Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The existing tender for home support was extended by the HSE to 30 June. The process of developing the new tender is at an advanced stage. Engagement has been ongoing between the HSE and the provider representative bodies. The HSE published stage two of the process on the 25 May.

I am pleased the proposed indirect hourly core rate includes a number of significant reforms that can stabilise the market and improve the terms and conditions for workers. This rate is subject to the new tender, including provision for sectoral reform, including travel time, addressing the living wage and reforming legacy rates, as recommended by the strategic workforce advisory group.

The Deputy asked about the commissioning of services. In the first instance, the authorisation scheme will be client-centred. She often raised with me previously about the fastest-finger-first approach. It will operate on a client choice basis, putting the service users' needs first. How that will work in practice is the HSE will provide a list of providers requesting that the client indicates his or her preferred provider. If the selected provider cannot deliver the service, the HSE will issue an email alert to all community healthcare organisation, CHO, specific approved providers. The HSE recommends that email alerts issue at a standard time each day to facilitate providers in managing responses because we heard larger companies had more economies of scale in having more staff available to do this. The first provider to respond with confirmation of a named home support worker to deliver the service will be awarded the contract for that client. This process is adopted to meet the support needs of the client and in the interests of fairness to all providers.

Through the strategic workforce advisory group, we are able to deal with the living wage, the travel time and also the sectoral reform in relation to legacy rates. Many different legacy rates had built up over many years.

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