Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 20 October 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 18 November 2003. It was answered by Stephen Ladyman (Labour) on Tuesday, 18 November 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his Answer of 6th October 2003, 410 c1351W, on social services, how the figure published in paragraph 2.79 of the Chief Inspector of Social Services Annual Report was derived. - Includes figures. (Holding answer 27 October 2003).

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 6 October 2003, Official Report, column 1351W, on social services, how the figure published in paragraph 2.79 of the Chief Inspector of Social Services Annual Report was derived. [134068] Dr. Ladyman :[holding answer 27 October 2003]: The Department is working towards achieving a guideline figure of 5 per cent. vacancy rates across the social care work force. The figures published in paragraph 2.76 are based upon current data published in the Social Services Workforce Survey 2002, gathered by the Employers Organisation on behalf of the Department. The figure of 50,000 whole-time equivalent (wte) people to join the work force is derived from an estimated 20,000 wte people coming into the system to staff service development and an additional 30,000 wte identified from SR2002 funding, estimated to be sufficient to bring vacancy rates down to the 5 per cent. guideline. The figures about the number of care trusts were extracted from the delivery and improvement statements which are those self reported to Social Services Inspectorate by all councils in May 2002. Each council was asked to report on progress with care trust planning. We can confirm that the actual number of children's trusts is 35. The number previously reported in the published Chief Inspector's report of 34 was an error.

Secondary information