Ms Colette Walsh:

To follow on from that, there is an overall Department of Health strategic work plan which includes our colleagues in the HSE, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and Tusla. We have met the universities to raise the challenges with regard to the limited number of social workers and also to request an approach for blended learning. The universities set the course entry qualifications, so it is about how we can approach blended learning and mobility. They are just preliminary discussions around other pathways for social work careers. We are also looking at labour supply and demographic trends. The universities are aware that the number of social workers graduating each year is not sufficient to meet the needs of our organisation or of other organisations that also require social workers.