ABSTRACT
In the case of health and social service purchasers, mention was made of departmental and clinic reorganisations, and the disruptive effects of the moves to break some County Councils up into a number of smaller Unitary Authorities. As an interim measure, the respondents noted that admission to a paediatric or an adult bed might be required - especially if a young person needed admission under a section of the 1983 Mental Health Act. The respondents thought that the growing rates of emergency work had seriously reduced the time available for planned and longer-term assessment or therapeutic work. New procedures were also felt to have added considerably to the administrative burden faced by many social service departments. In their opinion, children and young people looked after in all of the key areas of provision had been adversely affected.
