HC Deb 20 March 1984 vol 56 c902
11. Sir William van Straubenzee

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has received as to the effect of the youth training scheme on hospital wards already training nurses and ancillary staff.

Mr. Peter Morrison

I have received no direct representations on that subject.

Sir William van Straubenzee

I wish to make it quite clear that my question is prefaced by warm support for the youth training scheme. Will my hon. Friend keep a monitoring eye in case ward sisters, especially those who already have a rightfully heavy programme dealing with trainee nurses, become unduly overburdened by having in addition YTS trainees at the same time?

Mr. Morrison

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his warm support for the YTS. I assure him that the director of the Manpower Services Commission was in touch with the chief executive of the English National Board for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting about schemes in hospitals. My hon. Friend's point was also made by the director of the MSC.

Mr. Ashton

Would it not be better to get the 4 million people back to work and have 4 million more national health stamps coming in every week, as we used to have, which could be used to create permanent jobs? Would that not be a better system?

Mr. Morrison

The hon. Gentleman presumably understands that a job exists only when a product or a service is produced of a quality such that both he and I would wish to buy it. That is the simple answer.

Mr. Wrigglesworth

If the Minister is tempted by the Secretary of State to cut back in the sphere that his hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham has just mentioned, will he restrain any further cutbacks in training in the mode B1 system of the YTS to ensure that we do not establish a two-tier system, which would be a great disadvantage to the scheme?

Mr. Morrison

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that at present on the mode B1 system there are 55,000 young trainees and 90,000 approved places. Next year we plan to have up to 70,000 trainees. Each approved unfilled place costs £2,000 although nobody is trained.