§ Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will publish the results of the study of birth control services carried out by the Institute for Social Studies in Medical Care and the Office of Population Census and Survey.
§ Sir K. JosephThe following sections of the Institute for Social Studies in Medical Care study have already been published:
- (a) "General Practitioners and Abortion", Supplement to the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners No. 1, 1972.
- (b) "General Practitioners and contraception in 1970–1971", Supplement to the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, No. 2, 1972.
- (c) "Health Visitors and Birth Control Advice 1970–71, Parts 1 and 11"; Nursing Times, 12th October and 19th October, 1972.
- (d) "Domiciliary Midwives and Birth Control Advice, 1970–71, Parts 1 and 11", Nursing Times, 7th December and 14th December 1972.
- (e) "Some Area Variations in Birth Control Services", Community Medicine, 8th December 1972.
My Department is currently considering the publication of the complete study, and what form this might take.
The study by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys is at present in the press, and publication is expected towards the end of May.
§ Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many health visitors in England and Wales received training courses in family planning in 1971 and 1972; and what proportion this represents of the total number of health visitors in England and Wales;
(2) how many domiciliary midwives in England and Wales received training courses in family planning in 1971 and 1972; and what proportion this represents of the total number of domiciliary midwives in England and Wales.
§ Sir K. JosephTraining in family planning has been included in most basic training courses for health visitors for some time. The need to give further training to those who were already qualified was recognised and a grant made to the Family Planning Association for a60W special programme of courses for this purpose; the Family Planning Association began running these in 1972.
Family planning has been included in the domiciliary part of basic midwife training since 1968 and also in refresher courses for trained midwives. All midwives undertake a refresher course every five years. Consideration is now being given to whether this should be supplemented by extra training of the type provided by health visitors.
In 1972 a total of 2,396 people received family planning training through the Family Planning Association and the majority of these—approximately 90 per cent.—would have been health visitors. There are no separate figures for domiciliary midwives.
Comprehensive information is not available centrally on the proportion of the total numbers of health visitors and midwives who received family planning training in 1971 and 1972.
The total numbers of health visitors and domiciliary midwives in England and Wales are as follows:
1971 1972 Health visitors (total) 8,551 8,594 Health visitors (whole time equivalent) 6,230 6,556 Domiciliary midwives (total) 6,252 6,047 Domiciliary midwives (whole time equivalent) 4,379 4,209