§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what action he is taking to ensure that local priorities for the health service and for the social services identified by joint care planning teams and joint consultative committees are reflected in the respective local allocation of resources to the health service and to the social services through the Resource Allocation Working Party and RSG; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MoyleI have repeatedly made clear the importance I attach to joint planning of complementary services by health and local authorities in England through their statutory joint consultative committees and the joint care planning teams which support them. My Department continues to stress this theme in its day-to-day dealings with authorities. It is for the authorities to reflect in plans for their respective services the priorities identified jointly and to allocate funds in their main programmes or under the joint finance arrangements with these priorities in mind. Joint planning may reveal factors unquantified in the Resource Allocation Working Party's formula for assessment of relative need which require to be taken into account subjectively, as the working party advised, when health authorities determine area or district allocations. It may similarly reveal new factors which local authorities will wish to take into account in deciding on the use of their block grant under the rate support grant distribution and funds available to them from other sources.