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13 Feb 2003 : Column 943W—continued
HEALTH
Care Homes
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether (a) his Department and (b) the Social Services Inspectorate have required Lancashire county council to close older people's residential care homes. [96742]
Jacqui Smith: Neither the Department nor the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) has required Lancashire county council to close care homes. The decision to close a care home rests with the council or, if it is a privately owned home, the owner of the home.
I have received a number of representations about the situation in Lancashire and I have asked the SSI to keep me updated on any developments or decisions made by the council about the future of the residents involved.
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Child Protection
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding his Department has allocated in 2003 to advertising for child protection social workers in (a) England and (b) abroad; and in which countries the advertisements will be placed. [96077]
Jacqui Smith: The Department launched the national social work recruitment campaign in October 2001, backed by funding of £1.5 million. The campaign comprises national advertising, leaflets, posters, local and national public relations activity, a helpline and a website. It is intended to raise the profile of all social work and does not solely focus on child protection. No attempt is being made through the campaign to recruit social workers from abroad.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Canadian Government regarding the recruitment of child protection social workers. [96078]
Jacqui Smith: The Department has not held discussions with the Canadian Government regarding the recruitment of child protection social workers. The recruitment and employment of social workers, whatever their specialism, is the responsibility of individual employers.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent guidance was issued to employment agencies regarding working in local authority social services departments in child protection. [96079]
Jacqui Smith: The Department has not issued guidance.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many vacancies there are in each local authority social services department in England for child protection social workers. [96088]
Jacqui Smith: We do not hold central information on vacancies in each local authority social services department in England for social workers.
A survey undertaken by the employers organisation found that, across all local authority social services departments in England as at 30 September 2001, around 10 per cent. of all field social worker posts were vacant. The rate was slightly higher for children and family field social worker posts, at 11.3 per cent.
Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many basic grade social work vacancies there have been in field work teams dealing with child protection work in each local authority area in each year since 1997. [97090]
Jacqui Smith: We do not hold central information on vacancies in each local authority social services department in England for social workers.
A survey undertaken by the employers organisation found that, across all local authority social services departments in England as at 30 September 2001, around 10 per cent. of all field social worker posts were vacant. The rate was slightly higher for children and family field social worker posts, at 11.3 per cent.
The only historical data is for 2000, when the rate was 16.0 per cent.
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Children in Care
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he (a) has taken and (b) is planning to take to encourage children in care to become involved in local community projects. [96121]
Jacqui Smith: The Quality Protects programme, launched in 1998, aims to ensure better life chances for children in care and £885 million has been provided over five years to support the objectives of the programme.
The Government want to see improved opportunities for vulnerable young people in local community projects involving leisure, the creative arts and sporting activities. The Government encourage councils to form partnerships between the Quality Protects programme and other local projects in the community to make sure that this happens. A key Quality Protects principle is to listen and take account of the views of young people in the design, delivery, and evaluation of services.
Children Trusts
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many bids he has received from local authorities to become pilot projects for children trusts. [97139]
Jacqui Smith: The deadline for applications from local authorities to become pilot children's trusts is 31March 2003 and so we have yet to receive any formal applications.
There has, however, been a significant level of interest shown at all three of the information conferences on children's trusts that we held for local authorities and their partner agencies in December 2002 and January 2003.
Delayed Discharges
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the response to his consultation into delayed discharge; and what aspects of the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Bill were altered to take into consideration the views of those who submitted their views to the consultation. [97144]
Jacqui Smith: An analysis of responses to the consultation document was carried out and a summary of this has been placed in the Library. I have taken these responses fully into account when developing policy on delayed discharge.
Medium-Secure Units
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients are awaiting transfer from high security hospitals to medium-secure units; and what proportion of these patients have been waiting for more than three months. [95904]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 6 February 2003]: The information requested is shown in the table.
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| High secure hospital | Number of patients awaiting transfer from high secure hospitals to medium secure units | Number of patients waiting for transfer for more than three months |
|---|---|---|
| Ashworth | 6 | 6 |
| Broadmoor | 22 | 20 |
| Rampton | 10 | 9 |
These figures relate to patients for whom an alternative placement has been agreed with a receiving facility and in respect of whom the Home Secretary's consent to a move has been obtained where necessary.
The latest available figure as at September 2002 of the number of patients who have already moved to other secure units from the three high security hospitals under the accelerated discharge programme was 65.
Operation Cancellations (Hull and East Riding)
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many operations were cancelled for non-clinical reasons in Hull and the East Riding in each year since 1997; what percentage of operations were cancelled as a proportion of admissions in each year; and what is the national average for the number of operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons. [92848]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested is available in the Library.
Secure Mental Health Beds
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds were available in secure mental health wards in (a) West Sussex, (b) East Sussex and (c) Surrey in each of the last five years. [96098]
Ms Blears: The information requested is not collected centrally at this level. Statistics on the availability of beds in secure units are collected yearly on a national basis. Figures for the south east region are shown in the table.
This information is available on the website (www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/statistics).
| Year | Available beds | Occupied beds | Percentage occupancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 222 | 180 | 81.1 |
| 1997–98 | 243 | 227 | 93.4 |
| 1998–99 | 251 | 225 | 89.5 |
| 1999–2000 | 240 | 224 | 93.4 |
| 2000–01 | 281 | 258 | 91.7 |
Social Workers
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many social workers working with vulnerable children have been dismissed in each of the last five years in (a) Haringey social services, (b) Ealing social services, (c) Brent social services and (d) Enfield social services. [96042]
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Jacqui Smith: It is the responsibility of the individual local authority, as the employer, to maintain records relating to their employment policies, procedures and actions in relation to dismissals. The Department does not collect data centrally.
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