HC Deb 25 January 1994 vol 236 c235W
Mr. Pike

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what representations she has received as regards funding for drug and alcohol addiction treatment centres;

(2) what assessment her Department has made on the cost implications arising from shortfalls in service provision for treatment centres for drug and alcohol addiction cases;

(3) what consultations she has had regarding provision of drug and alcohol addiction treatment centres; and if she will make a statement;

(4) what monitoring her Department has done on the impact of the implementation of community care on independent providers of residential services for alcohol and drug misuse; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Bowis

The Department has received a number of representations about the funding of residential services for alcohol and drug misusers under the new community care arrangements. The Department consulted both providers and purchasers of services for this vulnerable group on the preparation of guidance to local authorities to ensure that alcohol and drug misusers receive proper attention within community care. This guidance, LAC(93)2, was issued in January 1993 and copies are available in the Library.

We also commissioned Goldsmiths' college to monitor the impact of community care on residential services for alcohol and drug misusers in the first three months of community care and the report "Who Cares Now" was published in July 1993. A copy of this report is in the Library. A three-month follow-up report was commissioned by Alcohol Concern and the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse—SCODA—entitled "Vulnerable Services for Vulnerable People" and published in December 1993, copies of which will be placed in the Library. The Goldsmiths' reports make it clear that the numbers of people receiving care funded by local authorities have increased steadily over the first six months of the community care reforms, and that local authorities had specified budgets in 1993–94 totalling £20.59 million for the purchase of services for alcohol and drug misusers within community care.

We shall continue to monitor the provision of services for drug and alcohol misusers within our general monitoring of community care.