Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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204. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 288 of 8 December 2022, if he will also request the presidents of social care providers in receipt of public funding to provide an update on the CORU accreditation status of each course to his Department to ensure adequate oversight; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62552/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Higher Education Institutions provide the pipeline of graduates into social care work and are keen to work with the regulator to assure their programmes and ensure the registration of graduates of social care programmes upon completion of their degrees. I fully respect CORU's role as an independent regulator and also fully support the regulation of the profession.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous and manage their own academic affairs including engagement with regulators in relation to professional accreditation of their programmes. These engagements happen directly between CORU and the HEIs. This process is continuing, with engagements ongoing, and should be allowed to continue.

My officials wrote to the Presidents of Social Care Providers in receipt of public funding in September 2022 asking for a communication to issue to all Social Care students providing an update on the CORU accreditation status of each course. The HEIs communicated the status of their programmes to their students and also updated the relevant programme pages on their websites indicating their current CORU status at that time

Higher Education Institutes are responsible for communicating clearly and honestly with their students in relation to the accreditation status of any programmes they offer. HEIs will continue to update the information on their websites as they move through the various stages of the CORU approval process and will update my department at the appropriate time.