An impossible task? Implementing the recommendations of child abuse inquiry reports in a context of high workloads in child protection and welfare

Burns, Kenneth; MacCarthy, Joe

An impossible task? Implementing the recommendations of child abuse inquiry reports in a context of high workloads in child protection and welfare

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Burns and MacCarthy 2012 IJASS.pdf(164.78 KB)

Published Version

Date

2012-09

Authors

Burns, Kenneth

MacCarthy, Joe

Publisher

Social Care Ireland

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of social workers’ caseloads in child protection and welfare in the Republic of Ireland. High caseloads impact on the type and quality of service provided to children and families, and on worker retention and job satisfaction. This exploratory paper examines the limited available evidence on social workers’ caseloads in the Republic of Ireland and presents data on child protection and welfare social workers’ perspectives on their caseloads drawn from a qualitative study. These analyses are set in the context of the Irish State’s commitments since the publication of the Ryan report. A central argument of this article is that the recommendations of successive child abuse inquiries in Ireland have given rise to expectations and demands on child protection and welfare teams that are not possible to meet given the increasing level of referrals and the high numbers of children for whom social workers are responsible.

Keywords

Child protection and welfare , Caseloads , Workloads , Social work

Citation

Burns, Kenneth and MacCarthy, Joe (2012) "An Impossible Task? Implementing the Recommendations of Child Abuse Inquiry Reports in a Context of High Workloads in Child Protection and Welfare," Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies: Vol. 12: Iss. 1, Article 3. Available at: http://arrow.dit.ie/ijass/vol12/iss1/3