Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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760. To ask the Minister for Health if there is scheme similar to the fair deal scheme for persons who would prefer to stay at home and receive their care there; if not, the other supports available to a couple, one of whom is in need of 24-hour care in the home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54805/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Health Service Executive provides a range of community-based services aimed at ensuring older people receive safe, timely and appropriate care and treatment at the lowest level of complexity, and as close to home as possible. This means that they are facilitated and supported to stay in their own homes and communities for as long as it is viable with services such as home support, day care, community support and/or intermediate care beds to avoid unnecessary acute hospital admissions.

Traditionally, home care was viewed as providing a lower level of support than residential care, and not as an alternative to it. Increasingly, however, it is considered possible to support many people to continue to live at home who would previously have gone into residential care. Funding for Older Persons’ Services has increased from €763 million in 2017 to €811 million in 2018. This includes approximately €408 million for the provision of home support services by the HSE or other providers. The HSE’s National Service Plan provides for a target of 17.094 million home support hours to be provided to 50,500 people, which compares with 16.34 million hours delivered to 50,000 people in 2017 (home help and home hours combined), an increase of 754,000 hours to 500 more people year on year. In addition 235 intensive home care packages will provide 360,000 home support hours for people with complex needs. The HSE will continue to encourage local integration of services and build appropriate care pathways, in particular for people with dementia and complex needs.

Improving home-care services so that people can continue to live with confidence, dignity and security in their own homes for as long as possible is a key commitment of the Government. However, the only statutory scheme in place at present to support older people is the Nursing Home Support Scheme. The Government intends to address this by establishing a new standalone statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home care services and the further development of home care services to provide a more viable alternative to nursing home care for a greater number of people. The Department of Health is currently engaged in a detailed process to progress this. The statutory scheme for home care will introduce clear rules in relation to the services for which individuals are eligible and in relation to how decisions are made on allocating services. For that reason, developing a new statutory scheme will be an important step towards ensuring that the system operates in a consistent and fair manner for all those who need home care services. It will also help to improve access to the home care services that people need, in an affordable and sustainable way. The system of regulation for home care will help to ensure that the public can be confident that the services provided are of a high standard.

The development of a new home care scheme is a complex undertaking which will involve significant legislative, operational and financial resources. A significant amount of detailed work remains to be undertaken before final decisions are taken on the form of a home care scheme and the regulation of these services. This is necessary if reforms are to be successful, affordable and sustainable.