Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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381. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the plans to regulate the home care sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15607/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government agreed in 2020 commits the government to ‘Introduce a statutory scheme to support people to live in their own homes, which will provide equitable access to high-quality, regulated home care’.

Consequently, work is on-going within the Department of Health to progress the development of the new statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support services. Taking place 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.

In relation to the regulatory framework, Government gave approval to draft a General Scheme and Heads of a Bill to establish a licensing framework for homecare and support providers in April 2021. The 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. 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. A regulatory impact analysis will be undertaken by the Department in 2022 to ensure effectiveness and mitigate risks.

The regulations being drawn up by the Department and the standards being drafted by the HIQA both take cognisance of the diverse and often complex needs of those who require homecare and support. The aim is to ensure that service-users are safe-guarded and protected, and a responsive, person-centred, quality-driven home-support service is provided. This is central to the Sláintecare objective of providing ‘right care, in the right place at the right time’.

The development of regulations and quality standards are at an advanced level. HIQA ran a public scoping consultation in September to inform the development of National Standards for Home Support Services. HIQA has convened an Advisory Group, with representation from the Department of Health, to assist in the process of developing the Draft National Standards.

In collaboration with HIQA and in consultation with the Health Service Executive and other key informants, the Department developed draft regulations and a targeted stakeholder consultation was undertaken in January 2022. Evaluating the feedback of this consultation is informing amendments in the draft regulations in advance of a public consultation planned in Q2 2022.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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382. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties being experienced by home care workers as regards mileage costs for travelling as part of their work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15608/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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383. To ask the Minister for Health the steps that she has taken to make it easier to recruit home care workers into the sector in order to reduce the current waiting lists. [15609/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I am very aware of the strategic workforce challenges in the home support and nursing homes sector, and the need to address this as a matter of urgency. As such I have held multiple meetings with relevant key stakeholders in recent months on these matters.

I have also spoken about my commitment in establishing a Cross-Departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group to examine strategic workforce challenges, including recruitment and retention of workers, in front-line carer roles in home support and nursing homes. This Group is now fully established and I opened the inaugural meeting on 3rd March 2022 and expressed my full support.

The Terms of Reference for the Group are available on the Department’s website:

gov.ie - Minister for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler launches the first meeting of the Cross-Departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Health Care Assistants (www.gov.ie)

The Group will progress a structured programme of ongoing consultative engagements with stakeholders to further explore and define the issues, listen to stakeholder views, and identify approaches to respond to the strategic workforce challenges including the recruitment of staff.

The Group will also provide a forum for agreement on strategic approaches to address the workforce challenges in the sector and develop a report for my consideration outlining the Group’s key findings, recommendations, and a proposed action plan to support implementation of these recommendations to include periodic monitoring of progress.

The Group is working to a tight timeline and is committed to providing a set of recommendations to me by September 2022.

That said, it is important to note that progress is being made in terms of reducing the waiting lists - at the end of January 2022 there were 4,836 people assessed and waiting for a carer to become available. This is a reduction from December 2021, when 5,322 were waiting for a carer to become available. At the end of January 274 were awaiting processing of funding approval, which is a reduction from 474 in December 2021. Furthermore, the total number of people waiting for home support across both categories has reduced from over 9,000 at the start of 2020 to approximately 5,110 by the end of January 2022.