Fergus Finlay wrote last week about the lack of social workers in Ireland. His comments follow the much-publicised interview of three members of the judiciary, and what Finlay describes as their “frustration and anxiety” expressed in the resulting “page-long cry from the heart” in a national newspaper recently.
Mr Finlay is correct in his summary of the core of the problem, stating: “It starts with one simple, commonplace fact. We’re not creating enough [social workers]” and “until that’s recognised, and fixed, there’ll always be a crisis”. Around 250 social workers graduate in Ireland every year. Ireland needs to be producing at least double that number.
Mr Finlay is not totally correct, however, in his assessment of reasons for the ongoing crisis, and what should be done about it. He cites a “closed shop mentality” in the profession and calls on Government to “… issue a simple instruction to the higher education sector … [to] immediately treble the number of places being offered on these courses”.
If only it were that straightforward. To begin with, there is a severe lack of information and no single body collating relevant data and research on even the most basic facts, such as how many social workers are employed and where, much less a cohesive strategy to address the issues.
The Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) published a report in 2022, ‘Training, Recruiting and Retaining Social Workers in Ireland’, the first such detailed analysis, including clear recommendations for action. Since then, the All Social Work Employers group has been formed, working closely with the universities, the IASW, and others to solve the problems in question, which are solvable.
Already, some of those programmes find it increasingly difficult to fill the existing number of places each year. One major factor is the high cost of fees (over €10,000 per year on an MSW in some universities) and the increasingly challenging cost of living in general. In addition, social workers students have to undertake two full-time bloc practice placements of up to 14 weeks, for which they are not paid and yet often have increased costs, such as travel. IASW has called on the Department of Further and Higher Education for an appropriate allowance to be paid to social work students while they are on placement.
