§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many state registered mental nurses and state enrolled mental nurses are unemployed at present and from which regional health authorities.
§ Mr. NewtonThe Department of Employment is the source of statistical information on the unemployed, but I understand that information by occupation has not been available since the introduction of the voluntary registration procedure in October 1982.
§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he proposes to take to deal with the acute shortage of qualified mental handicap nurses.
§ Mr. NewtonI regret that information about shortages of staff is not collected centrally. However I am aware of the results of a survey of a sample of health authorities conducted for the review body for nursing staff, midwives and health visitors which showed that at 31 March 1985 in England 3 per cent. of all whole-time equivalent funded posts for mental handicap nursing staff remained vacant for at least three months, compared with the average of 2.5 per cent. of all nursing and midwifery staff.
Responsibility for recruiting nursing staff to meet local needs and priorities must rest with individual health authorities. Only they have the detailed local knowledge necessary to make these judgments. Their performance is, of course, monitored and reviewed through the accountability review process.
About 80 per cent. of the Department's national recruitment publicity is directed towards mental illness and mental handicap nursing.