Day Centres (Hansard, 23 February 1977)

§ Mr. George
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many day centre places would be needed to meet existing DHSS guidelines for provision for 1,000 population;
(2) how many local authorities in England and Wales have a level of day centre provision equal to, or in excess of, that suggested by the DHSS guidelines; and if he will list them.

§ Mr. Moyle
The guideline planning figure for day centre places for the mentally ill is 0.;6 places per 1,000 population. Using the mid-1975 population estimates this would require a total of 29,500 places in England and Wales. The provisional total of available places at 609W 31st March 1976 was 5,200. At the same date, three local authorities in England and Wales had met or exceeded the suggested guideline, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Newham London boroughs. However, I wish to emphasise the tentative and general nature of these guidelines. The level of need can only be fully determined locally.
For mental handicap, the comparable figure is 1.5 per 1,000 total population, or 74,000 places in England and Wales using mid-1975 population figures. The provisional total of available places at 31st March 1976 was 38,982. The planning figures in this case are drawn from those in the 1971 White Paper "Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped" which set targets to be achieved over a period of about 20 years. It was left to each authority to work out its own programme and no timetable was set by which individual progress could be judged year by year.
As regard the elderly, I would refer my hon. Friend to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East (Mr. Thomas) on 31st January.—[Vol. 925, c. 28–9]
In view of the wide variety of categories of physically handicapped people, my Department has not attempted to formulate guideline figures for this group.

§ Mr. George
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many local authorities in England and Wales have no day centre provision for the physically handicapped; if he will list them; and if he will consider giving guidance about minimum standards of provision to those authorities which offer no provision at present;
(2) how many day centre places there are in England and Wales available for use by the physically handicapped.

§ Mr. Alfred Morris
At 31st March 1976, the following authorities were reported as having no day centres exclusively for physically handicapped people below pensionable age, which I presume my hon. Friend has in mind:
ENGLAND

^* Barnsley

^* Bedfordshire

^* Birmingham

^* Bromley

^* Buckinghamshire
610
City of London

^* Cumbria

^* Doncaster

^* Ealing

^* East Sussex

^* Gateshead

^* Greenwich

^* Hammersmith

^* Hertfordshire

Isle of Wight

^* Islington

^* Kensington

^* Kirklees

Knowsley

^* Manchester

^* Merton

^* Northumberland

^* North Yorkshire

^* Oldham

^* Oxfordshire

Richmond-upon-Thames

^* Rotherham

Salop

Scilly (Isles of)

Sefton

Solihull

^* Sutton

Tameside

Trafford

^* Wakefield

^* Walsall

WALES

^* Dyfed

^* Gwent

^* Gwynedd

Powys

West Glamorgan

The authorities shown with an asterisk provide places in mixed day centres, some of which were no doubt used by physically handicapped people among others.
At the same date, the provisional number of places in day centres for physically handicapped people below pensionable age in England and Wales was 8,633. The number of places in mixed day centres was 12,971, of which an unknown proportion would have been used by physically handicapped people. Both figures are provisional.
I shall consider my hon. Friend's suggestion about drawing the attention of authorities without day centres to this form of provision. He will appreciate, however, that the decision must depend on local priorities and the overall pattern of services.