Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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32. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps her Department is taking to address the high rates of attrition and exhaustion among social care workers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31220/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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554. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps her Department is taking to address the high rates of attrition and exhaustion among social care workers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31233/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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What steps is the Department taking to address the high rates of attrition and exhaustion among social care workers? Would the Minister mind making a statement on the matter?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 32 and 554 together.

The well-being of all staff, including social care workers, is of great concern to me and to their employing organisations. I also would like to note that Tusla had a national social work turnover rate of 8.4% in the first few months of the year, with some areas exceeding this. The national figure, however, compares favourably with other jurisdictions, such as England, where the 2016 turnover rate was approximately 15%. Tusla has a health and well-being and employee assistance programme department as part of its human resources since January 2017. Tusla also has a critical incident stress management programme in place. Training and supports are provided on an ongoing basis to all staff. It appears that Tusla’s efforts are paying dividends. The latest absenteeism rate for April 2017 was 6.38% for social care workers.

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That shows a positive trend when compared to April 2016 when the absenteeism rate was 7.71%. Similarly, absenteeism at Oberstown Children Detention Campus has followed a downward trend in response to management’s support of staff. It includes the availability of the employee assistance programme, an organisational psychologist and the introduction of a volunteer peer support workers programme accredited by the Carlow Institute of Technology.

As the Deputy is aware, Tusla has been allocated Exchequer funding of €713 million in 2017. That represents an increase of €37 million on its funding in 2016 and will allow Tusla to proceed with an ambitious ongoing programme of service reform and transformation. The programme is under way, with a particular focus on governance, risk management, health and safety, quality assurance and service monitoring to support the delivery of the best front-line services.

Tusla continues to evaluate management and the staff skills mix with a view to enhancing services. It includes reviewing the roles of family support workers, social care workers in the community and administrative structures to support the delivery of a more efficient and cost-effective set of services. These are the measures I believe address the concerns raised in the Deputy's question.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for her comprehensive answer and welcome everything she said. One of the reasons I tabled my question was to get the answer the Minister has given, namely, that supports are available for social care workers and all those involved with Tusla. The other reason relates to the children who lose a social care worker or when a social care worker, having accessed the supports, no longer wants to continue working because the demand is so great. I asked one of two representatives who appeared before the committee recently the number of social care cases they would expect to have. They could not answer us; they could not say whether they should have 35, 55 or 65 cases for the simple reason that every case is significant and must be examined on a case by case basis. The Minister has said a 15% turnaround rate in this respect is comparable with that in other countries, but when we take workers out of the system, we let down children. We are taking away key supports, about which I have a serious concern in terms of meeting future needs, and it is coming across in HIQA reports. Good staff are walking away from the job because we do not offer key supports to retain them such as a good ICT communications system. Retention is crucial in an industry in which only 230 qualify annually.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I appreciate the Deputy's comments. What I have been doing is identifying the measures Tusla is putting in place to address concerns. Social workers, social care workers and even administrative staff working with Tusla are working at the coalface. These are hugely difficult and challenging jobs. As the Deputy identified, in terms of staff, it is important to pay attention to concerns about attrition rates, exhaustion, etc. I am identifying some of the measures Tusla is putting in place in order to do this, including evaluations that look at enhanced job roles and increasing multidisciplinary team working in an effort to alleviate pressure as part of an ongoing reform programme.

I particularly welcome Tusla's focus in 2017 on leadership development and supporting the forthcoming workforce development plan through learning and development and succession planning, for which I have asked. I talk about the issue of workforce development planning when I meet its representatives every quarter. I will have another such meeting with the executive relatively soon. That is a critical aspect of Tusla's planning for some of the issues raised by the Deputy.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Tusla needs to think outside the box in this regard. While we acknowledge that it is under pressure in recruiting staff into the organisation, we should consider the opportunities available in terms of co-operating with advocacy groups. I am talking about EPIC and the role of YAP Ireland. We should engage more with these advocacy groups because they have a skill set to support Tusla. We should also consider the likes of Sugru, a not for profit organisation that has been set up. There are various groups to which Tusla can reach out to work with that can help with lower priority cases, which would leave the expert skilled staff free to deal with priority cases. That will allow us to get to the core issues as quickly as possible and, importantly, retain the good people we have attracted into Tusla. Retention is critical if we are to develop Tusla and it is to continue to be the child protection agency we want into the future.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Deputy has made very good suggestions and I am aware that Tusla is doing some of it. As she identified, it could be doing more, particularly in the various regional settings, in which, of course, I believe. I will certainly raise the matter with those involved in Tusla when I meet them. Proceeding in that way takes planning, time, etc. However, some of the Deputy's suggestions might result in finding ways to save time and ensure people involved in organisations within the civil society sector are able to complement the work done by a statutory agency. That would be welcome.