§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many youth workers, careers officers and education welfare officers are employed by(a) local education authorities, (b) careers services and (c) other contracted-out services. [119498]
§ Mr. WicksThere are just under 8,000 full-time equivalents employed on work delivering careers service contracts. This includes careers officers, assistant careers officers and staff employed in management and support functions. The number of careers staff employed outside careers services is unknown.
Numbers of youth workers are not collated centrally but the audit of youth services in local authorities in England based on 1996–97 data indicates that the number of full-time professional youth workers employed by local education authorities is about 3,200. In addition there are about 7,900 professionally qualified working part-time and about 16,000 not professionally qualified working part-time. The number of youth workers outside local education authorities is unknown but there are likely to be significant numbers in the voluntary sector.
352WThe precise number of education welfare officers employed by local education authorities is not collated centrally but for England is estimated to be around 3,000.