Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank the witnesses for being here today. Five minutes do not do justice to the wider submission IFCA supplied to the committee and I sincerely thank them for articulating a way forward for us, as a committee, to deal with the issues of recruitment and retention. I also thank Ms McGuirk for defending her colleagues because we live in times where it is easy to beat up on the social worker and he or she, in a judicial or societal setting, can be seen as the easy target for public opprobrium. While there have been cases in the recent past and historically, relating to the quality of engagement with social workers, that was the exception and not the norm. I have an appreciation on the basis of the submission and our deliberations on this issue of recruitment and retention generally, that it is the hidden work, which is undocumented, defines the quality of the engagement. One cannot put a HIQA, stamp on or tick a box for the relationship building, which is vital to sustain the very system that we have. Again, I thank the witnesses for their attendance here today and for their important submission because we now have something on which we can roll up our sleeves.

I would like to be educated on the day-to-day role of a social worker. My first question is on child protection and the welfare of children. We have had a very good interaction on foster care but I want to better understand how a case is triaged when it comes in the front door of Tusla or any other agency. How does a child protection case land on the desk of a social worker? We have a good interaction on foster care but I would like to discuss child protection. How does a social worker, typically, secure a care order? Where is the social worker in the pecking order in respect of the legal framework to secure a care order? Let us say a social worker must go to court. What does a typical social worker have to do from the time a case lands on the desk front-of-house to securing a care order? How much paperwork is involved? Once the care order is successfully applied for, what is the ratio of contact time to administrative time? Is it 50:50 or 80:20? Does a social worker now have to do much more administrative work with much less contact time? Is that, within the existing cohort of social workers, having a bearing on outcomes for the relationship between the social worker and the child? Has that contributed to a malaise or a set of circumstances whereby a social worker, after a couple of years, faces burnout and decides to leave his or her post citing an inability to deal with the work any more? How can the nature of the relationship be changed in such a way that there is a larger quotient of social workers, a manageable workload and family-friendly hours? Social work is a female dominated profession. Women, in particular, will inevitably have families. What arrangements are put in place for a female social worker who wants to continue in her profession yet wants the requisite time off and work within hours that meet the needs of her own family while allowing her to continue professionally, progress careerwise and so on?

I have offloaded a load of issues. I have a picture in my own mind about social work but the witnesses will present a picture that will help us to deal with the key issues of recruitment and retention. I ask them to paint a picture for us of some of the points that I have outlined it will prove very useful.