Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Health to detail any steps he is taking to improve the provision of domiciliary carers in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.
Minister of Health: Approximately 20% of domiciliary carers are employees of the Northern Health and Care Trust and the remaining 80% are employed by the independent sector. An official from my Department has contacted the Northern Health and Social Care Trust regarding your query and they have provided an update. The Northern Trust are encouraging providers to expand capacity in geographical areas where there is identified significant unmet need that would require additional runs to be created.
The Trust is currently in the preparatory stage of a 2-year major reform programme with the aim of optimising, stabilising and levelling-up provision across the Trust’s Geographical Area. The programme of reform will be across both statutory Home Care provision and Independent Sector Home Care provision with the ultimate aim of addressing unmet need and creating home care capacity.
In addition, the Trust continues to ensure focused recruitment to its statutory in-house service, has introduced Early Review Teams to ensure the timely review of Home Care packages of Care following discharge from hospital and welcomes the roll out of Care line Live, a digital solution to ensure service capacity is maximised.
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