Health Minister Jacqui Smith announced on Monday an extra £400,000 for the development, design and delivery of the new social work degree.

This is part of the Government's reform of social work training and will ensure that service users and carers are properly reimbursed for their involvement in the degree.

Jacqui Smith said:
"We need to listen to what service users and carers say about the service they receive and how it can be improved. Their involvement in social work training is crucial. The new degree must produce social workers who are competent practitioners, able to respond to the complex and changing needs of service users and carers.

"Each University planning to offer the new degree, which will be introduced over two years from September 2003, will be allocated an additional £5,000 this year as a contribution to involving service users and carers.

"We are implementing a raft of changes in the training of social workers. We will be looking very closely to ensure that these changes produce results."

The requirements for social work training can be found on the Department of Health website by logging on to www.gov.uk/swqualification