Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tusla has taken a proactive approach to the recruitment of social workers in a difficult and challenging recruitment environment.

There is a shortage of social workers not only in Ireland but also in England, the US, Canada and Australia, as has been noted by HIQA. We made modest progress during 2019. Tusla has had a net increase of 65 social workers since the start of the year, and the turnover rate for social workers has fallen from nearly 9% in 2018 to 7.5% by 31 October this year.

It has been clear to me for some time that we must identify ways to increase the supply of social work graduates in Ireland. Our social workers are the linchpin of so many of our essential front-line services for the most vulnerable in our society.

For some time I have been encouraging Tusla to develop a strategic multi-annual workforce plan, which would reflect the realities of the labour market and the current limited supply of social workers. I am pleased that Tusla finalised a strategic workforce planning model in 2019 which I understand will be rolled out over the coming years. The model will seek to deliver on a strategic focus for Tusla, with a gradual transition to multidisciplinary teams consisting of the optimum mix of skills across social work, social care, therapeutic staff, family support, education welfare, and administrative support.

I welcome the focus on recruitment and retention as part of the roll-out of the strategic workforce implementation plan, assisting staff well-being through the assessment of workplace stressors and critical incident exposure in the workplace.

My Department has also taken the initiative to establish a social work education group which provides a forum for Tusla and other stakeholders, including the HSE and the Probation Service, to explore and take possible actions to influence the future supply of social workers.

A key initial priority identified by the group is the streamlining of student placements which does not happen at the moment. My Department has commissioned research to identify ways and alternative approaches to streamline this process through working with stakeholders. The final research report will be discussed at the next meeting of the group in January of next year.

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