Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 June 2023
187. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Health if he will outline the progress being made on a 2023 tender for home care services and on the development of a statutory scheme for home care, which would bring equity and consistency into access; if he is aware of the frustration of some existing care providers at the continuous extension of the 2018 tender; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29951/23]
View answerThe Programme for Government commits to ‘Introduce a statutory scheme to support people to live in their own homes, which will provide equitable access to high-quality, regulated home care’. Work is ongoing within the Department across four broad areas to progress this commitment: (i) Regulation of home-support providers; (ii) the examination of future funding options for home-support services; (iii) working with the HSE to develop a reformed model of service delivery for home support (iv) Implementation of the recommendations of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group.
The Government gave its approval in April 2021 to start drafting legislation to establish a licensing framework for providers who operate in the home care sector. It is intended to bring this legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas at the earliest opportunity. This will ensure that all users are provided with high quality home care.
In order to help in drafting the legislation and regulations a 6-week public consultation was completed in August 2022 and the analysis of the results by the IPH was published on 20th January 2023. See:
www.gov.ie/en/publication/56ab1-draft-regulations-for-providers-of-home-support-services-an-overview-of-the-findings-of-the-department-of-healths-public-consultation/
The department has also been in consultation with HIQA, the HSE, legal counsel, and representative groups to help improve the regulations further. They are now at an advanced stage.
How home support will be funded in the future will be an essential factor of the new Statutory Scheme. With this in mind the Department is researching different funding models. An internal consultation within the Department has been underway on a range of potential funding options. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) also undertook a programme of work on behalf of the Department on the potential demand and cost of home support which culminated in two reports published in 2021 and 2022:
www.esri.ie/publications/demand-for-the-statutory-home-care-scheme
www.esri.ie/publications/home-support-services-in-ireland-exchequer-and-distributional-impacts-of-funding
A rapid response from the European Observatory on Health Systems was commissioned and published in March of this year. It is titled: “Improving Home Care Sustainability in Ireland. Are user charges a promising option?”
eurohealthobservatory.who.int/publications/i/improving-home-care-sustainability-in-ireland-are-user-charges-a-promising-option
This research will form an important part of the evidence base for the development of a sustainable funding model for home care services.
In 2022 a Pilot for testing of a reformed model of service for the delivery for homecare became fully operational in 4 Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs). Evaluation of the Pilot has been completed and a final report is expected in the coming months.
The national rollout of interRAI as the new standard assessment tool for care-needs in the community is underway and the recruitment process for 128 interRAI Care Needs Facilitators has commenced.
The HSE is in the process of recruiting key posts to enable the establishment of a National Home Support Office. Funding is provided for 15 full time jobs, including 9 home support manager/coordinator posts. The Head of Service of the new National Home support Office has been appointed in November 2022, with the remaining posts to be filled as soon as possible.
To examine and address the significant workforce challenges in the homecare and nursing home sectors in Ireland, Minister Butler established a cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group in March 2022. The group was charged with identifying strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided front-line carer roles in home support and nursing homes and with developing recommendations. Their report was published in October 2022 with 16 recommendations. Minister Butler has strongly endorsed the Advisory Group’s recommendations.
They are being progressed through a dedicated implementation group. A detailed implementation plan will be published in the coming months. The implementation group will meet quarterly, and the Department of Health will publish progress reports against this plan after these meetings take place. Recommendation number 9 has been implemented. The statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for homecare workers was signed on 16 December 2022.
A link to the report is below.
www.gov.ie/en/publication/492bc-report-of-the-strategic-workforce-advisory-group-on-home-carers-and-nursing-home-health-care-assistants/
Your query on a 2023 tender for homecare services is an operational matter and has therefore been referred to the HSE for direct reply to yourself.
