Child and Family Agency

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2023

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

Questions (58)

Kathleen Funchion

Question:

58. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will comment further on a recent parliamentary question I tabled on the number of children in care who are awaiting the allocation of a qualified social worker; the measures that he proposes to tackle the shortfall in the number of social workers within Tusla; the measures he proposes to address the deficit in available data in regard to same; if his Department are engaged in workforce planning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32484/23]

Oral answers (6 contributions)

Deputy Kathleen Funchion

This question follows on from a written parliamentary question I tabled on the number of children in care who are awaiting the allocation of a qualified social worker and what measures, particularly as we come into budget season, the Department is proposing to tackle the shortfall in social workers in Tusla. What measures are there to address the deficit in available data? That is one of the issues. I will go into it further in my supplementary question.

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman

I thank the Deputy. At the end of April 2023, 75% of cases, some 17,083, had an allocated social worker and 25%, some 5,785, were awaiting allocation of a social worker. My Department has established a joint working group with Tusla to examine issues around social work supply and review initiatives around it. This group includes senior officials from both my Department and Tusla, including the chief social workers from Tusla and my Department, senior HR and other key members including the Health and Social Care Professionals Council, CORU. The working group is examining a range of initiatives for the recruitment of social workers. My Department and Tusla are involved in the social work employers group, which also includes staff from the Probation Service and the HSE, which looks at how to encourage more students to become involved in social work study and the profession. This group has also engaged with the third level colleges offering courses in these areas and is looking at initiatives to further promote the social work profession among potential students to pursue this course of study. This approach has included supporting a number of additional courses in social work study in third level colleges, which have come on board, and ongoing liaison with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, supporting colleges in consideration of different routes into social work including a potential apprenticeship route.

In addition, Tusla has sponsored a number of internal staff to train as social workers and social care workers and is also exploring an initiative to provide a small bursary to support additional places in existing courses in the Dublin area where, as we know, Tusla has particular recruitment problems. Tusla's social work graduate campaign for 2023 attracted 80% of available graduates. Currently, 123 graduates have accepted permanent positions with Tusla, with a further 40 students currently in receipt of permanent employment opportunities with the agency. In addition, Tusla commenced an international social worker campaign to attract suitably qualified staff from other jurisdictions and has established a return to practice initiative to promote and support qualified social workers to return to the workforce.

Deputy Kathleen Funchion

I thank the Minister. What prompted me to ask this question is that, in the reply we got back, remembering that 870 children do not have a social worker, the Department was not able to give us a breakdown of the time that children were waiting. Someone could have gone onto the list two or three days before the question was asked, but it could have been months or a year. It would be useful to everybody if we could get that breakdown of data. I was going to ask about the interaction with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science about college places because we know that we need to train many more. I welcome things like the apprenticeship group, but do we have timeframes for when that might become a reality? Is that likely to happen? Particularly in the area of social work, an apprenticeship route could be a really good model. I also wanted to ask about overseas, international workers. The issue of visas came up recently at a different meeting about the HSE. Nurses and so on were waiting for six to eight months for visas. It is just not doable. I will expand further in the next supplementary question.

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman

I thank the Deputy. I take on board her point about the data. I will raise it with Tusla the next time I meet with it. I meet Tusla quarterly. I assure the Deputy that workforce planning and retention are central in all my engagements with the board. These are a source of real concern for the board too. It is important to say that the number of allocated cases has come down significantly in recent years because of the applied focus of Tusla on it, but it is still too high. That is why we are taking the range of measures to which I refer in order to increase the number of college places for social workers. We need to significantly increase the number of college places for social and healthcare professionals generally. That is a source of worry for me and for the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. We have engaged extensively with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, and his Department. We will see some increases in places in the CAO in 2023. In successive years, we need to see and we will see the same focus on increasing numbers here as we see with doctors and nurses.

Deputy Kathleen Funchion

In the context of the previous question, if a social worker is allocated and if there is consistency in an individual's case, that person is less likely to fall into the trap of potentially being exploited. I know we all agree with that statement but we really need to work towards that. I welcome any sort of imaginative initiatives that we can do, particularly the apprenticeship route. Is that just being looked at or is that possibly something that will happen? Is there any timeframe? The Irish Association of Social Workers, IASW, report on staffing and retention contains a range of really good proposals. The Minister will be aware of that report. It is possible that the committee of which I am Chair sent it to him. It would be good to look at that report and some of the suggestions it contains, because the members of the IASW obviously work in that environment every day and know a huge amount about it. I want to make the point again about having consistency in cases for children who are in care is a much better outcome for everybody involved.

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman

I completely agree with the Deputy's point about consistency. One of the things that has arisen during my time in this office is that a significant number of social workers and social care workers are care-experienced themselves. Knowing the benefit they got from it, they want to give something back. Not everyone is entirely suited to a purely academic route. Looking at developing that idea of an apprenticeship model is something that Tusla in particular is very conscious of. It sees this group of people as a potential source for recruitment.

I will revert to the Deputy with more detail. It is something Tusla sees as a serious offer, which is why it has been designing some of its bursaries to take away some of the cost pressures on people looking to retrain.