§ Mr. Leadbitterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the progress made by the Advisory Committee on Ancillary Staff Training in the Health Service.
§ Mr. EnnalsThe Advisory Committee held its first meeting in October, 1967, and decided to concentrate initially on the largest groups of staff. It set up Working Parties on the training of porters and of domestic staff and a Sub-Committee on the training of catering 31W staff. A Working Party on the training of laundry staff is to be set up shortly.
The Committee has approved a report by its Working Party on the training of head porters and we shall shortly be circulating this to hospital authorities at the request of this Working Party a survey on main grade porters is now being undertaken by the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board Training Department. A report by the Working Party on Domestic Staff, mainly based on a survey by the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board Training Department, is nearly completed. The Sub-Committee for Catering Staff is currently revising the existing apprenticeship scheme for cooks in the light of the Hotel and Catering Industrial Training Board's new trainee cook scheme; and it is taking evidence on the training needs of catering staff as a whole.
The Committee has given advice on the responsibility for ancillary staff training at hospital group level, and on the advantages of co-operation by Regional Training Departments in relevant experimental schemes, and my right hon. Friend is commending this to hospital authorities.
We are grateful to the Committee for the valuable work it is doing.