Debate contribution: Social Services Vacancies: North Belfast and West Belfast
Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on .
- MLA
- Mr Brian Kingston
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 October 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Social Services Vacancies: North Belfast and West Belfast
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4582069
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank Carál Ní Chuilín for bringing the matter to the House, and I thank the Minister for his attendance. I have been liaising with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust on the matter and asking questions to get a true picture of the situation. I am not here to be a spokesperson, but I will relay some of the information that it has supplied to me. It said that the trust continues to be challenged in the recruitment and retention of social workers in the main and that that is due to a deficit in supply regionally. We will all want to say how much we appreciate the challenging work that social workers undertake in many complex situations. In the Belfast constituencies, it was not clear that there was a particular deficit of workers in North and West, compared with South and East. The figures that I received were not conclusive, but the trust accepts that vacancies are an issue, with workforce pressures, including long-term absence, compounded by demand and capacity issues in the social work workforce. The trust referred to a Department of Health workforce review, which indicated the need to commission an extra 60 student social work places in Northern Ireland universities. I understand that the Department has agreed to fund an additional 40 university places for the 2024 intake to the social work degree. Out of 238 social work degree graduates in Northern Ireland in 2024, 200 have been appointed across the five healthcare trusts in Northern Ireland, and 59 are in Belfast. That includes five who studied outside Northern Ireland and Great Britain and have returned to Northern Ireland. They are encouraging our students who go elsewhere to return. Despite significant efforts and investment in bespoke recruitment, the trust continues to have a significant number of vacancies that remain unfilled, most of which are in critical children's community teams, as the Member indicated. Other than a small number coming through the Open University pathway this autumn, it acknowledged that there will be no significant additional supply of social workers in Northern Ireland until the next cohort of graduates in 2025. That presents a significant challenge. The five health trusts are seeking approval from the Department to pay an exceptional recognition payment to all band 5, 6 and 7 social work staff who deliver gateway, family interventions and looked-after children's services across the five trust areas, recognising the complex work that is being undertaken.
I turn to what is being done. Again, I am told that the trust has established a social work recruitment and retention strategic group. The trust is maintaining compliance with the Department of Health's directive to cease all use of agency social workers. Other efforts are increasing supply, but that is limited. The trust is seeking to invest in staff well-being initiatives and to promote a flexible working policy. Obviously, it supports staff advancement and post-qualifying training programmes, and it recognises that retention is an issue. Children's services has recently established a specific recruitment and retention group chaired by a senior divisional social worker. It is looking at additional Open University places.
Trust representatives attended the Manchester Jobs Fair to encourage applications from social workers who qualify in Great Britain. The trust also seeks to recruit social workers by looking internationally and among those living in Northern Ireland who have qualifications from elsewhere that could be recognised locally.
567 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.90).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.90 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.90 |
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.05 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.03 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.01 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:13 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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