§ Ms. RichardsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what specific training(a) social fund officers and (b) social fund inspectors are receiving to assist them in implementing paragraph 1017 of the manual; and what proportion of total training hours this represents.
§ Mr. PortilloSocial fund officers receive formal training amounting to just over three weeks in total. It includes exercises on self-awareness and the effect of personal attitudes, bias and prejudice in the decision-making process.
I am advised by the social fund commissioner that social fund inspectors go through the same initial training programme as social fund officers. In addition, they attend a further one-week formal course arranged by the commissioner on their specific responsibilities as social fund inspectors. This training course focuses throughout on the principles of fair and balanced decision-making.
It is not possible to quantify what proportion of the total training time for SFOs and SFIs is devoted to assisting them in implementing paragraph 1017 of the social fund manual, because the considerations of bias an prejudice on the decision-making process is a continuous thread throughout the training period.