§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the total cost in the last financial year of (a) community homes and (b) local authority maintained children's homes; how many male and female children were resident in each; and what was their average length of stay.
§ Dr. OwenWhat were formerly local authority maintained children's homes have been absorbed into the community home system under the provisions of the Children and Young Persons Act 1969. Community homes now also include the former approved schools, remand homes and reception centres as well as hostel accommodation and residential nurseries. The cost of keeping children in care in community homes in England was about £84 million in the year ending 31st March 1975, excluding expenditure on administration which cannot be separately identified. At 31st March 1975 there were some 21,300 boys and 11,600 girls in community homes in England. I regret that no information about the length of time children remain in care will be available until the statistics for the year ending 31st March 1977 are published, following the introduction of a new, improved method of collecting the statistics.