Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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126. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the conversations he and his Department have had with the Department of Health in relation to increasing clinical spaces in mental health care to allow and develop the amount of mental health spaces at third level. [26485/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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My Department is strongly committed to supporting the health and welfare of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce, and support a range of clinical teams in our health services.

Healthcare programmes are by their nature complex in delivery. The availability of appropriate placements and placement supports is a key enabler of expansion. A working group, including representation from the Department of Health, HSE and CORU, as well as the higher education sector, has been established to specifically examine how placements can be secured to facilitate greater numbers of training places.

Officials in my Department are engaging with Higher Education Institutions to explore possible areas of expansion of existing health care programmes, including mental health nursing programmes and clinical and counselling psychology. My officials are also engaging with the Department of Health as these additional places require the allocation of resources, and require placements to be put in place by the HSE and the Department of Health.

Nursing, which would include mental health nursing, was one of the disciplines included in the recent HEA exercise to identify where capacity could be built in the higher education sector. I will shortly bring a memorandum to Government to outline the opportunities identified, the costs arising with any expansion and to outline the engagements I have had on the options outlined with my colleague the Minister for Health

This builds upon the significant increase in medicine, nursing and health and social care professional course places that has been introduced since my Department was set up just three years ago.

In this context, the Department is engaging on an ongoing basis with the Department of Health, Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth, the Department of Education and other relevant stakeholders with regard to how the further and higher education system can best support workforce planning for the delivery of essential public services.

We have already made good progress in key healthcare areas, for example in putting in place a multi-annual plan to deliver 200 more medical places by 2026. In March this year, the HEA submitted its Expression of Interest recommendations to the Minister. This process sought proposals from Higher Education Institutionsinterested in building capacity in Dentistry, Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, and Veterinarywith capability to expand existing courses or create new courses in academic year 2024-25 or 2025-26.

The provision of healthcare programmes is complex and involves many different parts of the system. It is important that any increases in places are done in a sustainable way with an evidence based understanding of the future needs of the health system.

Disciplines such as medicine, nursing and a range of allied health professions are relevant to mental health but also to a range of other areas in health and social care. It is for the Department of Health and the HSE to undertake workforce planning for both the overall health services and for particular care areas. My Department is working closely with the Department of Health to translate those workforce plans into the projected demand for health graduates and to substantially increase enrolments in heath related courses, together with expansion in the required number of clinical placements within the health service for those on such programmes.

The national health and social care professions office in the HSE completed a report in 2021 which recommended the development of a workforce plan for psychology, including educational psychology. My Department understands that implementation of the recommendations is being examined by the HSE. My Department is also engaging with the Department of Education on its workforce needs, including for the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the HEA ran an Expression of Interest process to identify options to build capacity in Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, as well as Medicine, Nursing and Dentistry. I have received the report from the HEA on this process, and am currently reviewing it in conjunction with my Cabinet colleagues the Minister for Health and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Two of the key criteria set out in the Expression of Interest form requested the institutions responding to give a rationale for the ‘location and regional relevance’ and ‘relevance to institutional, regional and national strategy’, and the resultant data has been collated in the HEA's report.

As this process is still ongoing, it is not possible to say at this stage how many places might be created, or what institutions might be involved.

My Department together with the Department of Health, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, will continue to engage closely on this matter to consider these options, having regard to workforce plans and projected demand for graduates.