Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether introduction of the National accreditation and assessment programme is voluntary for local authorities.
56 local authorities are currently participating in the National Assessment and Accreditation System and figures on the number of social workers who have completed their assessment is in the attached table.
The programme is voluntary for local authorities.
The cost of the programme to date has been £24 million, of which £12 million has been in grant funding to local authorities.