§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many mentally handicapped people, and of what age, have attended adult training centres or social education centres for each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe information requested has not been collected centrally since 1980. Information up to that date was published in "Adult Training Centres for the Mentally Handicapped and Day Centres for the Mentally Ill, the Elderly and the Younger Physically Handicapped—England", copies of which are available in the Library.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many mentally handicapped people have requested places in adult training centres or social education centres by region during each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe information is not available centrally.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many mentally handicapped adults have been discharged permanently from long-stay mental handicap hospitals and units during each of the last five years for which figures are available;
(2) how many mentally handicapped children have been discharged permanently from long-stay hospitals and units during each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. WhitneyStatistics of the total number of discharges (including transfers) of adults and children from mental handicap hospitals and units are available in the series of DHSS booklets "Mental Health Statistics for England", copies of which are in the Library. Discharges cannot usually be identified as permanent at the time they take place. Specialist units provide an important service for mentally handicapped people, in terms of short-term care, including planned respite care, and assessment of needs and development of programmes. The large number of short stays in such units is reflected in the figures.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many mentally handicapped children were living in local authority hostels and homes, private 517W hostels and homes and those run by voluntary organisations during each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe information available centrally relates to the numbers of mentally handicapped children who are supported by local authorities in hostels and homes run by the local authorities or by private or voluntary organisations. This information and that of number of places is published in "Homes and Hostels for the Mentally Ill and Mentally Handicapped—England". Copies of the publication are available in the Library.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services for how many mentally handicapped people his Department has issued guardianship orders during each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. WhitneyGuardianship orders are issued by local authority social services departments and the number of new guardianship orders issued for mentally handicapped people in England for each of the last five years for which figures are available are given in the table.
New guardianship orders during the year ending 31 March Year Mentally handicapped* 1981 38 1982 27 1983 24 1984 28 1985 33 * The term mental impairment has been used since 1983.