Tusla announces training college to increase staff availability

The six-month course is aimed at plugging the gaps in special care and residential care staffing across the country.

A new training college aimed at increasing the availability of staff for special care and residential care has been announced by Tusla.

Tusla will initially take in 10 trainees to the Children’s Residential Services Training College at Tusla’s headquarters in Dublin. It is expected that future intakes will be of 25 students at a time.

The trainees will be employed on a six-month special purpose contract, meaning they will be paid while they take part in the course.

The six-month course is aimed at plugging the gaps in special care and residential care staffing across the country. There are three special care units across the country for troubled and vulnerable children from 11 to 17 years of age. 26 beds are in the units, but only 15 are operational because of staffing issues.

Tusla says the new college is “primarily aimed at qualified social care workers who are not currently employed by Tusla, including recent graduates, those working in other organisations, overseas candidates, and social care professionals who may not yet have the specific experience required for special care roles". 

The agency said that, while hundreds of applicants expressed interest in recent recruitment campaigns for special care places, they “may not yet meet the full experience or training requirements necessary". 

The minister for children, Norma Foley, said the new college “will help social care workers interested in joining Tusla who need additional experience and training to be eligible to work in special care facilities, as well as providing opportunities for existing Tusla staff".

Tusla says that “due to increases in referrals, the growing complexity of cases, and the mass movement of people internationally, Tusla has been challenged in the provision of care placements, and the recruitment and retention of staff to meet this growing need across the country”.

Tusla said the challenges have been “exacerbated by challenges in local area property markets and workforce trends in the social care sector”.

Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan described the new college as a “transformational development”.