§ Mr. DawsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the proportion of staff who have qualified under the Residential Child Care Initiative and continue to work in local authority residential child care(a) nationally and (b) by local authority. [47001]
§ Mr. BoatengThe information requested is not available centrally. However, an evaluation of the residential child care initiative (RCCI) undertaken for the Department by the Tavistock Institute showed that 455 local authority staff were seconded under the initiative and 35 bursaries were awarded for staff in the voluntary sector. The research concluded
that RCCI, considered with other changes taking place at a local level, was contributing to an overall increase in the proportion of qualified staff in residential child care".The proportion of RCCI secondees who had not returned to the residential child care sector was found to be relatively small (13.5 per cent.).