Care Sector: Apprenticeships

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

My noble friend is quite right. I think the noble Baroness mentioned older people leaving the profession. As I understand it, the current figures are flattening out and improving, and there is more retention of people approaching retirement age.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

My Lords, is the Minister confident that there really is an attractive career path for young people going into the care profession, whether in homes or in domiciliary care, and that there really is a pathway through to nursing in this vital vocational route, taking into account that demand in this area will expand significantly?

[The Earl of Courtown]

I think that the fact that, as I mentioned, there has been in excess of 250,000 new apprenticeship starts in the care sector in the last three to four years speaks for itself.