Gerry Adams
Ceist:19. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of vacant social worker posts within the Health Service Executive; and the date on which these will be filled. [40712/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 26 September 2012
Ceisteanna (19)
Freagraí scríofa
The HSE has advised that 75 social worker vacancies have been notified to the National Recruitment Service. This data relates to social work vacancies across all care groups, and is not confined to children and family services. The HSE has made considerable progress over recent years in recruiting additional social workers and the commitment in the Ryan Implementation Plan to recruit 260 social workers has been met.
The HSE compiles a monthly census of employment in the public health and social care sector. The figures indicate that the number of WTE social workers employed in the Children and Families Service area of the HSE was 1,300 at the end of July 2012, which is the latest month for which data is available. This represents an increase of 69% WTE since February 2011. The National Employment Monitoring Unit within the HSE has advised that work is ongoing with regard to disaggregating the Children and Families resource base from the HSE as part of the process of establishing the new Child and Family Support Agency next year. Consequently the number of social workers assigned to the Children and Families Service area may change as the mapping/classification of posts into care groups is further refined between now and year end.