HC Deb 21 October 2002 vol 391 cc128-9W
Tim Loughton

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many social workers have(a) been recruited, (b) left before normal retirement age, and (c) retired since the launch of his social worker recruitment campaign in 2001. [75520]

Jacqui Smith

Recruitment and retirement figures on social workers are not collected centrally.

The aims of the Department's recruitment campaign are to:

  • Raise the number of people applying for social work training by 5000 by 2004.
  • Inform the public about what social workers actually do
  • Make existing social workers realise that their work is valued.

The campaign is generating a lot of interest, and the provisional figures for the number of applications for social work training show that there has been an increase this year over last, the first increase in the number of applications since the mid-1990s.