Parliament and Politics: Government will not monitor gaps in care

THE Department of Health will not monitor the gaps in services and failure to meet people's needs after the new system of care in the community begins in April.

Even though one of the main principles of the new policy is for services to be provided on the basis of an assessment of what the 'user' needs, the Government will not collate facts or details of cases where those needs are not met.

The admission came in evidence from Tom Luce, a senior official from the Department of Health community services division, to the Commons Select Committee on Health.

The committee is conducting an inquiry into how care in the community will work when responsibility for looking after the needs of older mentally ill and disabled people is transferred to local authorities' social services departments from health authorities and social security offices.

Asked by Audrey Wise, Labour MP for Preston, if the Government would monitor cases when needs were not being met, perhaps if the resources were not available, Mr Luce said that it would not.

The department would only monitor the services provided and would then conduct its own analysis of those figures, he said.

Mr Luce admitted that there was no mechanism for health or local authorities to pass on to the Government details of when the service failed to meet users' needs, as assessed by the authorities' social services departments.