Mr. Cormac Quinlan:

I am conscious that the Deputy is under pressure to leave but I will pick up on that important point. Like Mr. Gibson, I have been in social work practice for a long time. I have spent 20 years on the front line in child protection, in particular. We set out in the supporting paper circulated to the committee material on the issues that support retention. I think that is what the Deputy is talking about. How do we retain staff to do the complex and challenging work involved? The Deputy is correct that over the years, regulation has increased in this realm which has put more pressure on staff in terms of their performance on issues, which is good and right in respect of the provision of effective services. Ultimately, we have found that it is about the ability to make a difference. It is about staff feeling they have the ability to make a difference and being facilitated to do so. That is very much the intent behind the child protection and welfare strategy and what we are trying to do with our practice approach there. High quality supervision keeps people in place. Individual supervision and, as we have also implemented, group supervision will support people to remain in the service. Career progression is important. The Deputy referred earlier to different posts. We are prioritising senior practitioner posts on the child protection side of our business to try to hold onto people there. They might not want to go into management but want to stay within child protection while being rewarded.