§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the numbers of children who have been in care for over 12 weeks, the percentage of the total which returns home for at least two nights a week and the number of instances where the child benefit is no longer paid to the mother because the child has been taken into care.
§ Sir George YoungInformation is not available in the form requested and could not be obtained without disproportionate expenditure of time and resources. Of the 100.7 thousand children in care on 31 March 1978, 94.8 thousand had been in care for eight weeks or more. It is not possible to identify separately children in care who are not living at home full time but who return home for at least two nights a week since, for statistical purposes, such children are recorded as living in the accommodation provided by the local authority. However, during 1979, there were about 4,500 awards of child benefit in respect of children in care who were40W of the centres, which are to promote and publicise local family planning services. The level of grant to the association for 1980 is under consideration.
The Health Education Council, which receives the major part of its funds from the Department, allocates part of its budget for the family planning information service, which is managed jointly by the council and the FPA. The amount which will be allocated for the family planning information service for 1980–81 has not yet been decided.
In addition, the Department funds courses organised by the education unit of the FPA for health and social work professionals.
Details of financial support in the past four years is shown below:
not living at home full time but who were ordinarily at home for two nights each week.