Social workers on strike in the South Eastern trust area have spoken of their fear that children and families will come to harm or even lose their lives without safer staffing levels.
Outside Ards Hospital on Wednesday morning, several workers said it was only their dedication to families that was keeping them in the job.
Senior social worker Lindsey Marshall said the “dire” staffing levels were not safe.
“The service is on its knees, it can’t continue the way that it is,” she said.
“We risk losing experienced staff who are committed to this job. The biggest risk is to our families and children and we won’t be able to provide the services that they need,” she said.
Senior social worker Simon Hardy speaks to The Irish News at the three-day strike action by family and childcare service workers in the South Eastern trust, highlighting chronic understaffing issues and the urgent need for investment in social work training. pic.twitter.com/1rIQMvbJPb
— The Irish News (@irish_news) July 3, 2024
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A second social worker, Laura Savage, said: “Children’s lives aren’t going to improve like this. They’re going to continue to be neglected or harmed, you have case reviews where there’s been deaths of children.
“That’s not impossible, it happens because there’s not enough staff to do your regular check ins.”
Ms Marshall added: “Children’s lives are at risk because we can’t do the job we came in to do. We can’t safeguard children without the staffing and resources.
“I love my job, I don’t feel I could walk away because I would be leaving the children and families that I work with.
“I’m heavily committed and so is everybody standing here today. We’re not doing this lightly, we are all committed to trying to achieve a better service.”
Senior social worker Simon Hardy said: “There are some children who aren’t getting visits who should be getting visits.
“There are families who aren’t getting the support that they should be getting. We can’t develop plans for them, we can’t get services in to help them and turn their situations around.”
Senior social work practitioner Lauren McBride and first-year social worker Terri Louise Heaveron also said it was unsurprising staff were leaving.
“We’re going above and beyond and it impacts on our lives outside of work as well,” Ms McBride said.
“For staff it has long term impacts on their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
“We’re looking to the Department of Health to listen to our experiences on the ground and to take action by providing the funding we need to get more social workers.”
Ms Heaveron said she still requires a lot of support from other team members as a new social worker.
“It’s been tough watching them and the stress that they’re under, which also impacts on myself. You’re having to try and balance work-life and it’s just impossible.”
Asked why she joined a service under such strain, she said: “It’s the passion of working with children and families, but now it’s tough because you’re not able to make that difference that you came into the job to do.”
The Department of Health said it was “very concerned” about the disruption the strikes would cause for children and families, but recognised the “sustained pressures” staff were facing and that action was being taken to ensure their workloads were manageable.
In recent years this has included the commission of 260 social work training places at Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University’s Magee campus in Derry.
Another 25 places are commissioned via the Open University, with a further 40 social work training places for 2024/25 that will eventually “alleviate some of the workforce pressures”.
