Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2021
548. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the number of counsellors and psychotherapists currently registered; if his Department or the HSE have considered workforce planning and future supply for counselling and psychotherapy in general and more specifically with reference to the recommendations set out in Sharing the Vision or another policy or strategy. [27750/21]
View answerThe Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 provides for the protection of the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence through statutory registration of health and social care professions designated under the Act. The professions of counsellor and psychotherapist were designated for regulation by the Minister under the Act and will be regulated by CORU.
Regulations to designate the two professions under the Act and to establish the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board were made in 2018. The Board was appointed in February 2019 and held its inaugural meeting in May 2019. The work of the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board is significantly more challenging than for registration boards for some of the more established professions, owing to the different and complex entry paths into these professions, the variety of titles used, and the variety and number of courses and course providers.
The Board is now undertaking the substantial work required to open the registers for counsellors and psychotherapists. This work includes the scoping of professions and titles and the consideration of the minimum qualifications to be required of existing practitioners and for future graduates.
When the Board has opened the register and the transitional period to allow existing practitioners to register is completed, it will be an offence for anyone not registered to use any protected titles. All registrants will also be subject to the fitness to practise process in CORU which provides for sanctions against registrants when complaints are proven.
In relation to workforce planning, the Programme for Government commits the Department of Health to working with the education sectors, regulators, and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service.
Sharing the Vision - A Mental Health Policy for Everyone (2020), aims to enhance the provision of mental health services and supports across a broad continuum from mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention to acute and specialist mental health service delivery, during the period 2020-2030. The policy envisages an expansion of mental health service provision across the whole system, necessitating a significant skill mix analysis and human resource development. Consequently, to realise the policy recommendations, a comprehensive workforce planning initiative is required. The National Implementation and Monitoring Committee (NIMC), charged with implementation monitoring of national mental health policy Sharing the Vision (2020) has identified workforce planning in the mental health sector as a key enabler to the implementation of this policy and consistent service improvement over the next ten years.
The HSE Report on Workforce Planning Mental Health: Assessing Supply and Demand (October 2018) www.hse.ie/eng/staff/resources/our-workforce/resources/workforce-planning-report-mhs.pdf.
and the HSE Report of the National Psychology Project Team (January 2021) www.hse.ie/eng/staff/jobs/eligibility-criteria/psychology-report-jan-2021.pdf are relevant HSE initiatives in relation to workforce planning in mental health services.
