§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many social workers have been recruited by local authorities since the Government launched its publicised recruitment drive last year. [47553]
§ Jacqui SmithThere was a rise of 780 whole-time equivalent social work staff working for councils between 30 September 1999 and 30 September 2000. More recent figures are not yet available. However, the main aim of the social care recruitment campaign is to raise the number of people applying for social work training by 5,000 by 2004. As the current social work training takes two years, and the earliest that someone reacting to the campaign could join a course is autumn 2002, we would not expect to see the effects of the campaign on an increase in social workers being recruited by local authorities until summer 2004 at the earliest.