Ms Anne O'Connor:

On bed numbers, we are implementing policy in the context of A Vision for Change. As a result, the numbers are set out. The model is about closing institutions and having acute units, etc. The gap that exists is more to do with the absence of other supports. It is not about having lots of beds everywhere because people should be at home and supported to live at home.

In terms of advocacy, this has gone to tender. The CAMHS advocacy project has been extremely complex in that advocacy for children is very different to having advocacy in place for adults, for all sorts of reasons. We have gone to tender for an external agency to run that. That tender is out and we hope to commence that initiative at the end of this year, although I am not sure of the date as we have to do the pilot piece first to see how it works.

On housing, we do not buy or rent houses. The whole ethos is about people living in their own homes, having their own front doors and their own tenancies. We are working with housing agencies, for example, the Housing Association for Integrated Living, HAIL, and with local authorities. We have a very significant project under way as part of the policy relating to housing transition, which is about moving people into their own homes and being supported. As the health service provider, our role is to support people from a health perspective in their own homes and we work with local housing agencies in that regard. Obviously, the housing environment has impacted upon that but we have divested ourselves of many of our low-support hostels. We previously had people living in health-owned housing, which is really not appropriate in the current age. We have given many of our properties over to housing agencies and local authorities for them to have proper tenancy arrangements with people.