Professor Robbie Gilligan:

To add to what my colleagues said, the issue of capacity in the employer system to take on students is a critical part of the whole jigsaw. When we approach agencies that take our students we find they often say they do not have desk space, they do not have spare capacity and they are short of staff who can take on supervision responsibilities for the students. I am not saying that as a criticism. These are the realities with which we are dealing. We need to view this in quite a systemic way. There needs to be investment in the infrastructure. Physical space in many cases is a barrier. These agencies cannot accommodate additional students because they have been hiring additional staff who have filled any space that was there to be filled in office accommodation. This may appear to be a small matter but these are the practical barriers of which we want the committee to be aware. Another issue is the staff time involved. Student supervision and support and learning requires staff time. It must be seen as something that must be invested in. If we are to increase the capacity for training across the system we must invest in the infrastructure in terms of staff support and physical space. These are practical but crucial issues that make the difference in whether we find placements for our students and where we find them.