Press release
Ministers for Health announce increased rates of funding for State-funded home support providers
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
Agreement will advance significant sectoral reform, incorporating travel time - for the first time- for home support providers and ensuring carers are paid the National Living Wage at a minimum.
The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler are announcing today that increased funding has been secured for home support providers, to ensure that carers are paid appropriately and to help address some of the key issues impacting recruitment and retention in the sector.
State-funded home support is delivered directly by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and by service providers in the community and voluntary, and private sectors. Home support services that are not provided directly by the HSE are procured through a tender process. A new Home Support Tender process is currently close to finalisation and due to be in place by August.
As recommended by the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Health Care Assistants, the new HSE Home Support Tender rate announced today delivers on commitments for sectoral reform such as payment for travel time for home support providers, paying carers the National Living Wage at a minimum, and bringing legacy rates in line with the new revised rates of funding.
Making the announcement on the new Home Support Tender, Minister Donnelly said:
"Promoting care in the community for older people and improving access to home support is a priority for me and this government. I am pleased to announce agreement of a revised rate for State-funded home support services that are delivered on behalf of the HSE by the community and voluntary, and private sectors. The new higher rates will advance significant sectoral reform, and will, for the first time, incorporate travel time for home support providers, reform legacy rates, and ensure carers are paid the National Living Wage at a minimum. This promises to help maintain the high volumes of service delivery and to reduce waiting times for home support. It will ensure that home support carers are paid appropriately, and I am confident that it will help address some of the key recruitment and retention challenges in the sector."
The delivery of home support hours in communities is increasing, in line with enhanced investment. As of December 2022, 20.8 million home support hours had been delivered nationally during the year. Since Budget 2021 the government has provided an additional €228 million in funding. In 2023 the overall home care budget is €723 million.
Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, said:
"This revised rate will give certainty and stability to the sector, and help make caring a more viable career option. Home support is an increasingly important part of the supports we offer to older people to age in place in their communities. I am fully committed to doing everything possible to support older people to continue living at home with dignity and independence with the correct wraparound supports. I am also committed to improving recruitment and retention in the sector. To support this, last year I established the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Health Care Assistants to examine the significant workforce challenges in the sector. 16 recommendations across the key areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, monitoring, and implementation are now in train. The first recommendation was implemented last December, with the authorisation of 1,000 employment permits for non-EU/EEA home support workers."
In order to allow the HSE to offer an increased rate to home support providers, the Department of Health sanctioned an adjustment of targets in the National Service Plan 2023 for the provision of 23.9 million hours of home support, to a revised target of 22 million hours. This adjustment is to support the delivery of key recommendations of the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group set up to help address the shortage of care workers, such as payment for travel time, the payment the National Living Wage at a minimum and addressing historic legacy rates.
The HSE is currently undertaking an evaluation of the applications for the new HSE Home Support Tender which will conclude at the end of July. As an interim measure, the HSE has offered to pay the authorisation scheme rates from 1 July 2023 for all currently contracted home support services covered by previous tenders, as an extension to the current contracts for all service providers that agree to the terms of the authorisation scheme. This will allow time for the conclusion of the tender and the HSE’s internal approval process. This offer is subject to the service providers agreeing to the revised terms with effect from 1 July, and until such time as the Authorisation Scheme is formalised in August.
The HSE has opted for an Authorisation Scheme model which is open-ended, therefore new entrants to the market may apply to join at any stage, periodically.
The process of finalising the new Home Support Tender is at an advanced stage by the HSE and the new tender is expected to be in place in August.