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2.49 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Yvette Cooper): I congratulate the hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) on securing the debate. I undertake to pass on many of the detailed points that I will not be able to answer in the time available to the Minister of State, Department of Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), whom I know he has met before to discuss the issue.
There are substantial numbers of men, women and children in local communities throughout the country for whom the social services provided by local councils are extremely important. The care and support services provided to those people are many and varied, ranging from meals on wheels for elderly people living at home
to help at home for people suffering from physical ill health and residential care for vulnerable children who may be in danger at home.Social services are also significant because of the £10 billion or so of public expenditure incurred annually in providing them. Bearing in mind the demands placed on such services, it is important that we--both local and central Government--obtain maximum value for every pound spent on them. The Government's best value policy aims to ensure that that happens.
The hon. Member for Southend, West has raised some specific concerns about the funding of social services by Southend council, and I shall address as many of them as time allows. I know that he was a member of a delegation from Southend that met my hon. Friend the Minister of State on 10 January to discuss those concerns. First, however, I shall place the funding of Southend's services in context by saying a few words about social services funding generally and the funding that the Government have made available for improving social services.
The Government made the funding of social services a priority in the comprehensive spending review that we undertook two years ago and for which the settlement was announced in July 1998. We guaranteed that for the first time, the funds available nationally would increase in the following three years, so that local councils could plan ahead knowing what resources would be available. In the three years covered by that spending review, social services will receive an additional £2.8 billion, which means an average of more than 3 per cent. above inflation each year. That demonstrates in a very real way the Government's commitment to improving those services.
Our White Paper "Modernising Social Services", published in November 1998, set out what we intend to achieve with those additional resources in partnership with local government. Both the Government and local councils are keen to ensure that the funds provide real benefits for vulnerable people who depend on social services. To that end, last year, we introduced three new grants to promote independence in the community, and another new grant to improve the quality of children's services. We also provided substantial increases in the mental health grant and the training grant, to both of which we attach great importance. Taken together, that is a substantial injection of cash for change, directed through grants and carefully monitored to improve performance.
We are now in the second year covered by the comprehensive spending review settlement, and local councils will receive an additional £492 million for social services, which is an increase of 5.6 per cent. in cash terms, and 3.1 per cent. in real terms.
Those substantial additional resources have enabled us to increase the personal social services standard spending assessments by 5.1 per cent; the quality protects grant for children's services by £45 million, which is an increase of almost 60 per cent; the mental health grant by £13 million; and the training grant by £3.5 million. At the same time, we have maintained the overall funding that we provided last year for the three grants for promoting independence. All local councils, including Southend, are benefiting from those significant increases in resources.
As for the funds available specifically to Southend for social services, Southend's standard spending assessment increased by 10 per cent. last year, and by a further
5.7 per cent. this year, to £34.3 million--well above the national average increase and substantially above inflation. Additionally, there are substantial increases this year in the special and specific grants that we are making available. Last year, they totalled £1.7 million. This year they are increasing by 12 per cent. to about £2 million. l should also emphasise that the increases in provision have been reflected in actual spending by the local council, which increased its personal social services spending by 10.5 per cent. last year, and will increase it by a further 4 per cent. this year.Overall, therefore, the Government have increased the resources available to Southend for social services by £5.1 million--16.5 per cent--over the past two years, which is a substantial increase well above inflation.
Southend is a new unitary council that took on social services responsibilities when it came into being two years ago. During that time it has made significant progress overall, modernising through the use of the new grants. Sharpening the focus and impact of the grants has been part of the new performance appraisal arrangements that the Government introduced last year. Like others, the council has been supported and evaluated by social services inspectors and NHS regional officials.
As I speak, a review is being conducted by a joint team from the social services inspectorate and the Audit Commission to establish how well the council and its partners are discharging their social services responsibilities for the benefit of users and carers, and whether they are doing so in the most effective way. Under this Government, such reviews have become important vehicles for stimulating necessary changes. Monitoring, inspection and review in a five-year cycle are the elements of our new system for assessing social service performance.
The House will be pleased to know that this first year's appraisal of Southend council's performance shows that real progress has been evidenced in plans submitted to the Department of Health. That progress covers the quality protects grant for children, which is a quality-directed initiative; specific partnership grant schemes for adults promoting independence and ensuring appropriate discharge from hospital; and the relief of carers in the new carers grant, the aim of which is to allow them more breaks.
In work with children, there has been progress on a number of fronts. Southend submitted a strong second-year quality protects management action plan in January. Fifty of its quality protects targets have been met, despite difficulties in the recruitment of social workers. Each child now has a named social worker and 100 per cent. of cases are reviewed, which is an improvement on last year's performance. More than 20 extra carers have been recruited, and a review of all children for whom adoption is planned has been completed. That ties in with a new consortium that Southend has joined, which has increased the numbers being adopted.
The council has taken the Government's emphasis on its parenting responsibilities seriously. There are new forums for the education and health of looked-after children, and close liaison with the education department. The department has arranged for the secondment of a public health doctor, who has produced a blueprint for how health and social services can co-operate better to give looked-after children more attention. The social
services inspectorate has noted that as an example of good practice. Work with adults has produced similar significant progress in a number of areas.From the performance appraisal it is clear, as the hon. Gentleman said, that Southend has many people with learning disabilities receiving services. The Government are currently giving serious consideration to services for people with learning disabilities. The range and quality of services available to people with learning disabilities, their families and carers can vary widely from one part of the country to another. We are developing a new learning disability strategy. Our aim is to eliminate inconsistencies in service delivery across the country and to ensure that all services reach the level of the best.
Our strategy is to consider a wide range of issues, including services for people with learning disabilities who are living in the community. Work on the strategy is being taken forward in six small groups, each looking at issues related to particular topics--children, health, supporting independence, family carers, work force planning and training, and building partnerships.
Service users are contributing to the work, and the strategy is due to be published by the end of the year. The NHS and local authorities have been asked to prepare joint investment plans for people with learning disabilities from April 2001. That will provide a practical means for implementing the learning disability strategy and an excellent opportunity for the NHS and local authorities to consider how the flexibility in the Health Act 1999 can best be used to improve outcomes for people with learning disabilities.
The hon. Gentleman has expressed concerns about the funding of Southend social services. I am sure that he appreciates the effort being made by the council to focus spending in the positive way that the Government have
laid down. The publication of performance indicators by the Department last October has indicated how the council may use its resources more effectively, but it is clear from the performance appraisal that it has engaged positively with the efficiency agenda and made progress throughout this year.When the hon. Member for Southend, West and his delegation met the Minister of State, my hon. Friend said that he would consider allocating additional mental health funds from the underspend on last year's mental health grant if the authority could make a suitable case. I understand that, because of recruitment difficulties, the authority did not submit a case for additional funds and informed us of an underspend totalling £31,000 from the mental health partnership fund, which was the figure referred to by the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Ms Hughes).
The hon. Member for Southend, West referred to asylum seekers. Last month, the Department made a payment of £49,000 to Southend-on-Sea, fully reimbursing the council for the costs that it had incurred in dealing with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
The evidence is that in its first two years Southend has made every effort to make proper use of the additional funds made available and the support and guidance provided by the Government. The council has difficult choices to make, but it is not in crisis. It is making strides in delivering cost-effective services, which we are actively monitoring, and my Department will continue to help the council to make the best use of its increasing resources.
- Adjourned accordingly at one minute past Three o'clock.
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