The Haddington Road Agreement (HRA) provides significant enablers and provisions to extract savings and reduce the overall cost base in health service delivery. A national assurance and support process has been established to monitor and support the delivery of sustainable cost reductions as required under HRA.
Organisations such as voluntary hospitals and a range of disability bodies, funded under Section 38 of the Health Act 2004, provide health or personal social services on behalf of the HSE. Staff of these organisations are classified as public servants and set rates of remuneration apply. These staff are included in public service numbers and are covered by public service pension schemes. Service Level Agreements between the HSE and such bodies require compliance with the approved salary scales.
Staff in organisations funded under Section 39 are not classified as public servants, not counted in public service numbers, do not have public service pensions and are not bound by the Department of Health Consolidated Salary Scales.
The HSE provides significant funding for more than 2,600 agencies through 4,100 individual service level arrangements under Section 39 of the Health Act 2004. The aim of the national assurance and support process is to ensure that the opportunities that the enablers of the Haddington Road Agreement provide are maximised to assist cost extraction. Oversight of the Section 39 agencies by the HSE in this regard does not indicate that the entitlements of staff in these agencies has been aligned with those of Section 38 staff.