James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the end of December 2015, there were 1,402 whole-time equivalent social workers employed by Tusla. Tusla has been working in recent months to recruit some 239 more social workers to fill existing vacancies, and a number of these have now commenced employment. As the recruitment of social workers progresses, Tusla engages agency social workers to address staff shortages. At the end of December 2015, Tusla had 185 such temporary staff engaged to assist child protection and welfare teams.

I instructed Tusla to carry out an audit of unallocated cases and, following submission of its proposals, I asked that it would put forward a business case as to how the address the problem. It did that, and I was very pleased to be able to secure it the money it needs, namely, a sum of €6.1 million for 2016 to specifically address risk associated with these cases. Tusla intends to recruit 201 staff in 2016 in this regard, 168 of whom relate to social work staffing. The remaining staff will be recruited to provide important business support functions, such as clerical and ICT supports. In other words, we want social workers dealing with clients, not having to hand-write reports on jotters, with no clerical or ICT support.

It should be noted that all cases brought to the attention of child protection and welfare teams are either allocated to a social worker or reviewed regularly by a senior social worker and any issue requiring an urgent response is acted upon immediately. Furthermore, other staff within the agency, including family support workers and social care workers, are in constant contact with children known to its services while they are awaiting allocation to a professional social worker.

Tusla's data indicate that at the end of October 2015, 6,411 cases were awaiting allocation, and of these, 1,351 cases were categorised as high priority. It is important to note that a high priority designation does not equate to a child being at high risk of harm, as reported in the media, and each case referred to a duty social work team is screened, regularly reviewed and re-prioritised as necessary.

The additional funding of €6.1 million which I made available to Tusla in 2016 will make a vital contribution to the filling of social worker vacancies and helping to address serious concerns regarding unallocated cases.

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