§ Mr. Nigel GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the current level of residential care provision for people with a mental handicap in Scotland; and what level of such residential care is recommended in the "Scottish Health Authorities' Review of Priorities for the Eighties and Nineties" document.
§ Mr. LangProvisional figures for 31 March 1989, the latest date for which information is available centrally, show that 2,200 places were available for persons with mental handicap in local authority homes and homes registered by them. In addition, 727 persons resident in homes for the elderly were described as mentally handicapped.
Registered homes and those provided by local authorities themselves constitute only one part of the range of housing and other accommodation which may be provided for persons in this category. The SHARPEN report recommends that priority be given to care in the community services for persons with a mental handicap but does not indicate a specific level of residential care for such people.
§ Mr. Nigel GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list any organisations in Scotland from which he has received representations about planning blight in the development of new services for people who have a mental handicap and other priority care groups; and what was the nature of the representations.
§ Mr. LangRepresentations have been received from three registered housing associations (Ark, Key arid Margaret Blackwood) in respect of special needs housing developments which they were seeking to promote. The concern was that the financial viability of these schemes would be affected by the level of payments they could expect to receive from local authorities in respect of care costs for residents following the transfer of financial responsibility and resources from the Department of Social Security.
It was pointed out in reply that it will be for local authorities to decide on the allocation of the resources to be transferred to them from the Department of Social Security for expenditure on care in the community; and that this discretion applies fully to the level of support to be provided for meeting residential care and other costs in individual cases.
§ Mr. Nigel GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what proportion of Department of Social Security payment of income support to people with a mental handicap living in residential care in Scotland was considered to be spent inappropriately because the person was not in fact in need of such care.
§ Mr. LangThe award of income support does not incorporate a test of care needs. A Government-financed study of persons living in private and voluntary residential care homes for the elderly and receiving income support payments was carried out in 1987; one of the four local authority areas studied was in Scotland. No similar study has been carried out in relation to persons with a mental handicap.