Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 November 2025
770. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she is aware of concerns among Tusla staff in relation to changes being brought in from January 2026 which will see social care workers completing assessments on children, which only social workers are qualified to carry out, if she is aware of issues being raised with these changes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65560/25]
View answerThe Tusla Integrated Reform Programme is a significant change initiative which aims to improve the way in which Tusla delivers services to children and families and improve Tusla’s staff experience. Regions and Areas will be more equitable in size and will ensure that the totality of resources are targeted to where they most needed. The workforce will be multidisciplinary ensuring there is a diverse knowledge and skills base to respond to the multifaceted needs of children and families in Ireland today.
Like other European agencies Tusla is experiencing significant difficulties in recruiting and retaining social work practitioners and Tusla areas currently have a significant number of social work vacancies that it cannot fill, creating an emergency situation in some teams.
This has resulted in a risk management approach being adopted leading to areas prioritising social work resources to children where their knowledge and skill is most required and then maximising the knowledge and skill of other professions where they can competently respond to children needs. All this work continues to be overseen by social work managers.
Tusla wants to ensure that all professions operate within their proficiencies and are supported to develop and enhance that knowledge and skills overtime through continued professional development. Social workers and social care leader/workers are highly trained professionals, and Tusla wants to ensure that the work assigned to them is consistently in line with that competence and is always supported by effective supervision and oversight by a competent manager.
Tusla have developed a draft case allocation framework that sets out consistent approach to the allocation of cases all of which remain under the governance of social work management. The framework will ensure all professional staff are supported within their level of competency while continuing to have social work management oversight in their work ensuring effective case management.
The draft framework is an initial step to support a nationally consistent and competency-based approach and is currently subject to review and consultation by Fórsa in line with agreed processes.
Budget 2026 saw Tusla receive increased funding of €165m to continue providing vital child welfare and family support services bringing its funding up by 14 per cent to €1.37 billion.
This money will ensure that Tusla can continue to manage over 100,000 referrals annually. This investment supports Tusla’s multipronged, sustained strategy to address the recruitment and retention of child protection staff. In total, Tusla is funded to have over 3,200 social workers and social care workers in 2026 to deal with this number of referrals. Tusla is faced with an ever increasing number of referrals with greater complexity, as well as issues relating to social worker recruitment and retention.
There are Programme for Government commitments to support Tusla and ensure their structures are robust, responsive and capable of safeguarding every child in need, and to ensure that Tusla is supported in recruiting and retaining vital front-line staff and foster carers. The Department has ensured that social worker staffing is included as a priority in Tusla's Performance Framework 2024-2026 and the Department is supporting Tusla with a number of initiatives to retain and recruit social workers, and other disciplines, to meet demand for services.
Budget 2026 includes funding for innovative “earn and learn” social work and social care work apprenticeship courses programmes and sponsorship. University College Cork introduced two new pathways into social work in 2024, which is expected to increase annual graduate output by 20%.
In relating to the difficulties in recruiting additional social workers, there is a commitment in the programme for Government to double the number of college places for social workers. In June the Government approved an expansion in training places for a range of health and social care professionals. This will provide up to 361 additional student places by 2028, including college places for social workers.
