Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I have one other question. The witnesses spoke about stress and burnout among employees. Although I want to get to the nub of the difficulties, I want to put on record that social work is very rewarding and we would praise social workers for the work they do, and I say this having interacted a lot with social workers. Nonetheless, given staff have been missing work days, is there any movement, particularly from a HR point of view, towards looking at new work practices to support social workers in regard to softer skills, such as the mindfulness or de-stress practices we see in the private sector?

Is there any movement, or any thought, from a human resources point of view, to look at new work practices to support social workers by means of softer skills such as mindfulness, or similar de-stressing approaches, that are happening in the private sector because of people missing work?