Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
1312. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the work of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on home carers and nursing home healthcare assistants implementation group; the status of the implementation plan; when he expects this to be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36500/23]
View answerAddressing the shortage of care workers in Ireland is an urgent priority for the Government.
To this end, the cross departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group was established in March 2022 to examine, and formulate recommendations to address, the challenges in front line carer roles in the home support and long term residential care sectors.
The Group was chaired by the Department of Health and comprised representatives from seven government departments (Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Health; Higher and Further Education, Research, Innovation and Science; Justice; Public Expenditure and Reform; and Social Protection), the HSE, HIQA and SOLAS.
The Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants was published on 15th October 2022. Providing an overview of the work of the group and its key findings, the report presents a suite of 16 recommendations spanning the areas of areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation.
Implementation of the recommendations is underway, and is being overseen by a cross departmental implementation group, chaired by the Department of Health. The Department is engaging with recommendation owners to define an implementation plan. A meeting of the group took place on 29th June 2023. A detailed implementation plan will be published. It is envisaged that the implementation group will meet quarterly and publish progress reports thereafter.
Recommendation 9 has been implemented. The statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for homecare workers was signed on 16th December 2022. As recommended by the Advisory Group, these permits will be for full-time positions with a minimum salary of €27,000 per year. Work is underway on all recommendations with a further four at an advanced stage.
