§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Health who will assess the needs of care home service users; who will pay for such an assessment as required under care home standards; and if he will make a statement. [80591]
§ Jacqui SmithI apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W.
The national minimum standards require that prior to a service user moving into a home an assessment of his or her needs should be undertaken. In most cases this will have been undertaken either by social workers or nurses depending on where the service user is prior to moving. Where a self funding service user has not had an assessment this should be undertaken by the provider prior to that person moving into the home. Either the provider or at least one other member of staff should be suitably trained in conducting assessments. Since in the majority of cases the cost of assessing service users before they enter a home falls to local authorities or the national health service the cost impact on providers would be marginal. The regular review of assessed needs should be a normal part of the conduct of care homes.
§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what investigations his Department has carried out into minimum data sets where care homes are concerned in the last five years. [8554]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 18 October 2001]I apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W.
987WIn October 2000 my Department published for consultation the Core Information Requirements for Children's Social Services, as part of the Quality Protects initiative. The resultant full set of children's services documents is available at http://www.doh.gov.uk/ qualityprotects/info/publications/coreinforma tionreq.htm.
Version 1 of the Adults Aged 18 and Over Social Care Core Information Requirements was published in August 2001 for consultation and is available at http:// www.doh.gov.uk/scg/adultcoreinfo/index.htm.
Revisions of both sets of documents are due to be published later this year. Although the information requirements documents are not specifically for care homes, there is mention of the current central statistical returns for care homes. The Department is also promulgating the Mental Health Minimum Data Set, covering information about patients who are subject to the Care Programmes Approach, some of whom may be resident in care homes. This is planned for implementation from April 2003.