asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she can provide figures showing the weekly cost of providing residential accommodation for children with special needs and the comparative cost of providing domiciliary care for such children.

Costs of residential accommodation for children with special needs are available only for those children who are accommodated in homes for the mentally handicapped. In 1973–74, the latest year for which information is available, the average weekly cost to local authorities was about £34, including loan charges but excluding administration costs which cannot be apportioned to individual client groups. The cost of providing domiciliary care for such children cannot be separately identified.