§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each year since 1979 the number of home helps employed by local authorities.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley[holding answer 6 February 1992]: The net expenditure on home helps and the numbers of home helps directly employed by social services departments in England (in whole time equivalent terms at 30 September) in each year are set out in the table.
Note: Staff figures relate only to local authorities' directly employed staff.
Net expenditure on home help services £ million Staff numbers directly employed 1979 132.8 44,660 1980 157.1 46,637 1981 186.9 46,541 1982 205.6 47,310 1983 228.7 49,326 1984 253.6 50,561 1985 269.4 51,959 1986 296.5 53,706 1987 336.2 56,336 1988 413.1 57,004 1989 464.7 56,613 1990 519.6 55,783 per cent. per cent. Percentage increase over the period 167.0 25.0 1 In real terms. Although there is a drop in the number of home helps since 1988 the expenditure on the service has been increasing, indicating that local authorities are contracting out an increasing proportion of the service to the voluntary and private sectors.