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Letter to the Editor of The Irish Times: -
13th May 2009.
Dear Madam,
Tuesday night’s Prime Time Programme on RTE One highlighted the need of an out-of-hours social work service in the wake of the publication of the report of the inquiry into the Monageer tragedy. Social workers remain concerned at the continuing failure of the HSE to establish a nationwide out-of-hours social work service. The Irish Association of Social Workers calls for its establishment in several pilot sites throughout the Republic as an initial step towards the development of a nationwide out-of-hours social work service. Two years ago, the Irish Association of Social Workers said that children in our communities are at huge risk due to the failure of the HSE to fill vacant social work posts, to recruit new social work staff and to fully resource regular child protection and welfare social work teams. We welcome the RTE One’s Prime Time programme as it echoes the long-standing demand of the Association for the establishment of a nationwide out-of-hours social work service and draws the attention of the public to the difficulties faced by members of the public in accessing social work services in Ireland after regular business hours.
The lack of an out-of-hours social work service nationally is not acceptable nor is it acceptable that the regular day services of social work community care child protection and family support teams are still not fully resourced. The weekday community care social work services continue to operate in the context of increasing demand and shrinking resources in terms of social worker numbers on teams and community based resources.
There is already an established and effective out-of-hours social work service that operates in the Dublin region. This service could be used as a template for pilot out-of-hours social work services in other parts of the country. The Irish Association of Social Workers calls on the government and the HSE to act immediately establish several pilot sites throughout the country for the establishment of an out-of-hours social work service as a first step in the development of such a service nationally and to fully resource weekday community care social work teams throughout the country.
Yours truly,
Declan Coogan,
Communications Co-ordinator,
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