§ Mr. Spencerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list initiatives by his Department which have been of benefit specifically to residents in Leicester.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 21 January 1987]: Leicester has benefited, along with other areas, from the general increase in expenditure on health, personal social services and social security in recent years. The Department's local social security offices in the area are 719W working in close liaison with major statutory and voluntary agencies, to improve the service to the public. For example, Leicester (Norton street) ILO has reduced the average clearance time for supplementary benefit claims from 15 days to 4 days since February 1986, and has recently introduced a fast-flow reception point.
The provision of health services in Leicester is primarily a matter for Leicestershire health authority and Leicestershire family practitioner committee. The health authority has experienced a real growth of 34 per cent. in revenue funding in the period 1978–79 to 1986–87. In 1985 phase 1 of the Glenfield general hospital became fully operational, and phase 2 of this major new development is to start later this year. Plans are now well advanced for the full computerisation of the Leicestershire family practitioner committees' records and it is anticipated that a fully computerised cervical cytology call and recall system will be instituted this year.
Leicestershire was one of the ten pilot areas for the centrally funded Asian Mother and Baby Campaign, under which link-workers are employed to improve access to maternity services by overcoming linguistic barriers between patients and staff. The Department is also funding a project in Leicester as part of its initiative to enable mentally handicapped children to be moved from long-stay hospitals. Under a central funding initiative set up in 1983, £360,000 was allocated to Leicestershire health authority over a three year period, to enable it to develop a comprehensive service for drug misusers. An additional sum of £94,000 has been allocated in 1986–87 for further improvements to the services for this client group.