Ms Mary Dunnion:

Throughout all of our reports we acknowledge the shortage of social workers and social care workers, but that does not negate the statutory responsibility for maintaining the quality of services and the safety of children. What becomes critical is what Tusla is doing to manage the shortage. There have to be many strategies in place and the first thing to do is to recognise the reality. It is then necessary to acknowledge that there is an ongoing problem that will not be solved in the next five years. The first question is whether there is a strategy in place to deal with it. The finding was that there was not. The next question was whether it had been ensured the environment of social workers, social care workers and administrative staff was the optimum it could be, by which I mean had it been ensured people were not bogged down in paper and that the process had been streamlined as properly as it could be. Following on from that question, it is necessary to ask whether Tusla has reviewed the matter critically. The answer at the time of the statutory investigation was "No". Our next issue was the need for social workers to be confident that the processes optimised what they were doing. The question then was if the training provided was really robust. Is there a training programme in place to make sure they know what they are doing, how to do it and that there is support for social workers and social care workers in doing so. Gaps were also found in that regard.

The most critical aspect - for me anyway - is our role when a new social worker comes to work in Tulsa. It is a frightening environment in which to work and in which very important decisions are being made. The main question is whether the person feels safe and the junior social worker is subject to really good supervision. We found that it was not in place. It is not a critique that is unfair on individuals. We are looking at the arrangements in place to make sure the individuals about whom Deputy Sherlock rightly spoke are supported properly. We found that that was not the case and that there were major opportunities to make improvements. Throughout our inspection processes to date, we have seen where the position has begun to improve. That is good, but there is a way to go.