Dr. Carmel Halton:

Deputy Mitchell asked about supervision. Supervision is being provided. If she goes to the employers or providers of social workers, they will say supervision is provided but the nature of the supervision is primarily in the area of management and administration, as our colleague has said. The other aspects of the work, which are the emotional demands and complexity of the work, along with the support and additional education required to sustain oneself in a profession as complex as child protection and welfare, requires a real commitment on behalf of employers to provide the necessary and ongoing continuing professional development of, very often, young graduates. It is also important for us to recognise the vast majority of our students who have had placements in Tusla become employed by agencies, having got the experience and seen what they are capable of doing. We have high-quality graduates coming from our programmes.

From the perspective of service users, we need to deliver high-quality child protection and welfare services to vulnerable service users by sustaining a highly committed, educated, capable and competent workforce. As our colleagues have said, structures must be put in place, including protected caseloads and a very clear induction policy. There must be supervision that is fit for purpose and which responds to the demands and challenges of the work, attending to the emotional needs and challenges that our social workers experience on the ground. They get it in other jurisdictions and our graduates are moving to other jurisdictions to get this. We have many examples of where our graduates have moved and come back, telling us there is no comparison between what is on offer in other jurisdictions and here.