§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of-State for Social Services (1) if he will list the establishments which currently run courses of training in psychiatric social work; and how many students are currently enrolled at each one;
(2) how many students have been enrolled on courses leading to qualifications in psychiatric social work in each of the years since 1974;
(3) how many vacancies currently exist for psychiatric social workers;
(4) what is the current rate of pay for psychiatric social workers;
(5) what has been the total annual cost of training of psychiatric social workers in each of the years since 1974;
(6) what are the recognised qualifications in psychiatric social work;
(7) whether he has any plans to increase provision for training of psychiatric social workers;
(8) if he will give a breakdown by region of the numbers of social workers currently working in England who have received specialist training in psychiatric work;
(9) how many social workers who have received specialist training in psychiatric work have been employed in England in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. John PattenPsychiatric social workers have not existed as a separate professional group of workers since about 1970. A number of social workers work with mentally disordered people and their families. Some practise in health care settings, mental health centres, psychiatric and other hospitals and a few are based in general practices. Others operate from their area teams and liaise with the various psychiatric agencies. It is not possible to provide a numerical breakdown of the distribution of these social workers.
It follows that there is no specific qualification in psychiatric social work. There are a few post-qualifying courses for those social workers who already hold the certificate of qualification in social work, and wish to specialise in mental health work.
458WPost qualifying programmes in mental health social work are offered at:
Institution Number of Places Tavistock Clinic 6–8 Maudsley Hospital (with Southwark SSD and London University Institute of Psychiatry) 8 University of Manchester 3–6 University of Birmingham 8–10 University of Surrey (With Norfolk SSD) 18–24 Other courses, for example, in advanced social work, social work with families and family therapy will include material useful to social workers working in the mental health field.
Some social workers have a practice placement in a psychiatric setting and receive relevant teaching as part of their CQSW qualifying courses. There are also a number of in-service training opportunities, and some local authorities, that is, in the north-east, have combined to provide this on a regional basis. In addition there are in-service training courses for social workers who wish to gain approval under the Mental Health Act 1983.