Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

5. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps she intends to take to meet general staffing shortages in the social work service to ensure all children in care have an allocated social worker, and to address information technology deficiencies in the service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23371/16]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to outline the action she is taking to address the urgent problem of the recruitment and retention of social workers, particularly with regard to children in care. Will she outline the steps she is taking to address the deficiencies in the information technology system that is supposed to support the work of the social work service?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I strongly support Tusla's Survival to Sustainability plan. This is a three-year plan that includes provision of extra staffing to meet critical service concerns. This includes addressing children with no allocated social worker. The plan involves increasing overall staffing levels in Tusla by 323 whole-time equivalents, with an investment of €19.4 million over the period 2016 to 2018. We allocated €6.1 million for this purpose in 2016 for unallocated cases. This will fund a net increase of 168 social workers by the end of this year. It will be important to recruit other grades also to ensure an efficient service with the right mix of staffing, including family support staff and administrative support. At the time of devising the plan in September 2015, this meant Tusla needed to recruit more than 500 social workers by end 2016 when account is taken of the fact that it was carrying approximately 200 vacancies and that an average of 12 people leave each month due to retirement and other reasons.

Tusla has been proactive in its efforts to meet its recruitment targets in a competitive environment. At the end of May 2016, there were 1,512 social work whole-time equivalents in place. Approximately 100 of these relate to the strategic decision by Tusla to convert temporary agency posts into three-year fixed-term contracts to improve stability and work force allocation. Therefore, Tusla still needs to recruit 300 social workers between now and the end of 2016 to reach its very challenging target. In this regard, Tusla ran a recent graduate campaign to attract new graduates and this resulted in over 300 graduate applications. Interviews are currently under way.

I have spoken about the need for Tusla to invest in information and communications technology, ICT, infrastructure in order to support staff in their work. I am committed to the roll-out of a national child care information system.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the information, but it does not address the question I asked about the steps being taken by the Minister to address the problems associated with the recruitment and retention of staff. Budget allocations and recruitment campaigns, etc., are very welcome but there is a fundamental problem within our social work services, as we find it very difficult to recruit and retain staff.

In the recent past, vast amounts of money have been spent in international recruitment, which is unsatisfactory, by and large. There are many very young social workers coming here from abroad and there may well be cultural differences in that regard. These people are on their world tour, more or less. We cannot really staff an importance service like social work on that basis. Does the Minister accept that there is a problem in the lack of support being provided to young graduate social workers coming into the service?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

With regard to recruitment, the Tusla graduate campaign has resulted in more than 300 graduate applications and interviews are currently under way. At the same time, social work recruitment from existing panels continues. The graduate campaign has been very well received and planning for a 2017 campaign has commenced and will include colleges in Ireland and the UK. Tusla intends to work with third level colleges with a view to increasing the number of social work places from the current 200 to 250 places in the Republic of Ireland. This is a medium-term strategy, as it would take a number of years for the impact to be felt.

Retention was also mentioned by the Deputy. Tusla is developing an employee assistance programme in order to support the management of caseloads. It is also ensuring that staff have appropriate ICT equipment and infrastructure to support the work they are doing.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is quite unsatisfactory because it is not addressing the key point of structural problems within the social work service that mean people move on quickly, which makes for a bad service. The key problems for children in care, in particular, include the high turnover of social workers. Further, there are 464 children currently in care who do not have an allocated social worker. Will the Minister give her urgent attention to a number of measures to recruit and retain staff? One of those is to restructure the social work teams in place and to restore the senior practitioner role which was taken away. Another measure is to provide investment. Rather than international recruitment, which is so expensive, will she invest in some incentives for social workers to stay, such as paid extended leave? The other area is ensuring there is a proper career structure so that we can hold onto social workers and they are not going off abroad.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister has 30 seconds to reply.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have outlined a proactive approach in terms of the recruitment campaign. I hear what Deputy Shortall is saying about additional measures that can be taken in terms of retention and support of social workers in the agency. The Deputy is well aware of the challenging child protection and welfare issues social workers face every day, be it on the telephone or coming through their doors. It is tough work. I hear what the Deputy is saying on additional measures to support retention and thank her for her suggestions. I will bring them to the attention of Tusla.