Kathleen Funchion: Demands Action on Social Worker Shortfall

This is a follow-on to a parliamentary question. I put in a written parliamentary question around the number of children in care who are awaiting the allocation of a qualified social worker and what measures, particularly now when we are coming into budget season, as your department is proposing to tackle the shortfall in social workers within Tusla and what measures can address the deficit in available data, because that is one of the issues, but I will go into that further in the question. Thanks. Thanks very much, Deputy. So at the end of April of this year, 75% of cases, so that is 17,083, had an allocated social worker and 25% of cases, 5,785 were awaiting the allocation of a social worker. My department has established a joint working group with Tusla to examine issues around social work supply and reviewing initiatives around this. This group includes senior officials from both my department and Tusla, including the chief social workers from both Tusla and my department, senior HR, senior HR and other key members, including CORU. The working group is examining a range of initiatives for the recruitment of social workers. My department and Tusla are also involved in the social work employers group, which also includes probation and the HSE, looking at how to promote more students into social work study and the profession. This group also has engaged with the third level colleges, offering these studies and is looking at initiatives to further promote the social work profession amongst potential students to pursue this course of study. This approach has included supporting a number of additional courses in social work study in third level colleges, which have come on board, an ongoing liaison with the Department of Higher Education, supporting colleges in consideration of different routes into social work, including a potential apprenticeship route. In addition, Tusla has sponsored a number of internal staff to train social workers and social care workers and is also exploring an initiative to provide a small bursary to support additional places in existing courses in the Dublin area, where, as we know, Tusla has particular recruitment problems. Tusla's social work graduate campaign for 2023 attracted 80% of available social work graduates and currently 123 graduates have accepted permanent positions with Tusla. Tusla with a further 40 students currently in receipt of permanent employment opportunities in Tusla. In addition, Tusla commenced an international social worker campaign to attract suitably qualified staff from other jurisdictions and have established a return to practice initiative to promote and support qualified social workers to return to the workforce. Tusla thank you Dr Shanahan thank you, Minister. Yes, so what prompted me to ask this question is on the reply we got back that 870 children as well, we have to remember, don't have a social worker. They weren't able to give us a breakdown of the length of time that children were actually waiting. So that could be like someone could have went onto the list two days or three days before the questions were asked, or it could be months or a year. So it would be useful for everybody to actually get that breakdown of data. I was going to ask about the interaction with the Department of Higher Education in relation to college places, because we do know we need to train a lot more, and I welcome stuff like the apprenticeship group, but do we have any sort of timeframes for when that might actually become a reality? And is that likely to happen? Because I think particularly in the area of social work, an apprenticeship group could actually be a really, really good, you know, model possibly. And I also wanted to ask in relation to overseas internationally, because I know often the issue of visas, you know, this came up recently, actually at a different meeting in relation to the HSC, with nurses and stuff that people waiting six to eight months for visas, it's just not doable. So I'll expand further in the next part. Thanks very much, Deputy Suluca. I take on board your point in terms of the data, and it's something I'll raise with Tusla the next time I meet Tusla on a quarterly basis, and I can absolutely ensure you that workforce, workforce planning, workforce retention is absolutely central in every one of my engagements with the Board, and it's a source of real concern to the Board as well. I think it is important to say that the number of allocated cases has come down, and it's come down significantly over the last number of years because of that applied focus that Tusla has put on it, but it's still too high. And that's why we are taking this range of measures to improve the number of college places for social workers. We need to significantly increase the number of college places for social and healthcare professionals generally. That's a source of worry for myself, it's a source of worry for Minister Rabbit, and it's a source that we've engaged very extensively with Minister Harris and the Department of Further Education. We will see some increases in places in CAO 2023, and I think in successive years we need to see, and we will see the same focus on increasing numbers here as we see with doctors and nurses as well. I think if we just actually look back to the last question there, obviously if you have an allocated social worker and there's consistency in your case, you are less likely, I suppose, to fall into that trap of potentially being exploited. I know we all agree with that statement, but we really need to work towards that. So I do welcome any sort of imaginative initiatives that we can do, particularly the apprenticeship route, and if there was any – is that just being looked at or is that actually possibly going to be something that would happen, and if there was any timeframe? And just to mention as well the IASW report on staffing and retention, they have a range of really good proposals, and I think you are aware of that, the Board Minister. I possibly resend it on to you, actually, as a committee, I think, but just I think it would be good to have a look at that report and to just look at some of their suggestions, because they are obviously working in that environment every single day, and, you know, they know a huge amount about it. But I do just want to make that point again, that obviously if we have consistency in cases for children that are in care, it's a much better outcome for everybody involved. Thank you, Deputy. Minister, to conclude. Thank you very much, and I completely agree with your point in terms of consistency. And yes, I think looking at alternative routes, because one of the things certainly in my time in this office is a significant number of social workers and social care workers, our care experience themselves, and knowing that the benefit that they got from it, they want to return to it. And not all of them would be entirely suitable, indeed not in every walk of life, not everyone is entirely suited to a purely academic route. So I think looking at developing that idea of an apprenticeship model is something that Tusla in particular are very conscious of, because they see this group of people in particular as a potential source for recruitment, and that's something that they are. So look, I can maybe come back to you with a little bit more detail, but it is something that Tusla see as a really serious offer, and that's why they've been designing some of their bursaries and that, just to, I suppose, take away the cost pressures in terms of people looking to retrain. Question 59.