§ 60. Mr. George Rodgersasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she has any plans to remedy the present disparity between regional areas in health and social service provision.
§ Dr. OwenYes. In 1969 a long overdue move was made towards recognising relative deprivation in the way health service resources were distributed. This Government are determined to take this process further and we have set up a working party, with members from the Department and the NHS, to review the arrangements for distributing NHS capital and revenue to RHAs, AHAs and districts respectively with a view to establishing a method of securing, as soon as 105W practicable, a pattern of distribution responsive objectively, equitably and efficiently to relative need, and to make recommendations. The working party will also be giving advice on possible improvements in the short term as well as longer-term proposals.
Greater emphasis has already been given to relative deprivation as one of the criteria for selecting health centres. Social services expenditure is relevant expenditure for rate support grant purposes and the formulae used for distribution of the needs element have taken social factors into account. Local government finance is now under consideration by the Layfield Committee, and discussions are in progress with the local authority associations about possible improvement of the distribution formulae. Separate discussions are in progress about the system of allocation of loan capital for the social services.