§ Mrs. Gillian Shephardasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what plans he has to improve the training of social services staff.
§ Mr. NewtonI am glad to be able to announce that we intend to introduce a special training support programme for social services management and staff working with908W elderly people. This will cover both residential and domiciliary care, including home help organisers. The aim is to improve the quality of care, and the cost-effectiveness of these services.
The programme will involve expenditure of £10 million in 1988–89, of which 70 per cent. will be met by a specific Government grant. Detailed arrangements will be discussed with the local authority associations.
This new measure complements a wide range of other initiatives already under way to improve training in the field of child abuse and the training of social services management generally. We look forward to receiving shortly proposals from the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work for reform in arrangements for the training of all staff in the social services, including the qualifying training for social workers. We are grateful for the considerable work the council has put into preparing its proposals, to which the Government will give careful consideration.