Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 March 2012
8Deputy Seamus Kirk asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs of the 60 additional social workers that were to be recruited in 2011 as part of the Ryan Report Implementation Plan, the number that have actually taken up their posts and the number of social workers who have retired as part of the early retirement scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15844/12]
View answerThe HSE provided for the recruitment of an additional 62 social workers in 2011. The recruitment process is being managed by the HSE national recruitment service. The executive indicated in December 2011 that all of these posts had been either filled or accepted. I am advised by the HSE that 51 individuals have taken up duty with the remainder expected to come on stream in the coming weeks. Obviously, individuals must serve out notice in jobs they hold already. My Department will continue to monitor the position closely in terms of recruitment of additional personnel.
The additional social workers are being targeted at priority areas of the service having regard to an overall assessment of workload undertaken by the national director and his team. The recruitment of the additional social workers is one element of a wider change agenda within the HSE, through which we can deliver better outcomes for children and families. This reform agenda will lead to the establishment of a new child and family support agency which will provide a dedicated focus on child protection and support families in need.
The latest information from the HSE indicates that 31 social work staff retired in February. While this number is relatively low in the overall context, it will, none the less, require a considered management response by the HSE. In this context, the national director of children and families services, Mr. Gordon Jeyes, will apply his discretion over the course of the year to the filling of vacancies, subject to this not compromising the achievement of employment targets and subject to services being provided within available resources.
I am conscious, as Members would be, of the financial and service challenges facing the HSE in 2012. This is the case across all care groups. These challenges are such as to require an acceleration of the reform programme which is a central element of the wider programme of reform for child and family services, including the establishment of a new and dedicated children and family support agency to which the Government is fully committed.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House.
My Department will be working very closely with the HSE throughout the year to ensure that the priorities set out in the HSE national service plan are implemented where they relate to children and family services. We have set an ambitious programme of work which is designed to strengthen the policy, legislative and practice framework significantly. Our shared goal is the delivery of appropriate, effective and consistent services, notwithstanding the challenging and demanding circumstances in which these services are delivered.
The position of social worker is crucial to the child protection system. That is why, as a result of the Ryan report, 270 additional social workers were to be recruited, according to the recommendations of the report, in addition to the back-filling of existing posts in the system.
The Minister stated that 31 retired in February alone. Are we to take it that the other 14 who she mentioned in the context of the previous figure of 45 will now not be retiring and have not taken up the early retirement option? I dispute the Minister's categorisation of social worker posts. From an initial tally, I was looking at a figure of approximately 70 for the number of retirements from social worker posts of different categories of child protection.
The Minister mentioned that an additional 25% of social workers were recruited in recent years in the area of child protection. However, little of this has taken place since she entered Government. In fact, according to the Minister's figures, last year there were only ten additional social workers in posts at the end of year. We now see that 51 of the 62 who were to be hired last year are in posts and, alongside that, the Minister stated that 31 retired in February. We are moving from the previous policy of ring-fencing the number of social workers required for the system to divesting responsibility for that to the discretion of the HSE. It is a backward step.
The Minister should set a target for the number of social workers needed in the system in line with the policy followed to date. It is necessary if we are to ensure the remaining gaps in the child protection system are addressed.
Deputy McConalogue is making incorrect predictions and assumptions, as he did in this House in July, September, November and December last. On each occasion he predicted that for 2011, the 60 posts recommended by the Ryan report and which I committed to recruiting would not be recruited and that the overall number of social workers would have gone backwards. On all four occasions and on both counts he was wrong. The 60-62 in fact were recruited and the total number of child and family social workers increased by 37 in 2011. Those are the facts.
The Minister's figures referred to ten.
Order, please.
Those are the facts. The Deputy said on four different occasions that I would not recruit the 60 social workers-----
I asked whether they were in their posts and they were not. Only ten were in their posts whereas 31 have retired.
Some 51 out of 62 have been recruited and are in their posts. In other words, 51 of the 62 posts recommended by the Ryan report have been filled . I can confirm that there have not been 45 retirements but 31, and some of those retired in January. It is clear that the recruitment has gone ahead and, while a small number are still to be recruited, the commitment to 262 additional social workers, which was what the Ryan report recommended, has been met. The Deputy should acknowledge this.
What about the 31 who retired in recent weeks?
I have explained that with 31 retiring, given there is no moratorium in regard to the social work posts, the director of child and family services, Mr. Gordon Jeyes, has the discretion to assess, as he must, where those vacancies have occurred, to examine the need and to make appropriate decisions, based on the information he has, in regard to social work generally. He will make those decisions. The situation is that 51 of the 62 additional posts recommended by the Ryan report are in place and there are 31 retirements. The director of child and family services has the authority to analyse what posts need to be replaced and what is the order of priority, given the resources he is managing and the challenging financial situation he faces.
