Brendan Smith
Ceist:334. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Health the measures that will be implemented to deal with the shortage of home support workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54400/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 7 December 2023
Ceisteanna (334)
Freagraí scríofa
To examine and address the significant workforce challenges in the home care and nursing home sectors in Ireland, in March last year I established a cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants. The group was charged with identifying strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided front-line carer roles in home support and nursing homes. Their report was published in October 2022 with 16 recommendations to address recruitment and retention issues. 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/
Implementation of the 16 recommendations of the Advisory Group is underway and being overseen by a cross-departmental Implementation Group, chaired by the Department of Health. The group met most recently in October and a progress update was recently published and is available at:
www.gov.ie/en/publication/66dd1-strategic-workforce-advisory-group-on-home-carers-and-nursing home-healthcare-assistants-implementation/
A new and improved HSE Home Support Tender has been in place since August. This delivers on commitments for sectoral reform such as payment for travel time for home support providers, paying carers the National Living Wage at a minimum, and bringing legacy rates in line with the new revised rates of funding.
It is expected that the new tender should assist in the sourcing of additional hours to address current unmet need within the total budget allocation.
Circa 330 employment permits for home care workers have issued since 16 December 2022. Recruitment continues amongst private and voluntary providers who deliver approximately 60% of home support hours via the HSE Home Support Tender.