HL Deb 12 December 2000 vol 620 cc216-8

2.51 p.m.

Lord Northbourne asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they are satisfied with the number and quality of applicants for training in social work and for work in residential care homes for children and, if not, what action they propose to take to improve terms of service and recruitment.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)

My Lords, the Government are concerned about declining application rates for social work training and about staff shortages in residential child care. We have made £41 million available to fund future students and boost applications for training. We convened a workforce summit and are working closely with employers to tackle recruitment and retention problems.

Lord Northbourne

My Lords, I am most grateful for and encouraged by the noble Lord's reply. Does he agree that in many social services departments today social workers are grossly overloaded and demoralised? They have heavy caseloads; indeed, I have heard of one social worker who had as many as 80 cases, which is clearly totally unmanageable. Does the Minister agree that more than 80 per cent of the employees in residential children's homes have no relevant training whatever and that increasingly those who run old people's homes encounter problems in recruiting care workers? If we as a society really believe that the state should look after these disadvantaged people, do not the Government—particularly a Government who have so successfully generated a budget surplus—have a responsibility to do something about these recruitment problems?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, I certainly agree with the noble Lord that we need to do everything that we can to increase the number of qualified staff working in the social care field. I believe that the national training strategy and the development of the general social care council over the next few years will enhance our ability to raise the number of qualified people who work in social care.

I also agree that many of the staff work under considerable pressure. Although many social workers have been lambasted in the media over the past few years, the fact is that the great majority do a good job of work and we need to support them.

So far as concerns funding, in the next financial year we expect personal social service resources to increase by 6.2 per cent. In addition, all councils will receive a minimum increase of 3.2 per cent in central government grants. I hope that that will allow for the development of services.

Lord Clement-Jones

My Lords, the Minister referred to £41 million extra to be spent on training of social workers. How much of that will be available to those in the voluntary and independent sector who, after all, have an extremely valuable role to play in social work? Furthermore, does the department have plans for a national advertising campaign to attract more social workers?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, a national advertising campaign is one issue that we are considering in the light of the summit that I mentioned in my first Answer. We have also discussed with the Local Government Association the ways in which we can encourage recruitment and retention in the future.

So far as concerns access that voluntary and independent organisations have to training, local councils may use training support programme funding to support the training of staff in agencies which provide statutory services under contract to the local authority. At the moment, the take-up of that option is fairly patchy and we would certainly encourage a greater take-up. In addition, the national training strategy recommends that all employers should spend a target of approximately 3 per cent of their staffing budget on training. I believe that that should apply to independent employers as well as to social service authorities.

Baroness Sharples

My Lords, can the noble Lord say what the shortfall is in this area?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, I do not believe that it is possible to pinpoint a precise shortfall in the number of staff in the whole social care field. Quite simply, those statistics are not robust enough to display any confidence in them. Many of the decisions are not taken by the Government but rely on the work of individual employers in social services and also of those who are largely in the independent sector. It is clear that a number of employers are under considerable pressure. The difficulties of recruitment certainly came to the fore in discussions about winter pressures which we held with the NHS and with the directors of social services.

Lord Laming

My Lords, does the Minister agree that part of the problem arises from the low status accorded to residential social work staff? Does he agree that, as two-thirds of children looked after are now in foster homes, that means that children who are in the care of residential staff are those with the most acute problems and that therefore priority should be given to training residential staff?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, I fully agree. I believe that the status of residential care workers has perhaps always been at a disadvantage as compared with other people working in the field of social care. They have undergone considerable criticism, and one cannot discount the impact of the number of inquiries which have been held over the years into the various aspects of running residential homes. I believe that that has had an adverse effect on the image of the sector. I agree that one answer to the problem would be to encourage more people in the field to undertake training. However, the sector also needs to be enhanced by better management and better support from local government.

Lord Elton

My Lords, the noble Lord said that, where the figures involve the private sector, they are not sufficiently robust. Can he tell us what the figures are for the public sector and how robust they are in relation to the shortfall?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, I do not have specific figures for shortfalls in the recruitment of staff within local government. However, I believe that the survey which the Local Government Association undertook a few months ago was extremely helpful in pinpointing some of the issues that need to be tackled. I certainly accept that in the whole field of social care a great deal more work needs to be done to scope out the specific problems of recruitment, to tackle the shortfall in the number of people who undertake training and to ensure that, as we develop new national training strategies and the general social care council, we have a clearer idea of the gaps so that we can then deal with them.