§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the Government's plans on implementation of the findings of(a) the Howe inquiry and (b) the report by Sir William Utting.
§ Mr. YeoI refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave her on 5 June at column670. Implementation of the recommendations in Sir William Utting's report is being coordinated by a group chaired by the Department and including local authority, professional, voluntary sector and other Government Department interests.
§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on those recommendations of the Howe inquiry which give an emphasis on training; and what assessment she has made of the inclusion in the diploma in social work course of enhanced training specifically on residential care.
§ Dr. MawhinneyWe shall he giving careful consideration to all the recommendations of the Howe inquiry which are relevant to our responsibilities.
The Government are strongly committed to improving social work training; this commitment is embodied in the training strategy for the personal social services which we announced last year. Particularly, we are assisting local authorities to fulfil their responsibilities for training staff through the Department's training support programme, central grant for which has been increased from £24.8 million to £29 million in 1992–93. Approximately 140,000 local authority staff are expected to benefit from training under this programme this year, nearly half of whom work in residential care. Funds have been reserved from the grant this year specifically to boost the output of qualifying training for residential child care staff. Further funds have been provided to the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work to provide grants for qualifying training for heads of voluntary children's homes.
The Department has also funded an expert group to look at the content of diploma in social work courses for residential child care staff. This report is expected very shortly.
§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will provide extra funds to local authorities to cover extra training for staff working in residential care.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe Department is already providing extra funds to local authorities for training through the training support programme specific grant. The grant was introduced in 1988–89 at a level of £7 million and has been increased year on year to its current level of £29 million. Approximately half of the 140,000 staff expected to benefit from training under the programme work in residential care.