No funding yet for Tusla training college set up last month

Social Democrats spokesperson for children said that without any funding it was 'borderline disingenuous' of Tusla to call it a college 

The Children’s Residential Services Training College at Tusla's headquarters in Heuston South, Dublin, was set up in March to train social care staff for residential and special care roles. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews

The Government is yet to allocate any funds towards a new Tusla training college, despite it being formally established in March.

The Children’s Residential Services Training College aims to increase the level of workers in the sector and “develop a sustainable workforce capable of delivering current and future service needs”.

However it has been confirmed to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly there is no direct budget for the facility.

The first intake will be of 10 trainees, with Tusla saying there will be capacity for 25 trainees in the future. The overall capacity will increase “in line with demand”.

“While the initial focus is on strengthening special care staffing, the training college will also support workforce development across mainstream residential services, delivering a sustainable channel of skilled social care professionals,” Tusla wrote.

“The six-month learning programme combines classroom-based learning, e-learning, and supervised work-based practice.

“The programme includes targeted specialist training, peer support, reflective practice, supervision, and wellbeing resources, underpinned by continuous assessment and a robust evaluation framework to ensure high standards of learning and practice.”

However, it also confirms there is no defined or ring-fenced budget for the college and there was “no specific budget allocation for this initiative in 2026”.

“A review of the pilot will inform future development and resourcing needs,” Tusla said.

Mr Farrelly, his party's spokesperson for children, said the response shows there is nothing new in the initiative.

The response says since its establishment, the college has drawn on existing Tusla staff for “teaching inputs, coordination and administration”.

Mr Farrelly said the college appears to just be the renaming of an existing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) process for staff in Tusla.

He said it is “borderline disingenuous” to describe it as a college.

“The idea of the announcement is to maybe appease people who have concerns about the qualifications of social care workers as they enter into residential placements or they enter into special emergency arrangements,” Mr Farrelly said.

“We don’t know, because they’re not regulated, the extent to which people have social care qualifications or not.

Calling something a college allows people to infer that you will be going through a similar process as a student, but if you’ve allocated no further resources to it this year, that tells me nothing is going to change.

Mr Farrelly said he wanted to see the Tusla college be partnered with an existing university that would professionally endorse its courses.

He said this would give people professional qualifications at the end of their course.

The Kildare North TD said children in Tusla care need social workers with professional qualifications.

“That takes time and that takes money. It’s time for the Government to step up with both,” he said.

• Tadgh McNally, Political Reporter