Joan Collins
Question:76. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Health if he will report on the cross-Departmental strategic workforce advisory group in relation to capacity issues in home care provision. [61937/21]
View answerTuesday, 15 February 2022
Questions (76)
Written answers
As I have stated previously, I am committed to establishing a cross-Departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group to examine strategic workforce challenges in front-line carer roles in home support and nursing homes.
The work of this Group will centre on engagement with the relevant stakeholders in the sector. To this end, a 'Call for Submissions' was issued by my Department to relevant stakeholders in December. Following receipt of these completed submissions in January, my Department undertook a short-life scoping exercise to gather initial data and evidence on the nature and extent of the challenges in the sector to inform the structure and membership of this cross-departmental Group.
This scoping exercise is now complete and invitations to join the Group, along with its draft Terms of Reference, have been issued to all relevant government departments and agencies. The inaugural meeting of the Group will be held in the week beginning February 28th, 2022.
At this meeting the Terms of Reference for the Group will be finalised and action timelines agreed.
This Group will then progress a structured programme of ongoing consultative engagements with key sectoral stakeholders to further explore and define the issues, listen to stakeholder views, and identify approaches to respond to the strategic workforce challenges.
The Group will provide a forum for agreement on strategic approaches to address the workforce challenges in the sector and develop a report for my consideration outlining the Group’s key findings; recommendations; and a proposed action plan to support implementation of these recommendations to include periodic monitoring of progress.