Mr. John D. TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if the proposed General Social Care Council will operate in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [94542]
§ Mr. George HowarthThe publication of a fundamental review of the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW) was announced in the House on 22 December 1997,Official Report, column 553. The Secretary of State for Health announced his intention then to establish mechanisms for regulating the personal social services workforce in England and to hand over CCETSW's functions for social services training to the new body.
I have given careful thought to the best arrangements for regulating the social services workforce in Northern Ireland, consistent with the Government's plans as outlined in the Social Services White Papers for England, Scotland and Wales. I have taken into account that there are to be separate regulatory bodies for England, Scotland and Wales.
I have concluded that there should be a separate body for the regulation of the social services workforce in Northern Ireland and that it should, as in England, Scotland and Wales, assume responsibility for CCETSW's training functions. However, the Northern Ireland body must have the closest possible alignment with similar machinery in the other countries of the UK, and officials will be working to ensure that effective links of this kind are put in place.
We also need to have coherent overall arrangements for developing and enforcing high standards of conduct and practice, and for ensuring that workforce and training strategies are directed towards the same standards. I have, therefore, also asked officials to ensure that we bring together the work of the regulatory body and the work in Northern Ireland of any future National Training Organisation for the personal social services.
Children and adults who use the social services in Northern Ireland should be able to rely on a workforce that is properly trained, appropriately qualified and effectively regulated. We will be bringing forward more detailed proposals for the new regulatory body in a social services paper to be published shortly. It is our intention to ensure that the new arrangements in Northern Ireland are available at the same time as in other parts of the United Kingdom.