§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their response to Bishop Huddleston's observation that "Thatcherism has been responsible for a massive deterioration in community care".
§ Baroness HooperThe Government has a strong record of commitment to, and investment in, the policy of community care over the past decade, resulting in significant growth in the volume of services provided. In Great Britain in 1979–80 gross current expenditure on core community care services (not including administration or joint finance) was £1,169 million. By 1987–88 this had risen to £3,444 million—an increase of 68 per cent. in real terms. This has enabled considerable growth in the level of community services available to take place. Over this period the number of places in local authority and registered residential homes rose by 47 per cent. to 302,600 and staff of local authority home help services increased by 27 per cent. The number of elderly people treated by the district nursing service rose by 24 per cent. to 1.6 million.
1389WABuilding on this firm base, our proposals for the future organisation and management of community care, which are set out in our recently published White Paper Caring for People: Community Care in the Decade and Beyond (Cm 849), are intended to bring about further improvements. They are aimed at promoting choice and independence both for people in need of care and for those who help to care for them. Taken with the White Paper Working for Patients (Cm 555), the two White Papers set out how we believe the health and social care services should develop over the next decade.