Additional funding of £10 million has been made available in 1996 for services to persons with a mental handicap.
£3 million of the £6 million revenue will be used to meet the 1996 cost of the additional services which were put in place in 1995.
The remaining £3 million will be used to enable the health boards to put in place 66 additional residential-respite places, 265 additional day care places and to extend the home support services.
In allocating this funding between the various types of service provision, particular emphasis was placed this year on the provision of support to those living at home and-or awaiting placement in appropriate services.
Of the £4 million capital funding which is being provided in 1996, £2 million will be used to develop and improve the quality of training facilities for persons with a mental handicap as part of the 1994-1999 European Regional Development Fund assisted programme. Expenditure of the remaining £2 milion will be directly related to service developments as agreed by the regional mental handicap co-ordinating committees and approved by me.