§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will consider the gradual introduction of a 326W mandatory requirement for all staff concerned with the care of handicapped children in long-stay hospital wards to receive a child care based training, as recommended in his hospital memorandum "Hospital Facilities for Children", published in April,1971.
§ Mr. Astorasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will seek the introduction of compulsory training for staff concerned with the care of children in long-stay hospital wards as recommended by his memorandum of 1st April, 1971.
§ Sir K. JosephMany staff are already trained to the standard recommended in the memorandum of April, 1971 (HM(71)22). Detailed guidance on the training needs set out in the memorandum were sent to hospital boards last November, advising them to establish programmes of in-service training for staff concerned with the care of children, giving advice on how this might be done and emphasising the special needs of staff caring for long-stay children. I do not think that compulsion would necessarily speed the rate of progress.