Ms Aine McGuirk:

It seems to be the way public service is done, people are put on panels, there are expressions of interest and the candidates do not know how many ahead of them have put in an expression of interest for the post or area that they want to go to. It strikes me as a very convoluted way of doing things. In the past there were more local ways of recruiting but to do things in any large national way seems to take a long time.

In respect of supervision, Tusla has increased the number of team leaders and the team leader is the immediate supervisor of the social worker. A team leader will have between four and six social workers to supervise. That becomes difficult if, for example, three people leave that team of six because there are three unallocated caseloads that are the responsibility of that team leader. The leader is trying to plug the gaps when the foster carer telephones or the child runs away from the placement, or a case has to return to court. The support is then diluted because it is more difficult for the leader to support the team when he or she is overwhelmed with work. How to support those first line supervisors to do that job needs to be addressed so that the young social worker is encouraged to stay and gain experience.