§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has reached a decision on the future management of the youth treatment service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe findings of a social services inspectorate inspection of the two youth treatment centres managed by the Department of Health were published in May 1989. Copies of the report had been placed in the Library.
709WA key recommendation was that, while a national service of the kind provided by the YTCs was still needed, their management was not most appropriately placed within the Department, but should be brought more within the framework of mainstream child care. The findings were made available to providers and users of the service and other interests.
Having carefully considered the views expressed on the findings and visited both centres, we concluded that there remains a need for a nationally based YTC service to deal with a small but very difficult group of disturbed young people who cannot be catered for elsewhere in the child care system.
Direct management by the Department is not the most effective way to run the service.
We are assessing the benefits which might be obtained from establishing a "next steps" agency to run this service. A feasibility study on this will be completed by the end of this year.
The study will need to consider how best to involve those in the voluntary and local authority sectors with experience of developments in mainstream child care. The views of local authority, voluntary bodies, YTC staff and other interests will inform the study.
Number of units of blood issued to non-NHS hospitals and clinics by blood transfusion centres in England and Wales—1982 to 1988 Blood transfusion center 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 Northern 0 2,236 1,739 1,722 1,678 1,360 879 Yorkshire 0 0 950 1,589 2,443 6,432 2,116 Trent 331 102 2 0 20 546 2,662 East Anglia 2,078 1,864 1,690 1,758 1,655 1,441 3,502 North West Thames 14,580 19,439 22,413 21,512 21,955 24,127 24,202 North East Thames 6 0 0 0 127 2,620 3,357 South East and South West Thames 9,141 10,174 10,433 13,885 17,857 16,350 19,134 Wessex 0 257 1,342 2,333 2,523 5,879 4,301 Oxford 0 0 0 0 0 4,359 0 South western 1,259 1,241 4,338 4,032 2,315 3,658 3,008 West-Midlands 2,628 3,512 3,601 4,431 10,154 9,086 5,095 Mersey1 0 0 0 0 0 1,362 1,438 North western 1,414 1,961 2,724 3,065 3,313 5,302 6,058 Wales2 0 0 0 0 0 1,839 209 England and Wales 31,437 40,786 49,232 54,327 64,040 84,361 75,961 1 Covers Mersey regional health authority and North Wales. 2 Covers South and Mid Wales. Figures may be unreliable as the data submitted by many of the transfusion centres are incomplete.
For the years 1979 to 1981 the following figures relate to the number of donors reporting at blood transfusion centres. From 1982 onwards the figures are those of actual donations received.
710W
Transfusion centre 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 Northern 139,797 145,938 144,880 134,392 133,039 131,947 133,544 128,321 120,878 122,267 Yorkshire 147,875 157,078 155,653 143,626 152,874 154,905 149,128 146,119 134,463 133,088 Trent 146,554 153,587 163,187 162,229 166,362 174,425 169,680 174,976 186,605 197,746 East Anglia 90,954 93,350 93,406 84,629 86,275 87,650 86,393 90,012 91,536 92,195 North West Thames 184,273 187,042 197,504 180,644 183,033 189,246 190,048 199,731 193,372 192,004 North East Thames 169,066 169,238 170,966 145,472 145,241 136,647 138,875 136,722 135,439 142,716 South East and South West Thames 268,240 277,720 285,737 256,589 301,029 302,097 282,738 277,696 268,585 282,188 Wessex 89,376 95,584 96,902 90,030 93,889 95,719 94,088 93,990 95,931 95,484 Oxford 123,565 125,859 128,299 115,997 118,822 119,689 111,129 104,609 104,537 107,805 South western 182,513 186,274 186,808 172,462 171,678 170,859 168,169 175,570 180,057 182,008 West Midlands 194,823 199,051 201,019 195,332 193,048 200,128 199,389 199,290 199,320 216,485 Mersey 123,059 129,680 123,433 115,478 119,604 117,589 121,642 123,190 112,659 108,387 North western 190,029 202,523 209,886 179,351 179,844 181,638 180,133 181,587 176,843 176,328 Wales 94,360 97,112 98,051 82,763 91,102 96,087 94,104 96,637 94,091 92,109 England and Wales 2,144,484 2,220,036 2,255,731 2,058,994 2,135,840 2,158,626 2,119,060 2,128,450 2,034,316 2,140,810 We want the resources deployed in the YTCs to be better used to provide a higher quality and more cost-effective service. This might be achieved by unifying the service at its current level of 70 available places on the Birmingham site. Conclusions will be made public by the end of the year.