Thomas Gould
Question:709. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Health for an update on the CORU accreditation application for social care courses in MTU Cork. [29651/23]
View answerTuesday, 20 June 2023
Questions (709, 710)
Thomas Gould
Question:710. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Health the estimated timeline for completion of the CORU accreditation application for social care courses in MTU Cork. [29652/23]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 709 and 710 together.
As the Deputy will be aware, CORU is Ireland’s multi-profession health and social care regulator. CORU’s role is to protect the public by regulating the health and social care professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended), including setting the standards that health and social care professionals must meet to be eligible for registration and maintaining registers of persons who meet those standards.
Seventeen health and social care professions are designated for regulation by CORU. There are currently registers open for eleven professions and CORU is continuing the substantial work required to open the registers for the remaining designated professions.
The register for social care workers will open on the 30 November 2023. This will begin a 2-year transition period for existing practitioners to apply to register with CORU. On 3 November 2025, the title 'Social Care Worker' will become a legally protected title in Ireland and registration with CORU will be necessary for those wishing to practise using this title.
MTU Cork submitted a programme approval application to the Social Care Workers Registration Board in December 2022. An initial meeting between the CORU executive and the programme team took place in March 2023, and at a second meeting in May 2023 the necessary steps towards programme approval were discussed and agreed.
At this point it would not be appropriate to commit to a date when the Social Care Workers Registration Board will make a decision on the programme approval application, however CORU anticipates that a decision will be made by the end of Q2 2024, before the end of the grandparenting period for social care workers.
Question No. 710 answered with Question No. 709.