Maternity leave a concern for new HSE agency staff

Maternity leave in the new Child and Family Agency may impact on staff levels, it's claimed.

4,000 staff from several child protection and family support services yesterday officially merged to form the agency, which has a €600m budget.

The Children's Rights Alliance says the agency is long overdue.

"One of the issues is … people on maternity leave aren't being covered," said Chief Executive Tanya Ward. "The majority of social workers are women of a certain age … so maternity leave s actually hitting the HSE quite a lot.

"It's something that needs to be addressed."