Child and Family Agency Staff

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 November 2016

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Questions (200)

Eamon Ryan

Question:

200. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of total posts and vacant posts in child protection teams broken down by grade and area, including administrative staff, social care workers, access workers and all grade of social workers. [34062/16]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

The information requested is not readily available in my Department. My officials have requested the information from Tusla and I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with it.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A

I refer to your written Parliamentary Question (Ref: 34062/16 of 9th November 2016) requesting information in respect of the number of total posts and vacant posts in child protection teams broken down by grade and area, including administrative staff, social care workers, access workers and all grade of social workers.

As previously advised in my response of 9th November, the information was being compiled and was not available at that time. I now enclose a detailed report from Tusla as at September 2016 (the latest report available at this time).

Tusla has advised that child protection services are delivered geographically through four regions. The table below identifies the whole time equivalent, as at September 2016, working in these four regions and in Child Residential Services and Corporate National Services (Adoption, Early Years, Education Welfare, Learning and Development, Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Services).

Tusla continues to have ambitious recruitment targets and expects to recruit an additional 663 whole time equivalent posts across a range of professional, para-professional and business support functions before the end of 2017.

The final allocation of these additional resources between Tusla’s regions will be informed by on-going discussions between Tusla and it’s Regional HR Managers to identify positions required to meet service needs.

2017 will be the second year of a three year initiative to tackle the issue of child protection cases awaiting allocation to a social worker and the additional funding announced by this Department for Tusla in 2017 will allow the Agency to continue its programme of social worker recruitment to address this issue.

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Posts by Region and Grade Group as at September 2016

POSTS	WTE
Child Resident Serv	761.08
Social Work	12.69
Social Care	667.92
Psychologists & Counsellors	3.71
Other Support Staff inc. Catering	48.48
Nursing	0.79
Management VIII+	3
Family Support	3.04
Admin Grades	21.45
Corporate National Services includes: Adoption Services, Early Years Services, Education Welfare Services, Learning & Development, Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Services	414.04
Social Work	81.33
Social Care	11.51
Psychologists & Counsellors	1.8
Other Support Staff inc Catering	1.99
Other Health Professionals	2
Nursing	42.61
Management VIII+	67.92
Family Support	1.66
Education Welfare Officers	79.22
Admin Grades	124
Dublin Mid Leinster	614.06
Social Work	360.93
Social Care	88.65
Psychologists & Counsellors	14.05
Other Support Staff inc Catering	4.51
Other Health Professionals	4.92
Management VIII+	8.77
Family Support	60.56
Admin Grades	71.67
Dublin North East	567.15
Social Work	313.74
Social Care	95.23
Psychologists & Counsellors	1.83
Other Support Staff inc Catering	4.04
Management VIII+	10.98
Family Support	56.11
Admin Grades	85.22
South	572.91
Social Work	352.43
Social Care	105.57
Psychologists & Counsellors	0.46
Other Support Staff inc Catering	2.51
Other Health Professionals	0.5
Nursing	4
Management VIII+	7
Family Support	24.69
Admin Grades	75.75
West	625.67
Social Work	351.32
Social Care	128.01
Psychologists & Counsellors	0.63
Other Support Staff inc Catering	2.47
Other Health Professionals	2.5
Management VIII+	9.14
Family Support	18.75
Admin Grades	112.85
Grand Total	3554.91