Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
1309. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the timeline he is working towards for the introduction of a statutory right to homecare, as outlined in the Programme for Government; the current status of the draft legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36497/23]
View answerThe programme for Government commits 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’. Work is ongoing within the Department across four broad areas to progress this commitment: (i) Regulation of home-support providers; (ii) the examination of future funding options for home-support services; (iii) working with the HSE to develop a reformed model of service delivery for home support (iv) Implementation of the recommendations of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group.
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. It is intended to bring this legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas at the earliest opportunity. This will ensure that all users are provided with high quality home care.
In order to help in drafting the legislation and regulations a public consultation was completed in August 2022 and the analysis of the results by the IPH was published on 20th January 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 counsel, and representative groups to help improve the regulations further. They are now at an advanced stage.
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. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) 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.
A pilot for testing a reformed model of service for the delivery for homecare in 4 Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs) has concluded. Evaluation of the pilot has been completed and a final report is expected in the coming months.
The national rollout 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 has commenced.
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. Four WTEs have been appointed to date including the head of service, with the remaining posts to be filled as soon as possible.
To examine and address the significant workforce challenges in the homecare and nursing home sectors in Ireland, Minister Butler established a cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group in March 2022. Their report was published in October 2022 with 16 recommendations.
They are being progressed through a dedicated implementation group. A detailed implementation plan will be published in the coming months. The implementation group will meet quarterly, and the Department of Health will publish progress reports after these meetings take place. Recommendation number 9 has been implemented. The statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for homecare workers was signed on 16 December 2022. Work is underway on all recommendations with a further four at an advanced stage.
