Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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614. To ask the Minister for Health when the contract management support units will be fully in place to support the various service providers across the nine community healthcare organisations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47715/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE is establishing Contract Management Support Units (CMSUs) in each of the nine Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs) to support service managers in managing all aspects of the relationship with S38 and S39 Service Providers (Providers). I understand that four pilot sites were put in place in CHOs 4, 6, 7 and 9; three of these CMSUs are partially established and one is fully established. Currently, an Implementation Group is working with representatives from all the above mentioned CHOs to develop the CMSU processes. Among the key responsibilities of the CMSUs is to ensure that:

- Service Agreements (SAs) and Grant Aid Agreements (GAs) are finalised and completed in respect of all Providers that are in receipt of annual funding and that the service provider governance (SPG) system is updated in this regard

- Annual Financial Statements and Annual Financial Monitoring Returns are both received and reviewed at local level in a timely manner

- Regular performance review meetings are held in accordance with the requirements of Guidelines for Performance Management for SAs and GAs

- Key documents such as the Business Plan, Chairperson’s Statement, Management Accounts and Activity Data are received and reviewed as appropriate.

Having reviewed the pilot sites the HSE determined that due to the higher concentration of voluntary body headquarters in the areas covered by CHOs 7 and 9, that they would be assigned an additional Financial Analyst post each in order to have sufficient capacity to deal with the additional workload.CHOs 3, 5 and 8 have also commenced developing their CMSUs. Central to the establishment of the CMSUs is the appointment of the CMSU Managers at Grade VIII level in each of the nine CHOs. To date, 8 of the 9 CMSU managers have been appointed. The remaining CMSU manager post has been accepted and will start in October 2021. Of the 38 whole time equivalent positions approved, 17 are in post, 7 are appointed and are due to start by the end of October and 14 posts are still in the recruitment process.