§ Mr. Parryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what are the criteria for private hostels being accepted by his Department for receiving ex-mental hospital patients;
(2) if patients in mental hospitals or their families are consulted about transfers from hospitals to private homes.
§ Mr. John Patten[pursuant to his reply, 5 February 1985, c. 530]: Patients leaving mental illness hospitals have the same right as anybody else to choose where to live. When health and social services authorities are planning rehabilitation and aftercare arrangements for a 172W patient prior to discharge, this should be done jointly and in full consultation with the patient and, where appropriate, his or her family. The full range of community resources, including residential care in homes and hostels, should be considered, as should options for financial support through National Health Service, local authority and social security funding.
The Department is not responsible for accepting or rejecting individual homes, but the Registered Homes Act 1984 has tightened the conditions for the registration and inspection of such homes by local social service authorities. We commended a code of practice for residential care, "Home Life", to registration authorities last year; it contains a section specifically about mentally ill people and their rehabilitation.