asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when the National Development Group for the Mentally Handicapped intends to publish its action plan for the improvement of services for mentally handicapped children; and whether he will make a statement.
The group's pamphlet "Mentally Handicapped Children: A Plan for Action" is being published today and a copy has been placed in the Library. It is being widely distributed to NHS and local authorities, to community health councils and to relevant voluntary organisations.I hope that the pamphlet will be closely studied by everyone concerned with the needs of mentally handicapped children. It makes a number of important recommendations about ways in which services can be developed in the current economic situation.The National Development Group has already published a pamphlet on joint planning between NHS and local authorities. Further pamphlets about services for mentally handicapped school leavers and about the provision of short-term residential care will be published shortly. A major pamphlet on day services for mentally handicapped adults is in preparation.As I said in my foreword to the development group's pamphlet "Mental Handicap: Planning Together" published last year, I am much in favour of the group using this means of publicising, quickly and directly, its ideas on services for mentally handicapped people and their families. These ideas can then he discussed; and authorities which consider them of immediate relevance to their situation can try them out as they think fit, and without delay.I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the hard work the group has put into the preparation of its pamphlets, and I await the results with keen interest. In the light of experience of the group's operation over the past two years, I am now considering how best to rationalise and strengthen the arrangements for providing policy advice on mental handicap matters to me and to field authorities.