Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this question and we had some engagement on it previously. When I look at the whole area of health and social care, there are 26 professions that I have come across so far in terms of the breadth of courses and professions that need to be addressed. We have to ensure there is an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified professionals in disciplines required for disability teams and the therapy professions operating across the health, children and education sectors.

This is a key priority for me and for my Department. It is important to say that the provision of such programmes in the further and higher education system must have regard to overall workforce plans which are the responsibility of relevant agencies and Departments to develop for their sectors. It is a responsibility of agencies and Departments to say “This is what we need for our workforce and this is our workforce planning”, and it is then my sector's responsibility to dovetail with that and make sure we can meet those needs. Such plans need to take account of planned service expansion, retirement and improvements in the retention of existing staff and changes in the mix of staff, which employers are best placed to understand and influence.

The programme for Government commits the Department of Health to working with the education sectors, regulators and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service.

Significant engagement is ongoing between my Department, the Department of Health, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the Department of Education to develop a joined-up approach to meet system-level demand in therapeutic disciplines.

Health and social care programmes are, by their nature, complex in delivery. The availability of appropriate placements and placement supports is a key enabler of expansion. A working group, including representation from the Department of Health, the HSE and CORU as well as the higher education sector, is now in place specifically to examine how placements can be secured to facilitate greater numbers of training places. That will be key.

I want to build on the progress made this year in respect of medicine places, and I am optimistic we can do so. We jointly agreed an approach in that regard and got on with it. The HEA, on my behalf, will be going out to the sector in March to ask what it can do specifically on the disciplines and therapies raised by the Deputy. There will be a scanning exercise in March in that regard.

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