§ Mr. O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what consultation has taken place with local authority organisations on the additional staff required to carry out the necessary assessment for the provision of community care; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyWe are not aware of any specific consultations with local authority organisations on this matter although there have been frequent discussions with local authority associations on the 403W implementation of the proposals in the White Paper "Caring for People". It is for individual local authorities to determine their own staffing needs.
§ Mr. O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has as to how many extra social workers and support staff are being appointed; what training provisions have been made to implement the proposed community care programme; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyInformation on the number of appointments of social workers and support staff is not collected centrally. The White Paper "Caring for People" recognises that its proposals have implications for the training of staff involved in community care. The social services inspectorate has established a community care training strategy group to identify and address these needs. We have increased this year's training support programme to £19.4 million in grant to local authorities, £2 million of which is targeted towards the training of management staff in social services departments.