§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give full details of the areas covered, the numbers of people covered and an outline of what is involved, in each project for support of informal carers, as outlined in his Department's press release 86/127 of 16 April.
§ Mr. WhitneyDemonstration districts of services for informal carers have recently been established in East Sussex, Stockport and Sandwell. In each area DHSS will be providing up to £600,000 to be spent over three years to initiate, extend and improve services provided by voluntary organisations. The selection and management of the projects to be supported will be the responsibility of the voluntary sector, working with the co-operation of the social services and health authorities. The Department's social services inspectorate is co-ordinating the projects and the Tavistock institute is undertaking the evaluation. It is too soon to say how many people will be directly assisted by the demonstration projects.