Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 June 2023
60. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Health the actions he has taken to ensure the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Review of Role and Functions for Health Care Assistants, published in December 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26662/23]
View answerIn 2016, the Department of Health requested the HSE to establish a working group with an independent chair to conduct a comprehensive review of the role and function of the Health Care Assistant in the Health Service. This work was completed under the leadership of Mr. Sean McHugh and the report ‘Review of Role and Function of HealthCare Assistants (HCAs)’ was published in December 2018.
The Covid 19 Pandemic delayed the work associated with progressing the recommendations. However dedicated resources have been secured by the HSE to roll out this programme of work which is planned to be delivered in three phases. An Oversight group with an independent chair, Mr. Ray McGee has been established to provide governance and strategic oversight to this programme. All relevant stakeholders including Nursing and HCA staff representative bodies were invited and are members of this oversight group and various other work streams.
The overall principle of the work is to provide standardisation of many areas associated with the HCA role and national oversight of the grade. The recommendations in this report are categorised under four sections and work streams have been established accordingly.
The ‘Role & Function’ workstream is presently working on standardising the job descriptions for HCAs working in different sectors namely acute, community (primary care), mental health, older persons, and disabilities. The work is to ensure that the Job specification is future focused.
The ‘Training & Development’ workstream has collated information on all training modules and modular extensions delivered through the 23 Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Education (CNME) and is working on gathering information on Lifelong Learning opportunities that exist for HCAS.
The role of the ‘Data’ workstream is to ensure that all relevant information related to this staff grade is recorded appropriately and that there is a national oversight of this information.
The ‘communication and stakeholder engagement’ workstream’s role is to ensure that the work completed thus far in this programme is communicated to the services, HCAs and the wider Health Service including the Department of Health.
This work will assist the 22,000 HCAs working in HSE and Section 38 organisations.
