HC Deb 23 November 1971 vol 826 cc320-2W
Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list in the OFFICIAL REPORT the amount spent by each of the appropriate local authorities in rank order per registered disabled person for 1970–71.

Mr. Alison

Figures of total expenditure by local authorities on services for disabled persons are not available; and practice with regard to registration varies from one authority to another, since registration is not a condition of the provision of a service. It is therefore not possible to provide any figures of expenditure per registered disabled person without inviting misleading comparisons, and this I am not prepared to do.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list in the OFFICIAL REPORT the number per thousand of registered physically handicapped persons, in rank order for each local authority for 1970–71.

Mr. Alison

Since registration is no measure either of services provided or of the incidence of handicap, and the practice of local authorities with regard to registration therefore varies widely, the publication of the figures as requested is liable to be misleading and I should not be justified in giving them.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will establish a committee to discover why some disabled people are reluctant to approach the local authority for help, and the reasons for their reluctance.

Mr. Alison

The recent national survey of the handicapped revealed the main reasons why handicapped people do not seek help from the local authority, and we see no need for a further study.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will send to those local authorities which have not yet taken any action to implement Section 1 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act, 1970, a copy of the Which? report on handicapped people, a copy of which is in his possession, which showed that many handicapped people not on local authority registers needed a number of aids and services which they were not getting and did not know about, and that those who were registered were on the whole getting the aids and services they needed.

Mr. Alison

My right hon. Friend has already sent to every local authority concerned copies of the national survey report on the handicapped and impaired which draws attention to these points.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will request local authorities to inform him before Christmas of the action they have taken to implement Section 1 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act during the three months which will have elapsed since they received Circular 45/71, which gives advice on implementation.

Mr. Alison

My right hon. Friend proposes to ask local authorities to report to him on the progress they have made by next spring. We would not consider it realistic to ask for an earlier report.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will inform the House as well as local authorities of the form and timing of the progress reports he wishes to receive from local authorities on the general development of services for the handicapped.

Mr. Alison

My right hon. Friend proposes shortly to issue a circular requesting information and he will place a copy of it in the Library of the House.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to identify those local authorities which are not increasing their expenditure on services for handicapped people in line with the increased Government provision for this purpose; and if he will take action to encourage them to increase their expenditure.

Mr. Alison

The Government agreed to increased expenditure by local authorities on services for handicapped people when determining rate support grant for the current period. But the grant is distributed as a block grant and it is not therefore possible to say whether an individual authority is increasing its expenditure on any particular service in line with the increased provision which has been made overall. Authorities are well aware of our wish that they should develop their services for handicapped people as resources permit.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what response he has had from local authorities to his request, made in May of this year, that they should search for the 8,200 very severely or severely handicapped people who live alone.

Mr. Alison

We shall be asking authorities for information about these and other groups of handicapped people as part of their reports on progress under Section 1 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will ensure that the booklet on services for the handicapped now being prepared by the Department lists all the major provisions that local authorities are both entitled and required to make to assist handicapped people.

Mr. Alison

The booklet will give information about all the major kinds of help for which the individual handicapped person can apply.