Fewer social workers despite vow of more after Ryan Report

THERE are less full-time social workers employed by the HSE now than there were during 2009 – despite a pledge by the Government to employ 270 additional staff to bolster child protection in the wake of the Ryan Report.

Following the report, which chronicled years of systemic abuse of children in industrial schools, Minister for Children Barry Andrews promised to improve frontline services for vulnerable children.

However, figures from the HSE show that at the end of December 2009 there were 2,139 “wholetime equivalent” personnel employed as professionally qualified social workers, in comparison with 2,161 at the end of September 2009.

The Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) has warned that while temporary staff were being made permanent, there didn’t seem to be additional staff.

This means the level of social workers on the frontline has hardly changed.

The IASW said that many social workers are concerned that their workload is so overbearing that they could be found to be failing their statutory obligations to keep children safe.

Freedom of Information (FOI) documentation obtained from the Health Service Executive (HSE) shows that the average social worker in Cork and Kerry is managing about 50 child protection cases. But one case alone could include several children from a particular family.

The FOI information showed that in Dublin North Central, child protection social workers have a caseload of about 9-15 cases but that there are hundreds of unallocated cases where children deemed to be at risk of harm or neglect have not been allocated a social worker.

It’s understood that a different management system exists in both HSE areas and that in Cork and Kerry, all children are allocated a social worker – however, due to the large number of caseloads, cases are given different priority status.

Social workers in Cork and Kerry say that lower priority cases, which could be closed relatively quickly if they were immediately given resources, can escalate into more serious problems due to this lack of resources. They believe however that it “is more important to protect the child than the social worker”.

“There is a real need for more social workers so that we have a more manageable caseload but equally there is a need for more services in the community to support families and children at risk. Increased activities at community level will mean that families get preventative support so their children don’t end up on child protection lists,” an IASW spokesman said.

The IASW have also said many of the children being placed in care now have much more complex needs than, even five years ago.

“We can find addiction problems even in the pre-teens now. They can have alcohol and drug problems and already might have been apprehended for antisocial behaviour. This makes them much more difficult to place,” he said.

A statement from the HSE said the social worker grade is exempt from the public service recruitment moratorium and that it was recruiting social workers and appointing temporary staff to permanent positions.

“We recognise the need to support staff of all grades and will continue to do so,” a spokeswoman said.