§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many residential child care staff were qualified at GNVQ level 3 by March; and how many still needed to be qualified to NVQ level 3 as per the requirement set out in The Government's Objectives for Children's Social Services. [74531]
§ Jacqui SmithThe application forms for the training support programme grant that local councils completed in April 2002 provide the following data about residential child care staff and national vocational qualifications (NVQs):
Number who have achieved their NVQ Level 3 2,020 Number who need to obtain their NVQ Level 3 7,592 However, the above figures do not include all the residential child care staff in the voluntary and private sectors as we do not collect data from these sectors.
The National Minimum Standards for Children's Homes includes a standard stating that "A minimum ratio of 80 per cent. of all care staff have completed their Level 3 in caring for children and young people NVQ by January 2005." This standard will be monitored by the National Care Standards Commission during their inspections of all children's homes.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many employees were working in(a) social services departments, (b) residential care, (c) domiciliary care and (d) intermediate care in each of the last five years. [74533]
§ Jacqui SmithData on the numbers of employees working on intermediate care services, and the numbers of staff working in the independent care sector are not available centrally. The whole-time equivalent numbers of staff employed by local authorities in social services departments, residential care services and domiciliary care services between 1997 and 2001 (the latest date for which data are available) are shown in the table.
wte Year (as at 30 September) Social Services Department Residential Care Domiciliary Services 1997 229,400 65,400 53,600 1998 223,500 62,100 50,500 1999 221,700 59,200 47,200 2000 217,500 56,600 42,900 2001 212,000 53,800 40,200 Source:
Form SSDS001.