§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list all projects and schemes sponsored by his Department aimed at providing practical support for carers, including the provision of respite care and grants to voluntary organisations, together with the costs involved, and any schemes known to him which are supported through joint financing.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 19 December 1983]: The principal project sponsored by the Department aimed at improving support for carers is current work by the Department's social work service development group, seeking to influence the organisation and delivery of services of importance to informal carers and the professional attitudes on which these are based. I am placing in the Library a copy of a valuable study it has prepared entitled "Supporting the informal carers: A project paper and report of a seminar at Oxford June 1983". A major seminar bringing together statutory and voluntary bodies to discuss these problems, which I addressed, was held in London recently, and this is being followed with further seminars in various parts of the country.
Information about financial support from the Department to voluntary organisations for activities aimed at providing practical support for carers is not held in a form that allows full identification of the details requested without disproportionate cost. But many of the grants listed in my reply to the hon. Member on 14 December — [Vol. 50, c. 509–16]—are relevant, for instance, grants to the Association of Carers, Crossroads Care Attendance Schemes, Contact-a-Family, Leonard Chesire Foundation and the National Council for Carers and their Elderly Dependants and many of those directed to bodies concerned with a specific condition or disability. So are a number of individual projects supported under the opportunities for volunteering scheme.
Grants under the joint finance arrangements are made by district health authorities and details of individual schemes are not collected centrally.
§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what recent research his Department has studied concerning support for carers.
§ Mr. John Patten[pursuant to the reply, 19 December 1983]: The Department's social work service development group is undertaking a project aimed at improving support for informal carers. As part of this it has gathered
Borough council Employee population* Employee activity rate† Males Females Persons Males Females Persons Arfon 13,280 8,059 21,339 74.2 38.9 55.3 Ynys MÔn 18,283 8,850 27,133 75.9 34.3 54.3 * Defined as those economically active aged 16 and over. † Defined as employee population divided by the population aged 16 and over. Source: Welsh Office
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1981 Population Census).