§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many local authorities(a) have fully compliant policies and procedures, (b) have draft policies and procedures and (c) are not compliant with the protection of vulnerable adults guidance, "No Secrets", LAC(2000)7; [39304]
(2) if he will set out for each relevant year and each local authority the level of financial support (a) specific and special grants and (b) SSA provided by his Department to implement the "No Secrets" guidance LAC(2000)7; [39308]
(3) what plans his Department has to review the implementation of the "No Secrets" guidance; [39307]
(4) how many local authorities met the deadline set out in SSI circular CI(2001) 9 June 2001; [39313]
(5) how much each local authority responsible for implementing the "No Secrets" guidance LAC(2000)7 budgeted to spend in 2001–02; and what the actual and budgeted spend was in each of the last three years; [39306]
(6) what arrangements (a) his Department and (b) local authorities have made to publicise (i) the "No Secrets" guidance and (b) the reporting and referral system established in line with the guidance LAC(2000)7. [39305]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 4 March 2002]The guidance "No Secrets" reinforces existing good practice with respect to adult protection. Information on the local costs of implementation is not held centrally.
72 local councils submitted their local multi-agency codes of practice to the Department of Health by the 31 October 2001 deadline. A further 48 codes of practice have been received since, and the remainder are being actively pursued. These codes of practice are being analysed for their content and compliance with "No Secrets". The analysis will also determine the number of codes of practice that were fully implemented by 31 October 2001.
The Department has no immediate plans for a formal review of the implementation of the "No Secrets" guidance but the matter will be considered when the findings of the analysis of local codes of practice are available.
The Department publicised the "No Secrets" guidance through a series of six, one-day workshops in Leeds and London, from November 2000 through to March 2001. The workshops encouraged representatives from all statutory agencies to discuss issues such as reporting and referral systems for inter-agency working. A number of local councils have publicised the launch of their multi-agency codes of practice. "No Secrets" requires 550W local councils to develop local reporting and referral systems for inter-agency working in their codes of practice.