AQW 49424/22-27
Miss Nuala McAllister
Alliance Party
North Belfast
Tabled Date: 23/06/2026
Answered On Date: 28/07/2026
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of Principal Social Workers who have been allocated a new case in addition to over seeing teams in order to reduce the number of unallocated social work cases, in the last financial year, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust.
Answer:
A Principal Social Worker is a title for an operational Band 8A Staff member within a HSC Trust and would be recognised as a senior manager for a service area. The term Principal Social Worker is not utilised by all HSC Trusts in Northern Ireland and for the purposes of answering this question, HSC Trusts were asked to advise if cases had been allocated to any operational Band 8A staff within their organisation. Responses are held within the table below. Trust | Number of Band 8A staff with cases allocated to them: | BHSCT | 0 | NHSCT | 0 | SEHSCT | 0 | SHSCT | 3 | WHSCT | 0 |
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