Table 5.13.1
GRANTS AVAILABLE FOR PERSONAL SOCIAL SERVICES
1994-95 TO 1998-99
£ million
| 1994-95 | 1995-96
| 1996-97 | 1997-98
| 1998-99 |
| Specific Grants | |
| | |
|
| AIDS/HIV services | 12.9 |
13.4 | 13.7 | 13.7
| 13.7 |
| Alcohol & Drugs Misusers services | 2.4
| 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5
| 2.5 |
Guardians Ad Litem & Reporting Officer
services
|
5.9 |
6.2 |
6.3
|
6.3 | |
| Mental Illness services | 36.0
| 47.3 | 58.3 | 67.3
| 73.3 |
| Training Support Programme | 33.4
| 34.6 | 35.5 | 35.5
| 35.5 |
| Secure Accommodation (Capital) | 9.0
| 20.8 | 27.2 | 13.2
| 8.2 |
| Special Grants | |
| | |
|
| Community Care Special Transitional Grant |
735.9 | 647.6 | 418.0
| 325.0 | 350.0 |
| Capital Disregard Increase |
| | 64.5 | |
|
| Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children |
| | 3.0 | 3.0
| 3.0 |
| Persons From Abroad Children's Grant |
| | 10.0 | 39.5
| n/k1 |
| Asylum Seekers' Accommodation Grant |
| | 15.0 | 47.1
| 90.0 |
| TOTAL | 835.5 | 772.4
| 653.9 | 553.1 | 576.2
|
Footnote:
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1. A decision is yet to be made on this grant.
General
2. Those grants where there has been no change to the
volume, purpose or monitoring arrangements described in the answer
B.6 given in 1997 (HC 297), have not been reported on in this
answer.
Guardians Ad Litem and Reporting Officer's Grant
3. In November 1996, local authority circular LASSL(96)19,
signalled the Government's intention, subject to consultation,
to end the grant after 1997-98. Following consultation with representatives
from local government in the period February to April 1997, LASSL(97)23
announced in November 1997 that the grant would cease as of 31
March 1998 and that an equivalent sum of £6.3 million would
be transferred back into personal social services standard spending
assessments. Final payments of the grant were made in March 1998.
Audit requirements for grant expenditure will be sent to each
local authority in June 1998 requiring that a certified audit
certificate be sent to the Department in December 1998.
Mental Illness Specific Grant
4. Volume: In 1998-99 the grant increased from £67.3
million to £73.3 million.
5. Purpose: The grant continues to be used for a number
of initiatives. The additional £6 million created two new
funds. The £2 million CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental
Health Services) Fund allows the grant to be extended to cover
the provision of services for children and adolescents for the
first time. It will be invested in a small number of pilot projects
to reward and disseminate good practice where considerable progress
has already been made. The £4 million Partnership Fund will
also be used to reward innovative ideas and practice. It is intended
to promote close working across organizational boundaries. The
projects it supports will be varied but are likely to include
some aimed at preventing vulnerable people from becoming severely
mentally ill or experiencing an avoidable recurrence. Both funds
will be allocated on the basis that the local authority will contribute
30 per cent of the overall cost from other sources. The Homeless
Mentally Ill Initiative launched in 1990-91 (funded with £4.2
million from the grant in 1998-99) assists the re-integration
into the community of people with mental health problems sleeping
rough and was originally targeted on central London. This year
it has been extended to develop appropriate services in other
centres with a rough sleeping problem.
6. Monitoring: The grant monitoring report for 1994-95
and 1995-96 was published in October 1997. Monitoring arrangements
are now being developed to cover the full range of personal social
services mental health activity, of which the grant remains an
important part. In 1997-98 all local authorities completed a questionnaire
on joint working as part of the Autumn Review of mental health
services. Progress reports will be required from local authorities
for projects funded through the new CAMHS and Partnership Funds.
Secure Accommodation (capital) Grant
7. Volume: The grant is £8.2 million in 1998-99.
A total of £70.2 million has been made available over the
previous four years.
8. Purpose: Funded through the grant since 1994-95, the
national development programme for an additional 170 local authority
secure places will be completed this year. As more of the projects
reach final account stage, the amount of grant aid required to
fund them decreases. Some of this year's grant provision will
be spent on the upgrade and refurbishment of existing secure units.
9. The monitoring arrangements remain the same as last
year.
Community Care Special Transitional Grant
10. Volume: The 1997-98 grant of £325 million was
transferred into standard spending assessments from 1998-99. A
further grant of £350 million has been provided for 1998-99.
11. Purpose: For 1998-99 the grant has the express purpose
of encouraging the joint planning of the provision of community
care and NHS services by local authorities and health bodies respectively,
the Government having identified this as a priority. This is achieved
by the conditions attached to the grant. The primary condition
continues to be that the entire grant must be spent on community
care services or directly associated costs. The secondary condition
has changed and says that some funds should be invested in services
with the objective of improving joint procedures for needs assessment,
hospital discharge arrangements and preventing persons being admitted
unnecessarily to hospital or to residential or nursing home care
following discharge from hospital.
12. Monitoring: Local authorities' achievement of the
secondary condition will be monitored in two ways:
(i) during the year, by Social Care Regional Offices,
in liaison with NHS Regional Offices, as part of their work to
follow up the Better Services for Vulnerable People initiative
(guidance in circular EL(97)62/CI(97)24) which addresses three
important development themes, namely, joint investment plans,
multi-disciplinary assessments and rehabilitation services for
older people;
(ii) by 31 May 1999 local authorities must provide the
Secretary of State, via their Social Care regions, with a report
explaining the measures they have taken to comply with the secondary
condition.
Persons from Abroad Children's Grant
13. Volume: £10 million was allocated to local authorities
in 1996-97 to compensate them for 80 per cent of their expenditure
above a threshold (£1 for the total band D equivalent tax
base). This covered a period when the legal position changed a
number of times and social services departments acted as a safety
net when the entitlements were not available. The grant rules
for 1997-98 remained unchanged but demand increased steadily during
the year. £39.5 million was allocated in 1997-98. A decision
on a grant for 1998-99 has yet to be made.
Asylum Seekers' Accommodation Grant
14. Volume: The £15 million allocated for the grant
in 1996-97 was based on a unit cost of £165 per asylum seeker
per week and was to cover a period of less than a year. The numbers
of asylum seekers looking to local authority social services departments
for support under section 21 of the National Assistance Act 1948
rose steadily throughout 1997-98. £47.1 million was allocated
for 1997-98 to cover larger numbers of asylum seekers and for
a full year but at a lower unit cost of £140 per asylum seeker
per week. The unit cost was reduced in the expectation that local
authorities would move towards more cost effective forms of provision.
Difficulties in securing sufficient accommodation, particularly
in London, prevented local authorities from reducing their spending
levels and the Department has therefore agreed to restore the
unit cost for 1998-99 to £165. In recognition also, of the
continued increase in asylum seekers being supported by local
authorities, £90 million is being made available for the
grant for 1998-99.
15. The purpose of the grant and the monitoring arrangements
remain the same.
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