Social work students failing to get placements

Social workers are to meet with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs next week, because social work students are struggling to get work placements. This struggle is due to a lack of formal arrangements.

The chair of the Irish Association of Social Workers, Aine McGuirk, said more social workers must be trained and retained, but that it was difficult to secure work placements for those already studying the profession.

Both the IASW and the universities that offer social work courses have flagged the difficulties of pairing up students with social workers for placements, due to the lack of formal arrangements and because social workers have to take on the responsibility alongside a heavy workload.

Ms McGuirk said students in other disciplines, such as medicine and dentistry, had clear pathways to placements. In a four-year degree course, social work students are likely to undergo four placements, at least one of which must be with a statutory body.

“We haven’t got enough social workers to fill vacancies, between health, Tusla, the whole lot,” Ms McGuirk said.

“One solution is to increase the number of graduates, which would increase the throughput. The biggest problem for the colleges is securing practice placements for the students.”

Tusla said: “The provision of social work placements for students is extremely important to Tusla, and a Social Work Education Group and Social Work Education Sub-Group (Placements) has been established to review and streamline this process.

“This group, which includes representatives from DCYA, Tusla, HSE Solas, The Department of Education and Skills, The Technological Higher Education Authority, and The Irish Universities’ Association has convened and the next meeting is scheduled for June 20. Tusla will continue to work with its partners and stakeholders to identify any actions that can be taken to improve and streamline this process.”

This special committee will meet next week to discuss the issue, and it will follow a research conference being held today in Dublin and organised by the IASW.

Tusla also said: “Tusla has always, and will continue to, commit to providing placements for students social workers from across the four social work training institutions. This is actually set to increase with Maynooth University and Sligo IT now offering 25 and 20 places respectively on their newly developed social work courses.”

The organisers of the All-Ireland Social Work research Consortium said they want it to reframe the “negative narrative” around the profession, which is often characterised by resource issues and high-profile cases, by highlighting the research that social workers and students undertake.

It will also look at Brexit. Colin Reid, chair of the British Association of Social Workers Northern Ireland, cited “the potential social impacts of Brexit, which will affect the work of frontline social workers, particularly in border regions.”