§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many places in assessment centres for children there are in West Yorkshire; how many of these places are in secure accommodation; how many additional places are proposed up to April 1976; and how many of these are intended to be in secure accommodation.
§ Dr. OwenThere are 212 places in observation and assessment centres in West Yorkshire, of which seven are technically in secure accommodation but are, in practice, suitable only for enabling a child to be separated temporarily from his colleagues.
The regional plan provides for a further 50 places in such centres in West Yorkshire, 10 of which were intended to be in secure accommodation. The plan, particularly in relation to secure accommodation, is currently under review, and none of these secure places is likely to be in use by April 1976.
In the meantime, one authority in the area has, in its 1975–76 capital programme, included a centre with some 70 places of which an, as yet, unspecified number are to be in secure accommodation. Authorities will shortly be informed about provisional approval in respect of schemes in their 1975–76 programmes.