Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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86. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to respond to the recently published report on behalf of Tusla regarding special care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32386/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the publication of the Tusla commissioned Report of the External Review Group on Special Care. The External Review Group was tasked with examining the operation of special care services in Ireland and the report details several recommendations for its future delivery.

A number of these recommendations relate to staff remuneration, retention and recruitment. Officials from my Department continue to work with Tusla to support them in addressing these and the immediate staffing shortages in special care provision.

Following extensive engagements between my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform a new grade and pay scale for Special Care has been sanctioned in an effort to increase staff numbers.

This new Tusla Special Care Worker grade offers a significantly improved salary scale, offering 19.4% higher pay at top-of-scale compared to the Social Care Worker grade. It offers 3.4% higher pay at top-of-scale than the Social Care Leader grade. Tusla commenced advertisement of this new grade in January 2025 and is in the process of onboarding the first successful candidates.

My Department also supports the ongoing work by Tusla to develop and introduce a Social Care Worker apprenticeship scheme. The scheme is currently being formulated in collaboration with relevant stakeholders including Tusla and the Higher Education Institutes and will serve as a further pipeline of recruitment into social care settings, including Special Care.

I understand Tusla has also made extensive efforts to address the challenge of staff retention including the establishment of a dedicated retention team to focus on key initiatives. This includes the launch of a coaching network for both managers and staff to provide support in achieving goals and enhancing career progression opportunities.

Additionally, a Violence, Harassment, and Aggression (VHA) taskforce has been established to ensure appropriate training and supports are available to staff working in challenging environments. Tusla have developed a Strategy for the management of VHA in special care units. This includes a pilot of safety pods in one centre which resulted in a significant reduction in floor restraints and positive feedback from staff, young people, families and professionals. The roll out of the policy has since commenced in the other two centres.

Considerable work continues to be undertaken to address the complex challenges in the provision of special care.

While the operation of special care and the provision of special care beds is the statutory responsibility of Tusla, my Department is actively engaging with Tusla in relation to the issues impacting on special care.

A record investment of over €1.2 billion was secured for Tusla in Budget 2025. This builds on a significant increase in Tusla’s allocation in 2024.

An additional €1 million has been made available in Budget 2025 to support Tusla to address staffing issues in special care. Furthermore, an additional €1.55 million was also made available for the provision of supplementary step-down placements and the capital funding to purchase, renovate and equip those units.

My Department will continue to provide support to Tusla to address the current very significant challenges impacting on this service, and examine longer term actions for the future provision of special care. In this we will be informed by the Report of the External Review Group on Special Care.