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Social Workers Recruitment

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 May 2017

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Questions (4)

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

4. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the recruitment of social workers for children in care who still have not been allocated a social worker; the actions she will take to ensure that such children are allocated a social worker without delay; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22524/17]

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Oral answers (6 contributions)

My question relates to children in care who have not been allocated a social worker and I have raised this issue with the Minister before. These are obviously very vulnerable children and there seems to be a real difficulty in meeting targets for recruitment of social workers. Perhaps the Minister could give an update on that situation.

This is an important issue. It is a continuing priority of mine to address the problem of children in care who do not have an allocated social worker. I am informed by Tusla that 99% of children in residential care and 100% of children in special care have an allocated social worker. However, I am concerned to note that 7% of children in foster care do not have an allocated social worker. When social workers are being allocated, children recently received into care and those with mental health issues, a disability or challenging behaviour, are prioritised. Tusla is also focusing on intervening at an early stage of a family difficulty through social care and family supports.

When a child who has not been allocated a social worker is placed in foster care, the placement is closely monitored and supported by the duty social work team. In addition, I have been informed that the child's foster family will be visited by a link social worker. This link worker will have oversight of the child's welfare until a social worker can be allocated.

I place a high priority on addressing the number of children in care who are without an allocated social worker. I secured additional funding for this purpose in 2017, and Tusla is now in the second year of a three-year plan to ensure the allocation of a social worker to all children and young people who need one. The recruitment environment for social workers is very challenging.

My Department will continue to monitor progress closely in this regard. I will continue to engage directly with the Tusla board and senior management team over the course of the year to review the progress being made in reducing the numbers of children in care who do not have an allocated social worker.

I thank the Minister. I note that we have been invited to the launch of Tusla's new child protection and welfare strategy on Monday week. I do not know if measures will be announced then. I believe they need to redouble their efforts. I do not know what methods they use to recruit social workers but I have made the point before that there are many people in the State who are qualified social workers but who do not work in social work. Some of these would be relatively mature people. There is a very big turnover of people, some very young, working in this very challenging area. I hope Tusla will look at other ways of recruiting.

There is an article in today's media about the report of the independent national review panel in respect of children who died while in State care or who were known to social services. The chair of the panel, Helen Buckley, said "Some of these reviews reveal the level of pressure being experienced by social work departments due to increased reporting and shortages of staff." Clearly it is a real concern and I know it is a concern also for the Minister, but we need to see a sense of urgency about ensuring we have enough social workers in the system. They are dealing with really vulnerable children. I ask that the Minister draws this question to the attention of Tusla.

Yes. Of course I am aware of the national review panel report. It adds to the motivation and the need to ensure a redoubling of efforts in recruitment and retention. I am indicating that I also do not find it acceptable and I agree with the Deputy in this. In addition I acknowledge, and may have previously pointed out, the aspects of the actions Tusla is taking to recruit and retain staff.

I may refer to some of those actions later in response to another question. It is important to recognise that all children in care are risk assessed. Those at the highest risk are allocated a social worker. We also have duty social work teams carrying out monitoring, as well as link social workers. It is not as if the children are without social workers. It is part of the effort to ensure the children who are in care without a specifically allocated social worker are not at risk in respect of their care.

I understand the efforts that are being made and that there is a team in place. However, we are talking about extremely vulnerable children. The targets would not exist if there were not an understanding that they are required. When people who work in this particularly stressful and difficult job are contending with understaffing, their work becomes more stressful. It becomes a vicious cycle in respect of being able to retain staff when they are dealing with such pressurised work along with inadequate staffing. I urge the Minister to consider whether there may be other ways of recruiting. The recruitment efforts may need to be rejuvenated in some way. We have to ensure we have an adequate number of social workers.

I agree with the Deputy. Relatively recently, I met the Irish Association of Social Workers, a professional organisation. I examined many of these issues and the suggestions it put forward. In respect of the ability to recruit, Tusla is implementing a national transfer policy. To assist retention and the attractiveness of Tusla as an employer, it has put in place a transfer mechanism to facilitate social workers wishing to relocate to another part of the country. If a post is offered for an area other than the one in which the person lives, the possibilities at regional level are being considered in order for him or her to take a post where he or she lives. Tusla is also providing continuing professional development according to the 2017 business plan, which expects to deliver more than 650 courses by the end of the year. There are efforts being made by Tusla in respect of retention as well as recruitment to support the children in care.

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