David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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670. To ask the Minister for Health if he plans to establish further cross-departmental strategic workforce advisory groups; if so, the number of groups and areas of focus that will be established; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16042/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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There is an urgent need for an integrated, comprehensive, and sustainable approach to health and social care workforce planning to support the successful implementation of the Sláintecare Reform Programme. This approach must be based on population health needs, reflect the policy agenda, span multiple time horizons, and be informed by international best practice.

My Department has commenced a programme of work to deliver a Health and Social Care Workforce Planning Strategy and Action Plan and Planning Projection Model. This work is being undertaken with the support of the European Commission under the auspices of their Technical Support Instrument which will provide the technical expertise to deliver this project. The work is due to be completed in Autumn 2023. The project will build on existing health and social care workforce planning initiatives to develop future health and social care workforce demand and supply planning projections. The HSE is actively supporting and engaged in this work. The Strategic Workforce Planning Unit in my Department are working in collaboration with the HSE, Government Departments, Higher Education Sector, Regulators, and Professional bodies to deliver on this strategic workforce planning initiative.

The development of an integrated health and social care workforce planning approach will be progressed in the context of strong engagement with key stakeholders across government including the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the Higher Education Authority, the HSE and other government departments to ensure that sufficient workers are being trained in the right disciplines to meet population needs and to agree new ways of training multidisciplinary teams.

A subgroup, within existing structures, is being established to engage in detailed workforce planning for the immediate term to support the implementation of the Disability Action Plan, and the training programmes required to produce additional staff with the right skills and qualifications to enable service capacity to grow in line with requirements. This group involves the HSE, and service providers. It will work in tandem with the Department of Health’s Strategic Workforce Planning Unit and other Government Departments working on an integrated response to health and social care staffing requirements across the different care groups.