§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, of the money set aside for the help the community to care scheme, how much of the original sum has been spent; and on what projects.
§ Mr. WhitneyI refer the right hon. Member to my reply to him on 27 January at columns397–98.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what consideration has been given to giving funding to organisations whose work load has increased as a consequence of the help the community to care project, notably the Association of Crossroads Care Attendant Schemes.
§ Mr. WhitneyIt is open to any organisation, including Crossroads, to charge for its services when its help or advice is sought by those managing individual elements of the helping the community to care programme. In general,
566W12 days. The comparable figures for Port Glasgow show that 3,293 home visits were made, 53 are currently outstanding and the average clearance time was just over 11 days.
§ Dr. Godmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will state the approved and actual staffing levels at the Greenock and Port Glasgow offices of his Department in March 1980, March 1982, March 1985 and the latest available date; and if he will give the number of live claims in the two offices for each of these dates.
§ Mr. MajorThe information requested is as follows:
we provide core support to national voluntary organisations through our scheme of grants under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968. I am pleased that we have been able to increase our grant to Crossroads under that scheme to £75,000 a year.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much money from the help the community to care scheme has been given to (a) Age Concern, (b) the British Red Cross, (c) the King's Fund Centre, (d) MENCAP, (e) Dr. Barnardo's, (f) the Save the Children Fund and (g) Crossroad Care Attendant schemes in the last year.
§ Mr. WhitneyFigures for 1985–86 are not yet available, but the table shows the payments made to the bodies concerned in 1984–85:
£ Age Concern 13,500 King's Fund Centre 20,984 MENCAP 50,000 Save the Children Fund 82,000
§ Mr. Bowen Wellsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what plans the Government have to encourage the growth of community care.
§ Mr. WhitneyFor a detailed discussion of our aims and our action in relation to community care for mentally handicapped and mentally ill people, I refer my hon. 567W Friend to the Government response to the second report from the Social Services Committee, on community care (Cmnd. 9674), published in November last year. We seek to encourage the development of good quality integrated local services to meet a range of needs by publicising policies, disseminating good practice, and promoting cooperation between statutory bodies and between them and voluntary bodies and the private sector in making the best use of the available resources.