HL Deb 02 February 1988 vol 492 cc987-9

2.44 p.m.

Baroness Faithful!

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when a decision can be expected on the report submitted by the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work for an extended and improved course for social workers, bearing in mind the recommendations made in the reports on Jasmine Beckford and Kimberley Carlile.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Lord Skelmersdale)

My Lords, Government departments are currently giving urgent consideration to the proposals submitted by the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work for the reform of social work training. We hope to be in a position to give our response to the central council by the spring of this year.

Baroness Faithfull

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for that encouraging Answer. We very much hope that the response will be in the affirmative for a grant for the training of social workers. Does the Minister agree that throughout the country it is not fully appreciated that social workers at the moment only receive one to two years' training and that it is the only profession in the country which only has one to two years' training? All other professions have three years. Does not the Minister agree that social workers have a heavy burden to bear in the work that they do?

Lord Skelmersdale

Yes, my Lords. I agree that they most certainly do have a very heavy burden in the work which they do. I observe that the panel of inquiry into the death of Jasmine Beckford chaired by Mr. Louis Blom-Cooper recommended that nothing short of a period of three years was required for the professional training of social workers. That is one of the factors which the Government are taking into account.

Lord Ennals

My Lords, I hope that the Minister will accept that I too was encouraged by his reponse. Is he aware that the proposal from the central council has had very widespread support from the organisations concerned? Does he accept that the training of qualified social workers and the training for the certificate in social service has simply not kept pace with the rapidly changing legislation and with the enormous pressures that are placed upon social workers, not just by particular inquiries such as the Blom-Cooper inquiry to which the Minister referred, but by the enormous number of cases with which they are now having to deal? Does the Minister accept the urgency of giving an affirmative answer?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, I certainly agree with those remarks. That is why the council published proposals for reforming social work training in its publication Care for Tomorrow. A decision is expected on that matter by the spring. However matters are even more urgent than that. Using a Government grant of £250,000 the council has launched an improvements package which includes work on the teaching and assessment of law.

Lord McGregor of Durris

My Lords, is the Minister aware that some of us who support very strongly the need for extending and improving the training for social workers are nevertheless dismayed by the high cost and intellectual incoherence and triviality of the present proposals of the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work? Will the Minister accept the desirability of a wide-ranging public debate on the functions and organisation of the council when the Government's review is completed in the spring?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, that is a point on which I should not like to give an answer off-the-cuff. Of course we are well aware of the views of the trainers themselves both in universities and in polytechnics as well as in other places of training. All those matters would need to be taken into account before the Government publish their response.

Baroness David

My Lords, despite the words of the noble Lord, Lord McGregor of Durris, is it not the case that the council's proposals, including the curriculum, had been agreed by the social work education committee of the joint universities council and by the standing conference of the heads of the certificate of qualification in social work course?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, that may or may not be true but they have not yet been agreed by the Government who of course would have to pay for them.

Baroness Faithfull

My Lords, is the cost of these inquiries fully appreciated? I understand that the inquiry in Cleveland, which I know covers more than just the social workers, will cost about £1 million. If there had been fully trained social workers the other inquiries which have had to be undertaken need not really have taken place.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, I think that is a very dangerous supposition. There will always be in the best regulated of societies things that go wrong. Therefore inquiries will continue to be needed. Whether they would have needed to have been undertaken in such depth and with such severity as we have seen in those three cases I really cannot tell.