Vol. 517 No. 4
132 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Health and Children the discussions his Department has had with education providers in relation to the expansion of social work courses; the reasons, if any, for the delays in providing an increased num ber of places; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9941/00]
An additional 20 college places were made available for social work students in the 1995-96 academic year and this increase has since been maintained. Currently, the national social work qualifications board is undertaking a survey of all health service employers and is attempting to ascertain the numbers employed and the areas in which they are employed. It is also addressing the issue of future development plans which will require additional social worker numbers and hopes to estimate the manpower requirements in this area over the coming years. When complete, the results of this survey will be notified to the Department of Education and Science and also to the Higher Education Authority whose function it is to deal with supply and demand in the third level sector.
However, overall the numbers of social workers employed in the health services are increasing from a whole time equivalent of 681.10 in 1993 to 1,157.50 to 1998, which is the latest year for which complete figures are available. This total increase of 476.4 represents a total percentage increase of 69.95%.
