsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recommendations have emerged from objective 8, of the Welsh Office NHS directorate "Agenda for Action", in relation to the integration of hospitals, community and primary care teams and the contribution of local authority social services in Wales.
§ Mr. Nicholas BennettA key theme of "Agenda for Action" is the need for a wide range of organisations to work together to improve the health of the people of Wales. To this end, district health authorities and family health services authorities have been asked to develop, with social services departments and other agencies, joint local strategies for health.
Local strategies will provide the appropriate framework for ensuring the substantial resources available to the NHS are deployed to best effect.