Workforce training target is missed

Fifty-three per cent of residential child care workers are expected
to achieve NVQ level three by March, well short of the government’s
target.

The Department of Health had expected four out of five residential
child care workers to reach level 3 in caring for children and
young people by January 2005.

Training levels vary from region to region with 77 per cent of
workers achieving the qualification in the North East and 36 per
cent in inner London, according to the figures from the Commission
for Social Care Inspection.

Figures were low because councils with no residential provision
submitted a zero figure which brought the average down, said David
Leay, chair of the children’s services committee at social care
training body Topss England.

Only 29 per cent of residential child care workers had training to
NVQ level three in 2001-2.