§ Mrs. Chalkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much money is currently available for training for the staff of voluntary organisations engaged in social work under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968; how his Department determines the demands for such funds for training in the future; and if he plans to increase the amount of money available for training grants under section 64.
§ Mr. DeakinsI regard as most important the proper training of all those who care for or help social services clients and hope that voluntary organisations will do all that they can to ensure that their staff have the skilled and training appropriate for their tasks. In 1978, as part of new arrangements to make even better use of the resources available under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968, my right hon. Friend introduced, as an experiment, arrangements for assisting voluntary organisations to second a member of their staff for training leading to the certificate of qualification in social work or to the certificate in social service. Four grants are being made in the current financial year totalling £6,473.
We are now considering whether we should raise the level of these grants and increase their number. Such grants, however, represent only one way in which we can use the resources available to help voluntary organisations and the amount devoted to training grants must not be at the expense of other grants, essential to the continued existence or proper development of voluntary organisations. While we hope to increase the number of training grants next year, they can never represent more than a small part of the grants which are given under section 64.