The Eastern Regional Health Authority is hoping to recruit childcare workers in New Zealand and the United States, The Irish Times has learned.
The recruits will fill vacancies in services that cater for troubled children in residential care, the subject of a number of high-profile court cases recently.
A spokesman for the East Coast Area Health Board - one of the three in the region - said there was an "ongoing recruitment campaign to fill vacant posts". There are 20 vacancies in the East Coast Area's child care services. The spokesman said that the board was in discussion with agencies in the US and New Zealand.
It is understood that there is a total of between 60 and 80 vacancies across the ERHA region in the childcare services, while a number of childcare workers The Irish Times has spoken to described the "burnout" rate among staff as "frightening".
The South Western Area Health Board, where there are "approximately 30 childcare posts vacant" has carried out a "successful recruitment campaign . . . to fill these posts", a spokesman said. "The vacant posts are currently being processed and filled from the panel of successful candidates," he added.
As a consequence of the lack of social workers with childcare qualifications, vulnerable children have not been assigned a named social worker. The shortage has also delayed the opening of the new high-support unit for young people in Ballydowd, which was due to open last autumn.
