Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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222. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if there will there be an adequate training budget to meet the three-year training requirements for participants in health and social care services community employment schemes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4961/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department hopes to commence rolling out a new Health and Social Care Programme for CE participants during the course of this year. This programme will ensure participants have access to qualifications in the health and social care sector in order to take up employment opportunities in this area and to support local service delivery. The Department has been consulting with key stakeholders and service providers in this sector in preparation for the implementation of the programme and on-going support will be provided to the CE Sponsoring Organisations who manage these schemes.

As part of the programme, it is intended that CE participants who work directly with service users in the health and social care sector, will be provided with a dedicated programme comprising formal learning and supervised work experience. This programme will lead to a FETAC Level 5 Major Award in the health and social care sector which is the minimum entry requirement for a social care practitioner.

Work on rolling out the programme and finalising what training budget will be required to support it will continue over the coming months.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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223. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if the positions of participants on community employment schemes in the health and social care area remain with the existing main sponsor groups, as is the current situation throughout the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4962/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Department hopes to commence rolling out a new Health and Social Care Programme for CE participants during the course of this year. The programme will ensure that participants have adequate access to qualifications in the health and social care sector in order to take up employment opportunities in this area and to support local service delivery. The Department has been consulting with key stakeholders and service providers in this sector in preparation for the roll-out of the programme, and this will continue. On-going support will be provided to the CE Sponsoring Organisations who manage these schemes throughout the process.

The main consideration in determining this approach is to ensure that CE participants who are working directly with service users are adequately trained and receive the appropriate supervision that pertains to this sector.