Dáil debates
Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions
Health Services Staff
9:50 pm
Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
59. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth what engagement his Department has had with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science regarding the provision of additional college places for speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, child and adolescent mental health psychologists and social workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32242/23]
Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
One of the biggest challenges in the disability healthcare sector relates to having people available to deliver the much-needed services to clients. A great deal is involved in training people and preparing them to deliver a service. Has the Minister of State engaged with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to increase the number of training places in colleges and to bring forward additional occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, social workers, child and adolescent mental health psychologists and other essential posts?
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
The Department is engaging with the Department for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science regarding the provision of additional college places to address the enormous challenges in recruiting health and social care professionals in disability services. To expand the pipeline of health and social care personnel, a cross-departmental group headed up by my Department has been established to consider the current and future supply need for disciplines of staff working in disability services. The group's membership includes representatives of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science along with the Department of Health, the HSE, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the Department of Education. It will identify which disciplines of staff need increased supply within disability services, how many staff are needed in each discipline and at which grade, and how the disciplines should be prioritised, along with the numbers of graduate places by discipline in higher education institutes, HEIs, the HEIs' capacity to deliver on current and future need, and employers’ capacity to provide necessary placements as required by CORU. That is the real challenge, because there are not enough therapists in post to provide that clinical governance and oversight at the moment given our teams are severely depleted.
On further education courses that may be considered to upskill people, a number of short courses related to the disciplines I mentioned, excluding speech and language therapy, have been identified. As for speech and language therapy courses, the Department is currently engaged with SOLAS in respect of the provision of speech and language assistant courses planned for 2023.
I fully recognise this area requires specific focus and attention to support the delivery of disability services. In my follow-up response, I might expand on why it is not just about courses but also about using our current talent pool and giving them additional opportunities such as master’s degree programmes.
Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
About 150 students graduate in speech and language therapy from five colleges each year, along with a further 150 graduates in occupational therapy. The figure for psychologist posts vary, given people have to go on and get a PhD. It is a longer, more difficult and more expensive route of qualification and that, too, needs to be examined in order that people can reach it. Likewise, about 200 people graduate as social workers.
At the same time, there are large vacancy rates in the HSE, at 36% for speech and language therapists, 40% for occupational therapists and 39% for psychologists. The Minister with responsibility for higher education has announced additional places for medicine, pharmacy and a number of other courses, to come into being in the next two years. Is there any indication of similar places becoming available in the next college year for these other essential disciplines?
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
We will receive approximately 189 posts. Working with the Minister, Deputy Harris, we are looking at our education and training boards, ETBs, in the context of the assistant grades, and some ETBs are incredibly proactive in that regard. In respect of physiotherapists, 73 assistant grade therapists qualified at levels 5 and 6 at the ETBs in Cavan-Monaghan, Dublin city, Dún Laoghaire, Kerry and Limerick. That amounts to 85 in total who have qualified as assistants. They are a great support to physiotherapists at a senior level because the senior therapist can write a programme and the assistant can deliver it within the six weeks. They can work in special schools and provide the space we need to expand. ETBs have a huge role to play through level 5 and 6 courses for the assistant grades.
Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I thank the Minister of State for focusing on colleges. It is going to take a number of years for people to qualify through those courses. I understand that, in the very short term, efforts are being made to increase the availability of critical skills employment permits to allow people from other areas in the world to be brought in to fill some of the posts. Are those posts and permits being taken up or is it too restrictive? Is there an opportunity to improve the process in order that additional people can be brought in to fill the posts in the very short term and deliver essential services to people throughout the country?
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
To be frank, my crisis is now. While we are working to recruit internationally and the HSE is working hard to put in relocation packages to support that complement, I am also looking at the master's degree programmes. The class of 2020 who qualified in science could pivot immediately into physiotherapy, occupational therapy or speech and language therapy. Similarly, I am looking at postgraduate courses in psychology, through which we could fill a portion of teams, provide clinical oversight and, at the same time, deliver interventions.
We are also working in tandem with ETBs. I have named a half-dozen ETBs that are on the page of delivering courses that, although they last only one year, keep people in college and in service. We need to see more of that. There are a large number of ETBs and we need to have a whole-of-education approach, not a one-prong approach relating just to ETBs. It is needs to be across the gamut and include working on international recruitment.