Staff crisis for social workers

Thousands of children at risk of abuse in Ireland have no social worker due to a staff crisis in the profession, it was claimed today.

Stress at work and pressure exerted by lawyers during child care cases were among the reasons for the drop in the number of staff, the Irish Social Worker magazine said.

Child care work was now one of the ‘‘least desirable’’ jobs in society, said magazine editor Kieran McGrath.

He added that lawyers often confessed outside court that the parents they were defending were unsuitable to care for children, destroying morale among social workers.

‘‘It is acknowledged generally that there are a great number of vacancies and there is great difficulty in recruitment,’’ Mr McGrath said.

‘‘There is a general consensus among social workers that child protection work is the least desirable work that people want to do these days.’’

For social workers it was the ‘‘best and the worst’’ of times, he said, with government investment up, but stress up even higher.

He added that there were no published figures on the number of social workers, but said it was accepted within the profession that there had been a worrying drop-off in staff levels.

‘‘There has never been more money, plans, structures and aspirations but the work is so difficult and is changing so much.

‘‘Huge demands are being made now and expectations are so much higher. People want simple solutions to complex problems which do not exist.’’

The Department of Health and Children had no immediate reaction to the claims.