§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial help has been given to each of the London borough councils towards the cost of community care in their boroughs of patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals.
§ Mr. FreemanResources for community care in general are made available from the main programme expenditure of health authorities and local authorities. Central Government support to local authorities is provided through block grant. This is an unhypothecated grant which is allocated as a whole and specific elements within it are not identifiable separately. Individual authorities are responsible for deciding how the total funds available to them are used in the light of local circumstances and legislative requirements. In addition, health authorities are allocated each year specific sums known as joint finance which are in part used to promote a shift from hospital to community care.
The Government recognise the need to ensure that discharges of seriously mentally ill people from hospital take place only when adequate services are available for them outside hospital. We propose to introduce a new funding structure for those seeking help from public funds for the cost of care as well as a new specific grant to encourage the development of social care for people with mental illness.