IMPACT has described the ongoing shortage of social workers in the midlands region as critical, as concerns mount nationally about growing waiting lists of children and families requiring services.

The union has found that only 70 per cent of the required complement of staff is employed in the region, despite the fact that social work posts are not subject to the government recruitment moratorium. IMPACT has also criticised the employment of agency staff in the region which it says is an expensive and unnecessary solution.

IMPACT official Denis Rohan explained, “We have a situation in the midland region where the provision of sufficient budget resources for child and family protection services is essentially being stalled. This, added to the refusal by senior management to fill posts, is creating a very unsafe situation. Despite the fact the public service recruitment moratorium does not apply to social workers, and despite the fact that we have a national panel of 300 social workers qualified for placement, absolutely nothing is happening.

“Various excuses have been offered, including delays in the issuing of Garda clearance. It seems far more likely that there is a deliberate strategy to normalise the current employment deficit in social work services” he said.

Mr Rohan added, “We’ve seen some areas fall back on employing agency staff. This is an unnecessary and expensive solution to a problem which could be solved by ensuring the normal recruitment of staff.”

He gave an example of the employment of at least five agency workers across the midlands. “These appointments took place without any prior consultation with staff representatives, contrary to the requirements of national agreements, including the Haddington Road agreement. The government embargo on recruitment does not extend to the employment of social workers, so there should be no need to employ expensive agency staff where social workers can be deployed from the national panel. The cost of employing agency staff is more than 20% above the cost of recruiting staff directly into the organisation. This is a dreadful waste of money particularly in the current economic climate" he said.

IMPACT official Christina Carney, who represents social workers at national level, said “We have to provide the necessary resources to ensure the service is delivered. What is it going to take to achieve the deployment of the full resources? Will it take a major crisis? We simply can’t allow that to happen.”