Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
1924. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the implementation of all 16 recommendations from the report of the strategic workforce advisory group on home carers and nursing home healthcare assistants; the timeline that he is working towards for implementation of each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39234/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraAddressing 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 frontline 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 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 and sectoral reform.
Implementation of the 16 recommendations is being overseen by a cross departmental Implementation Group, chaired by the Department of Health. A detailed implementation plan will be published shortly. The implementation group meets quarterly and publish progress reports thereafter. The first meeting of the group took place on 29th June and the next meeting is scheduled for 12th October.
Recommendation 9 has already been implemented - the Statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for homecare workers was signed on 16th December 2022. Recommendations 3, 5, 6 and 16 are at an advanced stage and work is underway on all other recommendations.
