Social Services: Training

(asked on 11th July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of funding allocated to the consultation on the National Assessment and Accreditation System for social workers was spent on (a) private sector consultants and (b) local authorities in 2018-19.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 19th July 2019

In total the government has spent £18.4 million on the consultation, preparation and introduction of the National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) for child and family social workers.

These costs can be further broken down into:

  • £4.6 million in preparation costs, which includes money spent on the proof of concept phase, the preparation of assessment materials and standard setting;
  • £4.1 million up to June 2018 on the introduction of assessments, of this £3.5 million has been in grants made to local authorities to support Children’s Services Departments and individual social workers prepare for the assessment;
  • £3.7 million from July 2018 to May 2019 was spent on running assessment centres and paid to private consultants to deliver this service; and
  • a further £6 million in 2018-19, which has been in grants to local authorities.

The department has spent no funds on consultation. The consultation and programme development of the NAAS has been resourced directly by the civil service who have engaged widely with both local authorities and individual social workers.

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