Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 28 March 2023

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth

Foster Care Issues: Discussion

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Creed is absolutely right not only on the volume of cases that social workers have to see but also on the complexity of the cases they need to address.

One case can now take much longer than it may have done in the past due to its complex nature, as well as the complex needs of a young person a social worker may be dealing with.

Tusla has been innovative regarding the recruitment element. For example, when Bernard Gloster first took over as chief executive, he converted a significant number of agency social workers - people Tusla was using on an agency basis - to full-time, permanent Tusla staff. That was significant in the early part of Mr. Gloster's tenure. That is only something that can really be benefited from on a once-off basis, but they did it. They converted a lot to full-time social workers being employed directly by Tusla. Subsequently, the technique that has been employed over the past two years was to offer all graduates from Irish universities with a social work qualification a job straight away on leaving a university. That has certainly been significant but it is probably still not meeting the overall level of need. That is why retention is so important: holding on to what we have and recognising the pressures social workers are under. Tusla launched its new people strategy last year, which looks at a range of mechanisms to engage with its social work staff, and indeed all its staff, to listen to them and to take on board their views on work-life balance, and on how work within the organisation can be improved.

Another thing that is happening is there is now a greater use of social care workers. Often now, social care workers or social care leads are taking on some of the roles that previously would have been primarily reserved for a social worker. That is in order to recognise the diversity of skills and the diversity of needs. A good or experienced social care worker can provide very significant supports to families and young people.

Those are some of the actions we are taking in the short to medium term. They have had success, but ultimately we need to be training more social workers coming out of our universities each year. That is important and that is why we have been engaging with higher and further education and with the universities. My Department is doing an engagement with CORU, the professional body for social workers, to secure higher numbers qualifying each year. I hope that goes some way towards addressing the Deputy's question.

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