§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many day care places for the mentally ill are currently available; how many of these are provided by voluntary organisations; and how many by local authorities.
§ Sir George YoungAccording to provisional figures, there were 12,755 places for mentally ill adults in NHS day hospitals at 31 December 1978; and there were 5,896 places for the mentally ill available to local authorities in day centres at 31 March 1979. The figure of 5,896 includes 5,224 places provided by local authorities themselves and 672 places made available to them by voluntary and other organisations; it does not cover centres in which places are not allocated to particular client groups.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many patients were in mental hospitals in each year since 1974.
§ Sir George YoungThe in-patient figures for England are as follows:
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Mental illness hospitals and units in general hospitals Mental handicap hospitals and units in general hospitals Total 1974 … 89,426 50,923 140,349 1975 … 87,102 49,839 136,941 1976 … 83,320 48,959 132,279 1977 … 80,686 47,947 128,633 1978 … 78,212 46,863 125,075
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list those local authorities that do not provide (a) day care places directly for the mentally-ill, and (b) direct residential provision.
(2) if he will take steps to ensure that local authorities meet the guideline figures on day care and residential places for the mentally ill;
(3) which local authorities' rate of growth in the provision of day care facilities for the mentally ill he regards as unsatisfactory;
(4) which local authorities have now met the minimum standards for (a) day care and (b) residential care for the men tally ill.
§ Sir George YoungThe latest date for which we have national data available from statistical returns made by local authorities about their provision for the mentally ill is 31 March 1979. These show that 32 authorities provided no day places directly and seven no direct residential provision. A list of these authorities is in table I. The hon. Member will recall that my hon. Friend wrote to him last year on 24 May, 28 June and 6 July and gave him additional information about services for the mentally ill provided by some of the authorities listed.
By minimum standards for day and residential care for the mentally ill, I assume the hon. Member is referring to the guidelines for these services discussed in the White Paper "Better Services for the Mentally 111 (Cmnd. 6233, chapter IV). The White Paper made it clear that they were provisional and general in character and that:
the level of local need can only be fully determined in the context of the individual locality ".In March 1979, 32 authorities had reached the guideline figure for residential provision in areas of " average need ", that is 19 places per 100,000 population, and three authorities had reached the guideline figure for day care places, that is 60 places per 100,000 population; they are listed in table II. In each case the list takes account of places made available both directly by the authority themselves and by voluntary and other organisations and other local authorities.
655WIt has always been expected that progress towards these guideline figures would take a considerable period of time. It would be difficult to differentiate between authorities with a satisfactory rate of growth in provision and those without, since much will depend on specific local circumstances and priorities. However progress, although necessarily affected by financial constraints, could be assisted by imaginative use locally of joint financing which makes grants from NHS funds
TABLE I—Local Authorities* with no direct day care or residential provision at 31 March 1979 Day Care Residential Provision With places available in voluntary and private provision or made available by other local authorities †Greenwich City of London City of London Dudley †Merton Kensington and Chelsea Northumberland Kingston upon Thames Northamptonshire Lambeth Solihull Waltham Forest Suffolk Trafford Westminster †Warwickshire With no places Barnsley Isle of Wight †Bedfordshire †Buckinghamshire Bury Calderdale †Cumbria Dudley Durham †Gateshead Gloucestershire †Hertfordshire Lambeth †Lancashire †Oldham †Oxfordshire Rochdale †Rotherham St. Helens †Sandwell Stockport †Sutton Tameside *Excluding the Isles of Scilly †These authorities do have day centre places which are not allocated to particulart client groups. Some places may be used for the mentally ill, but such information is not available from the statistical returns. 656W
TABLE II Local Authorities †which had reached the Guideline figures for residential and day care provision at 31 March 1979 Residential Provision Day Care Barnet Harrow Newham Newham Brent Havering Northamptonshire Tower Hamlets* Camden* Hillingdon Richmond upon Thames Islington Croydon Hounslow Salford Dorset Kensington & Chelsea Somerset Ealing Kent Southwark East Sussex Lambeth Tower Hamlets Greenwich Lewisham Wandsworth Hackney Liverpool Westminster Hammersmith Manchester Wolverhampton Haringey Merton *1978 figures only available †Excluding the Isles of Scilly available to local authorities and voluntary organisations. We have increased the amount of joint finance in 1980–81 by 16 per cent. at comparable price levels over 1979–80 and I would hope schemes for the mentally ill could benefit thereby.
We are continuing our review of current policy and practice in the field of day care to attempt to establish a clear conception of what day care for the mentally ill should provide.
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§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much has been spent in each year since 1974 on (a) hospital services and (b) local authority day and residential facilities for the mentally ill.
§ Sir George YoungThe table below sets out estimated net revenue expenditure in England, at constant prices—public
£million 1974–75* 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79† Hospital In-patients and out-patients 460.7 460.9 448.3 463.6 469.8 Day patients … … … 18.0 18.2 19.6 22.5 23.0 Personal Social Services Residential facilities … … 4.4 5.0 5.5 6.4 6.8 Day facilities … … … 4.0 3.9 4.4 4.8 5.5 *Estimate based on small sample of costing returns. †Provisional.