§ 44. Mr. Jesselasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many additional places for children in care will be provided in 1976–77; and if she will make a statement.
§ Dr. OwenChildren in the care of local authorities may be boarded out with foster parents, or accommodated in a community home, or a registered voluntary children's home, or under such other arrangements as the local authority may consider appropriate, including accommodation with the child's own parents. The number of new places in community homes brought into use in 1976–77 will depend on decisions taken by local authorities in previous years, on the capital available to them and on other factors, including the time taken to build the accommodation. I fear that only a few 179W of the substantially increased programme of community home projects submitted this year and provisionally approved will reach completion in 1976–77.