Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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387. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the provision of a statutory home care scheme; the way in which perceived age discrimination in the provision of home care services will be tackled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55377/21]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Enabling people with care-needs to continue to live independently at home for as long as possible is a priority for the Government. To advance this, the Government is committed to establishing a new, statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support services, which the Department of Health is currently developing.

It is envisaged that the new scheme will provide equitable and transparent access to high-quality services for people aged 18 years and above based on their assessed care-needs. Work is on-going within the Department to progress the development of the new scheme within the broader context of the Sláintecare reforms. This work encompasses the development of the regulatory framework for the new scheme; the examination of the options for the financing model for the scheme; and the development of a reformed model of service-delivery for home support services.

With the aim of ensuring that all service-users are provided with a standard, high-quality level of care which is safe, effective, and person-centred, it is envisaged that the regulatory framework will comprise: (i) primary legislation for the licensing of public and private home-support providers; (ii) minimum requirements (i.e., regulations); and (iii) HIQA National Standards for Home Support Services. 

Earlier this year, Government gave approval to draft a General Scheme and Heads of a Bill to establish a licensing framework for home-support providers. This is being progressed by the Department with a view to bringing it through the Houses of the Oireachtas at the earliest opportunity. It is expected that the primary legislation will give the Minister for Health the power to make regulations in respect of minimum requirements which will form the criteria against which a provider’s eligibility to hold a licence will be determined. The Department recently commenced a targeted stakeholder consultation on these draft minimum requirements. In addition, HIQA recently ran a public scoping consultation to inform the development of their National Standards for Home Support Services.  

In relation to the development of a statutory scheme for the financing of home support, the Department is undertaking work on the potential demand for and cost of the introduction of a such a scheme.  

In parallel to this, work is ongoing in relation to the development of a reformed model of service delivery for home support. Within this context, funding was provided in 2021 for the HSE to progress the roll-out of interRAI as the standard assessment tool for care-needs in the community; the pilot of a reformed model of service-delivery for home-support; and the establishment of a National Office for Home Support Services. 

The testing of the reformed model of service delivery for home support commenced this month in the first of the four pilot sites: CHO 8. It is envisaged that the three other sites, CHOs 2, 4 and 7 will be fully  operational by January 2022.  A National Home Support Office will be established before the end of the year and recruitment of the 130 posts funded for the national rollout of interRAI as the standard assessment tool for care-needs is scheduled to commence in this quarter. A comprehensive and robust operational model for the roll-out of the interRAI has been developed which will facilitate effective, efficient, fair and transparent care needs assessment and planning and appropriate service delivery. The interRAI outputs and pilot site evaluation will be critical to the development of the new home support scheme. 

The Sláintecare Implementation Strategy and Action Plan 2021–2023 commits to the advancement of the development of the new home-support scheme in 2021 and to the commencement of its implementation in 2022.