Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2353. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of efforts to recruit additional social care workers and additional administrative staff to assist social care workers. [34908/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy officials have requested the information from Tusla and I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with it.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A
I refer to your written parliamentary question (ref: 34908/18, 24 July 2018);
To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of efforts to recruit additional social care workers and additional administrative staff to assist social care workers.
As advised in my response on 23 July, my officials requested the information you were seeking from Tusla.
For 2018 Tusla has a recruitment target of an additional 117 Social Care Workers and 162 Clerical/Admin staff. Tusla has advised me that a national recruitment campaign for Social Care Workers was organised in 2017 which provided an extensive recruitment panel and talent pool from which newly funded and vacant positions are filled on an ongoing basis. Tusla will continue to appoint from this panel for positions identified in Q3 and Q4 2018.
I understand that there is also a bespoke campaign with an ongoing recruitment drive for Social Care Workers in Special Care. Recruitment Panels are formed from successful applicants and vacancies are filled through this recruitment campaign for more difficult to fill special care settings.
With regard to clerical/admin recruitment specifically, Tusla has advised that panels are in place from which appointments will be made on an ongoing basis.
Furthermore, Tusla is developing a Multi-annual Strategic Workforce Plan to identify the future composition of Tusla’s workforce for 2019 and beyond. This Plan will support the delivery of Tusla’s priorities and encompass a range of activities aimed at addressing Tusla’s short, medium and long term needs and managing the challenges Tusla faces recruiting and retaining certain key grades.
The Multi-annual Strategic Workforce Plan will also seek to deliver on a strategic focus for Tusla with a gradual transition to multi-disciplinary teams. The multi-disciplinary teams will look to consist of the optimum mix of skills across social work, social care, therapeutic staff, family support, education welfare and administrative support. This transition will have a significant and a positive impact on how the workload is distributed within the teams with appropriate assignment of tasks.
