Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authorities have participated in the National Assessment and Accreditation Scheme for Social Workers.

Between December 2015 and December 2018, 35 local authorities participated in the National Assessment and Accreditation Scheme (NAAS) for child and family social workers. 22 of these participated in the proof of concept stage, 15 participated in Phase 1 and 2 participated in both.

This programme is live and ongoing, and local authority participation numbers will continue to increase.

Between December 2015 and December 2018, 1,252 child and family social workers participated in the NAAS. 954 social workers participated in the proof of concept stage, 278 social workers volunteered to participate in the current system to undertake the assessment. 200 social workers were involved in creating the assessment itself.

This programme is live and ongoing, and child and family social worker participation numbers will continue to increase.