§ Ms. LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has(a) to evaluate local authorities' community care plans, (b) to provide local authorities with her Department's comments on their plans and (c) to intervene should a local authority be found to have failed to follow guidelines in consulting other agencies in the preparation of its community care plans; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. YeoLocal authorities' final draft community care plans were evaluated during the course of the April round of regional health authorities/social services inspectorate monitoring, and comments were made to authorities on their overall progress towards implementation. The Social Services Inspectorate is undertaking a further analysis of the final plans and, where serious gaps in the planning process have been identified SSI is notifying the authorities concerned and seeking remedial action.
§ Ms. LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many local authorities met the deadline of 1 April for submitting their community care plans to her Department.
§ Mr. YeoOnly a very small number of authorities failed to meet the deadline for publication of community care plans. Of these, one has not yet published its plan but all the others did so soon after 1 April.