Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Foster Care Services: Discussion (Resumed)

9:00 am

Mr. Fred McBride:

As I mentioned, it is not just about social workers. We have a target recruitment number of approximately 360 staff this year and a number of them would be social workers. The point was also made that we need administration and support workers to free up social workers to do the work they need to do. Some family support workers, social care workers and some of our management capacities would have a contribution to make within that as well. That is the overall figure we are trying to recruit this year. It is an ambitious target but we are making some progress towards meeting that figure.