Pause in recruitment delayed 60 workers taking up posts in child- protection services, writes CARL O'BRIEN
SIXTY WORKERS who were due to be hired last year to strengthen child-protection services are now taking up their posts, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has said.
On foot of the recommendations of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Government pledged to appoint additional social workers. However, during the middle of 2011 it emerged that health authorities had introduced a recruitment pause for hiring of up to 1,400 staff – including social workers – as a result of financial pressures facing the organisation.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Ms Fitzgerald said offers had recently been made to 55 individuals and the remaining posts would be filled shortly.
“The 60 posts have been cleared completely. The budget is in place and the latest information available from the HSE indicates that 55 additional posts have been filled or accepted. A further five posts were due to be offered to candidates over recent days and filled very shortly afterwards,” she said.
Ms Fitzgerald said the additional workers would be targeted at priority areas of the service as identified by the national director of children and family services at the HSE, Gordon Jeyes.
Some 200 additional social workers were hired last year on foot of the recommendations of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. It is likely most posts will go into frontline child-protection services, where pressure is most acute on social workers.
In recent months, the independent chairwoman of a group established to review deaths and serious incidents involving children known to social services expressed concern about pressure on frontline social work services.
Dr Helen Buckley of Trinity College Dublin said this meant many social work teams were unable to respond quickly to many child welfare referrals.She also said the lack of co-operation between different agencies responsible for providing services to children at risk was an issue that needed to be addressed.
Ms Fitzgerald said the recruitment of the additional social workers was one element of a broader change agenda within the HSE which would deliver better outcomes for children and families.
These reforms will involve the establishment of a new child and family support agency which will provide a dedicated focus on child protection.
“This is something we did not have in the past when child protection was part of the broader HSE remit,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
A taskforce is overseeing the design and delivery of the new child and family support agency, which will be separate from the executive. This is likely to be established in 2013.
It is understood that, in the meantime, a transitional agency will operate within the HSE with a ringfenced budget under the leadership of Mr Jeyes.
Ms Fitzgerald said the new body would play a crucial role in delivering what she hoped would be a “world-class Irish service” for family support, child welfare and protection services.