HC Deb 30 April 1990 vol 171 cc425-6W
Mr. Win Griffiths

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) if he will list all submissions under the mental illness strategy which have been made by participating bodies, stating which have been accepted for Welsh Office funding; and if he will give the amount in each case;

(2) what extra resources have been provided to health authorities, local authorities and the voluntary sector to date in carrying out his mental illness strategy; what posts and projects are currently being funded; and what extra resources will be provided in future;

(3) what arrangements have been made to ensure that funds provided for projects financed under his mental illness strategy are spent in full on these projects.

Mr. Grist

The local planning and implementation of the mental illness strategy is co-ordinated by the eight county joint planning teams, which comprise representatives of district health authorities, social services authorities, and other interested groups. All eight county teams have submitted plans which have been considered as a basis for Welsh Office funding for the current year. Chapter 16 of the Government's expenditure plans 1990–91 to 1992–93 (Cm. 1016) indicated that the sum of £2.2 million would be made available in 1990–91 to support developments under the mental illness strategy. Provisional offers totalling some £1.6 million are being made to county teams; the distribution of these extra resources by county and between partners in the teams is not yet finalised, and depends upon the acceptance of the offers by the county teams, and in some cases the clarification of particular aspects of specific proposals. A further offer of some £100,000 is being made in respect of bids from other organisations intended to support the development of services under the strategy on an all-Wales rather than a county basis.

The overall total of £2.2 million available under the strategy represents resources additional to those directly available to partner agencies in the county teams for the provision of mental illness services. Recipient bodies will be responsible for ensuring the full and proper application of funding to the agreed purposes; the Welsh Office will be monitoring activity and reviewing progress made by county teams during the course of the year, and will be holding annual review meetings with each team.

It is not possible to forecast what resources will be made available in future years, not least because that will depend in part upon the progress made in developing new patterns of service, and the levels of funding which the county team partners are prepared to commit from their own resources.

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