John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter and the Minister for being here to respond to the debate. It is fair to say the title that has been given to the matter raised is an abbreviated version of the question that was asked. It was prompted by the publication last week by HIQA of the overview report of statutory foster care services 2019-2020. On its publication last week, the report got some coverage. It was very critical in places of the services that are provided in parts of the country, in particular in the community healthcare organisation, CHO, that covers my home area of Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary, in terms of access to social workers for children in foster care and families providing foster care in the region.

Some of the statistics were very stark. The initial part of the report from 2019 described how more than one fifth of children in care in Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary were not allocated social workers for long-term charge of their case. The number of children in 2019 was 72, which is an incredibly high figure, behind which is hidden 72 young lives that are placed in the charge of the State, in this case under the supervision of Tusla and social workers employed by it. The report went on to describe the provision of services in Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary as "chaotic", with frequent changes in allocated social workers to individual cases.

The figures for 2020 were better, in that the number of children without an allocated social worker for their long-term care in Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary was reduced to 30, but that still hides the fact we are talking about 30 young lives that need to be protected. In many circumstances, most of the children who find themselves in foster care are in the most vulnerable category of children you could possibly deal with, and 30 is still an unacceptably high figure.

What was possibly even more disturbing about the report is that while one in five children in 2019 in the Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary area did not have an allocated long-term social worker, the figures for south Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare were 19%, in the mid-west, 18% and for the midlands, 17%. It is fair to say the report was critical of Tusla. The report indicated that in the change between 2019 and 2020, the figures were moving in a downward direction but were still alarmingly high. I know there are ongoing challenges for Tusla in workforce recruitment and retention, in this case of social workers to deal with children in foster care.

I welcome the Minister's views and direction as to ensuring that figure of 30 can be reduced as soon as possible to zero for Carlow, Kilkenny, and south Tipperary, as well as the other regions of the country.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for this Topical Issue and welcome the opportunity to speak on what is an extremely important matter. There are approximately 6,000 children in care in the State today. The majority of these children live with foster carers and a small number live in residential care. Appropriate oversight of foster care placements is important to ensure that the needs of children are met and that foster carers are supported.

Under the National Standards for Foster Care 2003 and the Placement of Children in Care Regulations 1995, children in care are required to have a written care plan and an allocated social worker, while foster carers are required to have a dedicated link worker. These dedicated staff members have a key role to play in placement stability and ensuring that the evolving needs of children are met. In addition, regular contact with social workers is a protective factor for vulnerable children. Children should feel that their social worker knows and understands them and takes their concerns seriously. Where a child does not have a social worker, it can end up causing frustration for the child, and it puts additional pressure on the social work area to ensure that planning and child in care reviews happen in a timely manner.

The Deputy specifically refers to the Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary area. HIQA's inspections of services in this Tulsa area. including most recently in October 2020, clearly demonstrate pressures within the service, including staffing shortages and unallocated cases. Over recent years, this area has been one of five with a disproportionately high number of unallocated cases when compared to the remaining 12 Tusla regions, and the Deputy made reference to these five regions. Issues in the most recent HIQA inspections were specifically linked to vacancies in the area at the time the inspections took place. Since then, Tusla has worked intensively to address issues within this area. It is important to note that HIQA has accepted the action plan Tusla has provided in response to these inspections. Among the key actions were the prioritising of recruitment of social workers for the children in care team and assigning a social care worker and a link worker to every child in care who was unallocated. These cases are monitored on a weekly basis by the principal social worker, and children's statutory care plans are kept up to date.

The cyberattack has impacted on Tusla's performance reporting. I am going to follow up with Tusla on the matter and will write to the Deputy directly to give the most up-to-date account in terms of meeting the action plan.

It is encouraging to note that the inspections also found evidence of highly-dedicated social workers and other Tusla staff who are clearly committed to providing quality services to children and families. Inspectors also found that most children are happy with their foster carers and the vast majority of foster care placements are stable, which is so important for these young people. HIQA, as the regulatory body, plays a key role in ensuring that services are accountable.

The recruitment and retention of social workers is a priority for Tusla, requiring investment now and into the future. In some areas, including the area to which the Deputy refers, there are staff shortages on social work teams. It is clear from Tusla's own performance reporting and regulatory inspections that these staffing shortages are impacting service delivery in a minority of Tusla’s regions.

It is important to note that children whose care is unallocated still receive a social work service. These children are looked after by social work team leaders and duty teams, and are reallocated to a named social worker as soon as possible. It is Tusla policy that no child without an allocated social worker should be placed with foster carers who do not have a link worker.

In terms of the measures Tusla has taken to improve recruitment, it now has its own in-house recruitment service and actively engages with third-level institutions to attract new graduates. Almost two thirds of social work graduates this year were recruited directly by Tusla. In addition, Tusla has had success in turning agency staff into full-time staff.

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. On that last point, I would be interested to know if Tusla is actively engaged in trying to recruit Irish graduates who are overseas. We are all public representatives and we are all social workers with a small s and w, and we deal with people who are often at the most difficult times in their lives. I understand it when the Minister says that unallocated cases still receive social work support. I know he understands the point. In his comments, he spoke about the link that can be established between a long-term social worker who is attached to a specific case and a child or a foster family. That leads to good relationships and, I would argue, probably also to better outcomes for children and foster families.

In conclusion, I acknowledge that Tusla has taken remedial action but the figure of 30 unallocated cases in Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary is way too high. I thank the Minister for stating he is going to respond directly and follow up on some of the points that have been raised. I also ask him to ask Tusla, when it is dealing with recruitment, to identify graduates in different parts of the sciences who left the country in the last number of years, before Covid and before travel restrictions were implemented. I am sure some, though not all, would be very interested in a long-term career in social work and employment with Tusla in the State.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. He is right that there are a significant number of Irish social work graduates in the UK, Australia and other jurisdictions. Tusla has been particularly targeting those in the UK, using professional journals and so on as part of its advertising campaign. Tusla has had real success and 2020 was the first year for a long time that the net number of incoming social workers was greater than the number of those exiting, which is because of that conversion. It was taking a lot of agency staff and giving them permanent or full-time contracts, which was obviously very attractive to many graduates. The scheme it has brought in this year, directly targeting fresh graduates coming out of the universities and offering them a contract immediately, again, even if it is only for a number of years, is very attractive to get that initial element of experience.

Of course, we have been happy to support Tusla. The Government gave Tusla very significant support last year, with an additional €66 million in funding, the biggest bump in funding it had received since the organisation’s foundation. That was a recognition, particularly last year, that Tusla needed support because it is dealing with the most vulnerable children, whether it is children in residential care or children in foster care, as the Deputy has identified.

The Deputy is right to raise this issue. Whether it is 72 children in 2019 or 30 in 2020, it is still too many, although it is good to see the numbers are coming down. HIQA has accepted Tusla's action plan in respect of Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary. We will get direct responses to the Deputy on those issue issues so we can, hopefully, see a continuing fall in the number of unallocated cases.