§ Mr. AmosTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what work has been done to evaluate the Department of Health's social services training support programme: and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe Government fully recognise the vital importance of training social services staff to meet the challenges of implementing the Children Act, the recommendations of Sir William Utting's report "Children in the Public Care" and our community care changes. The social services training support specific grant will be £29 million in support of £41.4 million expenditure in 1992–93, an increase of nearly 100 per cent. in three years. The arrangements and allocations for local authorities were contained in local authority circular LAC(91)21, issued on 23 December 1991. The training support programme's scope and funding has increased year on year since its commencement in 1988–89, reflecting both its popularity and success in improving the quality and quantity of training for local authority staff. Staff from the voluntary and private sectors have also benefited. Three evaluation reports were published by the Department of Health social services inspectorate on 13 February 1992, on different aspects of the training support programme. Each provides good evidence of the success of the training support programme in increasing the availability of training for social services staff, and an indication of the benefits this brings for service provision.
Copies of the documents mentioned are available in the Library.