§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the NVQ level 4 registered managers award for care homes; and if he will make a statement. [83763]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 28 November 2002]: The Registered Managers (Adults) Level 4 National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is a new award that is based on the national occupational standards for registered managers, adult residential, that were developed by Topss England last year. This NVQ was first offered in March 2002 and the candidates undertaking these courses will not yet have completed the award. It is therefore not possible to assess how effective the new award will be in the workplace at this stage.
National occupational standards are reviewed on a five year rolling programme and any changes are then reflected in the associated NVQ. In the meantime, the reports done by National Care Standard Commission 754W (NCSC) Inspectors should provide details of any improvements in the management of care homes and state whether a registered manager holds the new registered manager (adults) award.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the available capacity in the training sector to provide(a) care staff with NVQ level 2 and (b) registered managers with NVQ level 4, by 2005. [83764]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 28 November 2002]: We are aware that there is not a very strong National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) infrastructure within the care sector at present. This is why part of the £15 million in the training strategy implementation fund for 2002–03 is being used to support 11,500 line managers who are undertaking training to become NVQ assessors, verifiers and mentors. The fund is administered by Topss England, the former national training organisation for social care.
In order to receive some of these funds, social care employers are invited to develop, either alone or in partnership, arrangements to support the establishment and development of work based assessment, verification and mentoring arrangements. This will both improve the quality of existing provision and increase the availability of appropriately qualified and experienced staff.
Officials from my Department are also working with Department of Education and Skills and Topss England to reduce barriers to completion of NVQs and improve the quantityand quality of provision.