§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the answer of 21 October 2002,Official Report, columns 128–9W. on social workers, what the provisional figures are for the numbers of applications for social work training; what action he is taking to make existing social workers realise that their work is valued; how he plans to inform the public about what social workers actually do; and how much funding has been allocated to this initiative [78190]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 29 October 2002]: The national social work recruitment campaign was launched in October 2001 by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health. It is aimed at informing the public about social work and social care and encouraging recruitment and retention. The funding for the campaign is £1.5 million in the year 2001–2002. This includes both national and local press and radio advertising and particular efforts are being made in some areas such as London and the south east that have more severe problems with recruitment and retention of social workers.
The third phase of the recruitment campaign was launched on 24 October 2002. The campaign consists of national advertising, leaflets, posters, local and national PR activity, a help line and a website. It has three aims:
To raise the number of people applying for social work training by 5000 by 2004.To inform the public about what social workers actually do.To make existing social workers realise that their work is valued.Since the start of the campaign, there have been more than 40,000 callers to the telephone helpline and website. Applications have seen the first increase since 1995. The provisional figure suggests that over 5,000 have been received, which represents' a year on year increase of 8.3 per cent.