Billy Kelleher
Ceist:45. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health if 100 front-line psychology staff are being required to undergo training to remain qualified for their jobs. [23535/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 29 May 2018
Ceisteanna (45)
Freagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)
Are 100 front-line psychology staff being required to undergo training to remain qualified for their jobs?
In 2015, the HSE established a group to review the eligibility criteria for employment as a psychologist in the HSE psychological services. This came about in response to ongoing issues with the eligibility criteria for recruitment to HSE psychologist positions.
The review was completed in 2016 and made recommendations which have been accepted in full by the HSE. Both clinical and counselling psychologists are now eligible for employment across all four care groups. It was also decided to move the qualification requirement away from named psychology qualifications solely. Instead, a combination of qualification and placements or supervised work experience will be considered when determining a person's eligibility for employment. These criteria will come into effect in October 2019.
Existing psychologists will only be required to have completed additional placements if they wish to apply for a competition, for example, in respect of a promotional opportunity, from October 2019. It is intended that existing psychologists will be facilitated to acquire the necessary supervised work experience should they wish to compete in any future competitions. There is no compulsion, however, to complete placements or additional training to remain in existing roles. Anyone remaining in a role does not need to do any additional placement or training. The change relates to people newly entering a role or those engaging in promotional opportunities. We will ensure that existing psychologists will be facilitated to acquire the necessary supervised work experience.
The change comes about following on from a significant body of work that has been done and the view that we needed to move away from the qualification requirement only to look at the idea of a combination of qualification with placements or supervised work experience, all with the aim of assisting patients in the health service.
Some concern has been raised on this issue. The Minister may be aware there is a pressing matter of the requirement for 100 front-line psychology staff being required to undergo training to remain qualified for their jobs. Changes to criteria have meant a large number of counselling and educational psychologists are being required to complete extensive in-service training to maintain eligibility for their jobs. For educational psychologists that will mean 60 days in-service training to be completed prior to October 2019. For many counselling psychologists it will mean 120 days or even 180 days in-service training. By contrast, psychologists who have recognised placements could be deemed eligible even with no post-training experience. According to some, the criteria for determining which placements are acceptable and which are unacceptable have been poorly defined and appear to have been enacted in an ad hoc and highly restrictive manner. For example, experience in the Irish Prison Service does not count as experience in adult psychology and experience with specialist services does not count at all, even when those services are operated by the HSE itself.
I thank Deputy Browne for bringing the information to my attention. I will ask the HSE to examine what he has said and revert directly to him on it.
In 2015, the HSE established a review group to examine the eligibility criteria for employment as a psychologist. In its review the group was guided by the changes to models of care, by service user safety, by maximising our resources and flexibility in response to service need, as well as by developments in training and education in professional psychology disciplines. The review was completed in 2016 and made recommendations to the HSE. The review group decided to review the existing care group delineation and to move the requirement away from named psychology qualifications solely to that combination of qualification and placement. A key recommendation is the reduction in care groups from eight to four, effective from 1 March 2016.
A group will be formed comprising the health business services recruitment managers and principal psychology managers. This group will consider any new definitions to be used in advance of competitions, as well as dealing with unforeseen or difficult decisions that may arise. This will ensure that fairness and consistency can be protected. I will ask that they take on board the point Deputy Browne has made. A national psychology placement office will also be established to assist with placement identification and allocation. To prepare for its implementation, a project team will be established to advance the recommendations. There is quite a significant lead-in time to get this right and I will make sure any engagement that needs to happen with stakeholders does take place.
I note the Minister's point that the criteria only apply to those looking for promotion. In a written reply to Deputy Thomas Byrne last month it was stated that the requirement to complete placements only affects those who apply for recruitment campaigns. That amounts, however, to saying that as long as someone does not want to progress in his or her career, it will not affect that person. Surely that is absurd.
I understand too that the Fórsa trade union has objected to the position taken by the HSE and has sought a meeting with the HSE corporate employee relations service. Does the Minister not realise that retrospectively applying new and potentially highly inappropriate criteria to existing staff is unheard of in the manner in which it is being done? The HSE seems to be prepared to allow this to happen with little regard for the impact on service division or the enormous amount of stress being placed on staff in the circumstances.
I will ask the HSE to engage with all unions in this matter. The terms and conditions of existing staff members are not being changed, but what we are saying, for good reason, which is grounded in trying to improve the experience of the service user and based on a very comprehensive and detailed review that was carried out, is that qualifications should also be matched with experience relating to placement.
I take the Deputy's point about what is appropriate placement and appropriate work experience. I will ask for that to be fed in directly to the group that is going to be formed, involving both health business service recruitment managers and principal psychology managers as well. The idea is that this group will iron out any such difficulties to ensure fairness and consistency. The HSE will also establish a national psychology placement office to assist in the allocation of placements as well. I am happy to keep in touch with the Deputy on this matter and I hope it can be ironed out for all.
Question No. 46 replied to with Written Answers.