Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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245. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to implement a comprehensive system of clinical supervision by fully qualified supervisors for Tusla social workers in order to support their mental health and wellbeing and in order to improve social worker retention across the service. [49643/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy for her question as I am concerned that there needs to be ongoing attention to the welfare and retention of child protection social workers. I can inform the Deputy that Tusla has a range of policies for social work staff, including one on Supervision. This is allied to a Workload Management policy and others including; Health and Safety and Lone Working. Clinical supervision is well established among social workers in Tusla with a history of implementation over the last 30 years. There has been ongoing training in a specialised social work supervision model. Tusla has maintained this emphasis on supervision and the model is evolving in the context of the Signs of Safety approach, which includes group supervision.

Regular, quality clinical supervision is one important aspect of retention, as is workload. It is not just the number of cases that a social worker carries, a review of the workload also looks at the intensity and risk involved in cases, and time engaged with court processes and travel commitments. The caseload management model assists social workers and managers in keeping caseloads within manageable limits.

Tusla require 130 new social workers each year to replace workers who retire or resign. This amounts to a significant issue for social work within Tusla and contributes to retention challenges. Tusla is examining the skill mix on children in care and child protection teams to support social workers focus on core functions.