Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 October 2017
32. Deputy Denise Mitchell asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the measures or initiatives being undertaken to ensure the retention of highly skilled social workers within the Child and Family Agency; and the extra resources which will be allocated to recruit more social workers. [43810/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThis follows neatly on from Deputy Anne Rabbitte's last question. It relates to Tusla and the initiatives being undertaken to ensure, in particular, the retention of social workers, as well as the resources required to recruit more social workers. This is obviously a very important issue. I welcome the additional moneys for Tusla which was one of the priorities identified in Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission. I am glad that the Minister has secured additional funding for Tusla. The question is focused on staff retention but also on the recruitment of staff.
I acknowledge that the recruitment and retention of social workers are among the biggest challenges for Tusla. Working in child protection is one of the most difficult tasks and I welcome the dedication of all professionals in Tusla who undertake this extremely important task.
Tusla has worked hard to retain staff by developing a supportive working environment. Its overall turnover rate for social workers is about 7%, compared with 15% in the equivalent system in England.
As part of its retention strategy, it has implemented an extensive continuous professional development strategy during 2016 and 2017. During 2016 social workers had more than 3,700 training course attendances as part of the strategy which commits to all social workers having a minimum of 21 hours for personal development plans and ten hours for engaging in continuous profession development.
Tusla has also introduced a national transfer policy to facilitate staff who wish to relocate to another part of the country within its services, while ensuring the agency retains their valuable expertise.
Tusla's health, well-being and employee assistance programme has a range of services available to staff, including a critical incident stress management team to support teams and individuals in the event of an traumatic event. The programme has just completed a staff retention survey and the findings will inform part of the new retention strategy for Tusla.
Other supports for Tusla staff include rehabilitation services to support staff who are out of work owning to injury or illness.
In addition to its retention measures, Tusla is putting a huge emphasis on recruitment. This includes an intensive graduate recruitment programme and a rolling programme to attract existing social workers.
Budget 2018 provides for a significant increase in the funding allocation for Tusla. In 2018 there will be €753 million in funding available to Tusla, representing an increase of €40.6 million or 5.7% on the allocation in 2017. Since the establishment of the agency in 2014, its funding will have increased by €144 million or 23.6% in 2018.
I thank the Minister for her response. This is not the first time a response from the Government has compared our system favourably with that in place in Britain or, specifically, England, but I do not think we should compare Ireland with England. The English social care system is in crisis and almost anything could be compared favourably with it.
So many of the issues, controversies and reports in recent years have been related to resourcing, while some have been related to social workers being overburdened with work and having unmanageable case loads. The issues surrounding child protection social workers seem to be particularly acute. The number of child protection social workers leaving the system was quite considerable when we discussed this issue about 12 months ago. What is the current retention rate in that specific category?
I will be happy to supply the Deputy with the details, but I do not have the specific information to hand. Picking up on his point about the system in place in England, I will also be happy to compare this jurisdiction with others, although I do not necessarily agree with him on the matter. The fact is that Tusla has been able to retain social workers. The current turnover rate is approximately 7%, which is very good, although we would obviously prefer it to be lower. Tusla is working on this, with particular reference to the retention programmes I have mentioned.
I understand the reason the Deputy is raising the issue of people working in the area of child protection. I have been encouraging Tusla to show leadership. Yes, we need social workers and to make their working environment more conducive. I have tried to identify some of the ways in which the organisation is supporting its staff in tha regard. At the same time, however, we need to move forward plans to ensure the mix of staff working in the area of child protection is the right one in order that social workers, social care workers, administrators and front-line staff are doing the jobs they have been trained to do. That will make the system more efficient.
I take the Minister's point that turnover rate is currently at 7%. When we dealt with this issue 12 months ago, we were talking about losing 150 social workers a year, which was very significant. I would like to pass on some observations made to me by social workers on matters I have previously raised with Mr. Fred McBride at committee level. One was that there previously was a grade of advanced social work practitioner. This issue might perhaps be worth exploring. Another observation is on the centralised manner in which recruitment is carried out. There is a desire that this function be devolved to more local social work operations, with a desire to have more administrative staff. Given that the work involved in child protection is so intense, it might be worthy of its own grade. This issue might be examined in the context of employment conditions and pay. I do not necessarily have a settled view on it, but I am curious to hear the Minister's view.
It is certainly a suggestion that could be entertained and I will be happy to communicate it to Tusla. The Deputy has clearly already raised the matter with the CEO, Mr. Fred McBride. His focus is on considering additional ways by which staff working on the front line with children who have experienced significant harm can be supported, which is good. Some of the questions have focused on how we can attract and retain staff. It concerns the ways in which social workers can see they will be supported and that their status will be accorded. It also concerns their conditions and pay, of course. I am well aware of these issues, as is senior management in Tusla which is looking for ways to continually improve in that regard. I think the Deputy's suggestions are worthy of consideration.
