Written answers

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Photo of Jennifer Carroll MacNeillJennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

607. To ask the Minister for Health the measures being taken to employ additional homecare staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60363/21]

Photo of Mary ButlerMary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Work is ongoing within the Department of Health to progress the development of the new statutory scheme to support people to live in their own homes. Funding has been provided for the recruitment of 130 posts for the national roll-out of interRAI as the single assessment tool for care needs in the community.

A National Home Support Office is in the process of being established and a home support pilot commenced in November 2021 in one pilot site, with other pilot sites to be fully operational by January 2022.

Last year I secured additional funding of €150 million for home support which provides for an additional 5 million hours. The HSE has a target to deliver 24 million hours of home support this year and it is estimated that at the end of September some 15 million hours had been provided to over 53,000 people. This is about 2.2 million more hours compared to the same period last year. The funding secured in Budget 2021 to provide these additional 5 million hours has been maintained for 2022.

Overall, significant progress has been made on reducing waiting lists for people awaiting funding approval for home support from over 7,800 in January 2020 to just under 400 in September 2021. There can be delays, however, between funding approval and the delivery of home support hours. Notwithstanding this, the number of people waiting for home support across both categories has reduced from over 9,000 at the start of 2020 to approximately 5,300 at the end of September 2021.

In response to increasing workforce capacity issues in home support, recruitment campaigns continue through a variety of channels at both local and national level.

I continue to engage with key stakeholders on issues of recruitment and retention and I am also committed to establishing a Cross Departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group. The role of the group will be to facilitate the views of stakeholders and examine workforce challenges in home support and nursing homes. Potential areas to be considered include recruitment, retention, training, and the career development of home support and nursing home workers into the future. A call for submissions to identify key issues and inform the establishment of the group was announced on Friday, 3rd December. The Department’s project team will analyse submissions received to inform the setting up of a Group in early 2022.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.