691
Homes for the Mentally
Homes for the Mentally Handicapped:
Inspection
[LORDS]
Lord Renton: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps. are being or will be taken to ensure that residential establishments for mentally handicapped people, whether run by public authorities or charitable or private bodies, are regularly inspected in order to ensure that high standards are maintained.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Depart- ment of Health and Social Security (Lord Elton): My Lords, the maintenance and monitoring of standards in mental handicap hospitals and local authority residential homes is the responsibility of the health or local authority concerned. It is for the authorities themselves to decide how this should be done, including the frequency of any visits to be made for this purpose. Both private and voluntary homes for mentally handicapped people are subject to registration and inspection by local authorities under the provisions of the Residential Homes Act 1980, and officers of the department have powers to inspect local authority and other residential homes for the mentally disordered. The department has recently reviewed the current system for registration and inspection of private and voluntary residential homes, and will shortly be issuing a consultative document containing suggestions for improvements.
Lord Renton: My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that very full and satisfactory reply. In the develop- ment of this matter, would he bear in mind that it is now the policy of the Government to get thousands of people, including 3,000 mentally handicapped children, out of long-stay hospitals and living in the community in smaller homes and hospitals, and that it will be essential when they do so to achieve the highest standards?
Lord Elton: My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for his supplementary question. It is indeed the Government's policy to introduce as high a level of care in the community as is possible. My noble friend will know that the department's Social Work Service already performs an extremely useful watchdog function and is independent of local authorities, and that the principal powers of entry, examination and inspection available to it are set out in Annex 3 to circular DSWS(79)1, a copy of which is in your Lord- ships' Library. I will happily send a duplicate to my noble friend. When he has studied it, I hope he will agree that the provision already made is sufficient for the system which we have at present.
Care Proceedings: Legal Aid for Parents
2.44 p.m.
Lord Jacques: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
Handicapped: Inspection
The Question was as follows:
692
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To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will bring into force the whole of Sections 64 and 65 of the Children Act 1975 so as to put an end to the injustice to parents of meagre means not being properly represented in court in care proceedings.
Lord Elton: My Lords, the Government recognise the desirability of enabling parents to be represented in care proceedings and intend to implement Section 64 of the Children Act in full as soon as sufficient re- sources become available. Section 65 is already in force, but its effect is limited until Section 64 is fully implemented.
Lord Jacques: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. Will he bear in mind that, in the opinion of many magistrates who hear these cases, there are occasions when there are grave injustices? Is the Minister aware that the cost of eliminating this in- justice is so small and that the cost of keeping children in care is so great that there might actually be a saving in total expenditure?
Lord Elton: No, my Lords, I am not aware of that hypothetical situation. I do not think that we should be justified in authorising certain expenditure by the Legal Aid Fund on the basis of a saving which it has not yet been found possible to quantify with any certainty at all and which would in any case accrue only gradually over a number of years.
Lord Jacques: My Lords, is the Minister aware that it is really impossible to have certainty when forecasting future income and expenditure?
Lord Elton: Yes, my Lords.
Lord Wells-Pestell: My Lords, in view of the fact that it does cause very grave dissatisfaction that a certain number of people are in some way or other debarred, is it not a fact that to put this matter right would not cost at the very most more than about £1 million a year?
Lord Elton: No, my Lords, I would not give that figure with confidence. However, I should like to say to the noble Lord, whose concern I largely share, that where solicitors are aware of a conflict of interest between parents and child they are advised not to take instructions from the parents. Parents can get virtually every assistance, short of representation in court, from their own solicitor under the legal aid and advice scheme, and some of them may also have recourse to law centres. For the child, the solicitor is advised to obtain an independent assessment. Increasingly in practice this is made by an independent social worker and is used by the solicitor who will make the child's case in court to determine what will be in the child's best interest.
Lord Hooson: My Lords, leaving aside the question of cost, is it not wrong in principle that the decision whether or not the child is put in care is often determined by a court without the parents having legal representa- tion? If they happen to be inarticulate parents, it
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