Dr. Breda McTaggart:

I thank the committee for inviting us here this morning. The Institute of Technology Sligo is a higher education provider which develops and delivers programmes of learning to over 6,500 students at undergraduate, masters, and doctorate level. It is a leader in online learning, is research active across all areas and has, at its core, a focus on the development of its region and its citizens. The department of social sciences in IT Sligo is one of the largest departments in the institute. It caters for the learning needs of over 650 students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In 2015, the team and I carried out a review of our regional educational and employment needs. From this review, we developed and sought validation for a number of awards at undergraduate and postgraduate level, inclusive of a masters in social work.

The masters of arts in social work award is the first social work award to be delivered in an institute of technology. The award has been developed in response to student requests for this award within the north-west region, a national shortage of social workers, a number of policy documents which advocate widening access in education, and the need to meet an employment and skills shortage.

As members will be aware, there are waiting lists for social worker expertise across all service areas, including the areas of children and young people and care of the elderly and the disability sector. This is even after a sustained recruitment and retention drive across all these sectors. The reality exists that this is set to continue as the demand for social workers is not being met by the supply of graduates and the retention of social workers within specific posts is acknowledged as challenging. Consequently, a large number of vacancies remain unfilled across all sectors.

The Institute of Technology Sligo and the department of social sciences is reflective of the non-traditional higher education space. Our students are often the first generation to access higher education within their families and many are in receipt of grant funding. Students who begin their studies in our department work very hard throughout programmes and graduate with qualifications that support them to attain better life opportunities and outcomes for themselves, their families, and the communities in which they work and live. However, because of the institute's lack of provision within specific learning spaces, we were concerned that we were contributing to inequity of access to in-demand learning opportunities for our student cohort. In 2016, we made the decision to address this through the introduction of this award.

The programme team and I began the work in 2016 and, in 2018, we sought and secured, under delegated authority, QQI level 9 validation for a two year full-time award in social work. In September 2018, the programme commenced with a small cohort of ambitious and excited students. They are currently on their first professional learning placement.

As this is a new departure for the institute of technology sector, it raised some questions about whether we should be delivering in this field. The answer to this question is that social work is a regulated profession under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 and, consequently, all programmes must be reviewed by the professional regulator, CORU. The masters in social work has made an application to CORU and we will be reviewed by our professional regulator in autumn of this year.

There are a small number of challenges when developing and implementing a social work award. They are not insurmountable but are worth noting as we try to work collectively to resolve the ongoing issues of social work recruitment and retention. Among the challenges, educational providers are dependent on the goodwill of services to accept and supervise students for professional placement learning opportunities. It is a significant challenge to secure even a small number of placements and this is prohibiting increasing our student numbers. Students on newly developed professional regulated programmes commence without the assurance that the programme will be successful as part of the validation process. This has a personal and financial risk for potential students and impacts on the numbers applying and the numbers we recruit. Any changes to the offering of an approved programme, for example a move from a full-time to a part-time delivery model, requires a new validation process. If one of the offerings is unsuccessful both may be affected by this. This is because the specific award title, that is, the masters of arts in social work, and the academic institute is recorded on the approved qualifications by-law. As is normal for all students who wish to return to full-time studies, there are cost implications both in terms of fees and maintenance. Students who were in employment in the previous year may be above the threshold of grant funding for the first year, hence the financial burden is increased for that year. The suggestion to introduce funded bursaries would be welcomed, provided it would not impact on a student securing grant funding.

While recruitment is one part of the social work shortage puzzle, retention is the other. This was discussed by the Irish Association of Social Workers at a meeting of the joint committee last month. We support suggestions put forward by our colleagues and reiterate the importance of quality supervision, streamlining of work practices, and manageable caseloads as key factors in any successful retention strategy. We add that recruitment and retention strategies need to co-exist as one impacts directly on the other.

In conclusion, we acknowledge that this is a complex, multifactorial problem and that any sustainable resolution will require many different and inter-related strategies. The team and I had, and have, a responsibility to our potential students and our region to provide appropriate education and learning opportunities, to the required standard, in an area where employment needs exist. Social work is one of these areas. We welcome the opportunity to be part of any resolution strategy.