Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Since the Government gave its approval in April 2021 to start drafting legislation to establish a licensing framework for providers who operate in the home care sector. Primary Legislation is currently entering into final stages of the drafting process. It is intended to bring this legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas at the earliest opportunity. This will ensure that all service users are provided with high quality home care which is currently unregulated in Ireland.

In order to help in drafting the legislation and regulations the Department completed a public consultation and a stakeholder consultation in 2022 to understand the core concerns of groups and people across the sector. A 6-week public consultation was completed in August 2022 and the analysis of the results by the IPH was published on 20^thJanuary 2023: www.gov.ie/en/publication/56ab1-draft-regulations-for-providers-of-home-support-services-an-overview-of-the-findings-of-the-department-of-healths-public-consultation/

The department has also been in consultation with HIQA, the HSE, legal consul, and representative groups to help improve the regulations further.

How home support will be funded in the future will be an essential factor of the new Statutory Scheme. With this in mind the Department is researching different funding models both internationally and here in Ireland. An internal consultation within the Department has been underway on a range of potential funding options. A targeted external consultation will also follow in 2023. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) also undertook a programme of work on behalf of the Department on the potential demand and cost of home support which culminated in two reports published in 2021 and 2022:

www.esri.ie/publications/demand-for-the-statutory-home-care-scheme

www.esri.ie/publications/home-support-services-in-ireland-exchequer-and-distributional-impacts-of-funding

A rapid response from the European Observatory on Health Systems was commissioned and published in March of this year. It is titled: “Improving Home Care Sustainability in Ireland. Are user charges a promising option?”

eurohealthobservatory.who.int/publications/i/improving-home-care-sustainability-in-ireland-are-user-charges-a-promising-option

This research will form an important part of the evidence base for the development of a sustainable funding model for home care services.

In 2022 a Pilot for testing of a reformed model of service for the delivery for home care became fully operational in 4 Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs). Evaluation of the Pilot has been completed and a final report is expected in the coming months.

The national roll-out of interRAI as the new standard assessment tool for care-needs in the community is underway and the recruitment process for 128 interRAI Care Needs Facilitators commenced in late 2022.

The HSE is in the process of recruiting key posts to enable the establishment of a National Home Support Office. Funding is provided for 15 full time jobs, including 9 home support manager/coordinator posts. The Head of Service of the new National Home support Office has been appointed in November 2022, with the remaining posts to be filled as soon as possible this year.

To examine and address the significant workforce challenges in the home care and nursing home sectors in Ireland, Minister Butler established a cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group (SWAG) in March 2022. The group was charged with identifying strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided front-line carer roles in home support and nursing homes and with developing recommendations. Their report was published in October 2022 with 16 recommendations. Minister Butler has strongly endorsed the Advisory Group’s recommendations. They are being progressed through a dedicated implementation group. A detailed implementation plan will be published containing timelines and steps involved in delivering each of the recommendations in the coming months. The implementation group will meet quarterly, and the Department of Health will publish progress reports against this plan after these meetings take place.

Recommendation number 9 has been implemented. The statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for home care workers was signed on 16 December 2022.

A link to the report is below.

www.gov.ie/en/publication/492bc-report-of-the-strategic-workforce-advisory-group-on-home-carers-and-nursing-home-health-care-assistants/

I have asked the HSE to reply further to the Deputy on Tender 2023.