Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

Two priorities of the Department in recent times have been the introduction of the nursing homes support scheme, and bringing into force new regulatory standards for the long-term residential care sector.

In tandem with these initiatives in the residential care sector, the Department has been progressing initiatives on the community side and, as part of this, commissioned an independent evaluation of home care packages which will be formally submitted to the Minister shortly. The aim of the evaluation was to assess whether the objectives of the home care package initiative are being met, and this evaluation is a commitment in the Towards 2016 Agreement.

In addition, two other reports on home care were recently completed. A report was undertaken by the National Economic and Social Forum, NESF, on home care packages. It acknowledges that while this was a well thought-out policy, improvements are required in several areas regarding implementation, including training and vetting of staff. A recent consultation paper by the Law Reform Commission entitled "Legal Aspects of Carers" considers the legal issues surrounding home care. This makes a number of provisional recommendations in the area of standards and regulations generally, including vetting, training and supervision. It also provisionally recommends giving a function to the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, in professional home care. Any such changes would require primary legislation and detailed stakeholder consultations.

The Department accepts the need for a more standardised approach to the regulation of home care generally, whether by public or private provision. In the context of the independent evaluation of home care packages, and the other recent reports, the Department is, in conjunction with the HSE as appropriate, considering issues such as: finalising and agreeing standardised access and operational guidelines for delivery of home care packages; adoption and dissemination by the HSE of a voluntary code of quality guidelines for home care support services for older people; and consideration of the Law Reform Commission recommendations in the context of possible changes to legislation and regulation in the area of home care for older persons generally.

See this speech in context