Health Minister Welcomes Social Care Reports

Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, has welcomed the Social Care Reports and said that reforming adult social care is much more than easing hospital pressures.

The Minister commented on the release of the Forum's 2023/24 End of Year Report and 2024/25 Delivery Plan. Established in April 2023, the Forum is dedicated to implementing proposals from the public consultation on the Reform of Adult Social Care in Northern Ireland. Its members include providers, regulators, trade unions, service users, carers and Departmental officials.

The Health Minister stated: "I very much welcome the ongoing work of the Social Care Collaborative Forum. Too often, social care is talked about solely in relation to hospital pressures and delayed patient discharges. While this is undoubtedly a significant issue, social care is about so much more than this.

"Reforming, growing and enhancing social care is of fundamental importance to society as a whole. At its heart, it means enabling people to live independent, safe and fulfilling lives in the community."

The Collaborative Forum's End of Year Report details progress in a number of key areas including:

• Implementing early review teams in the Trusts with a view to developing a regional model to monitor and review service user’s homecare needs and packages of homecare. This led to almost 1,100 homecare hours being recovered and allocated to cases of unmet need;

• Implementing improved digital solutions in Trusts to more effectively manage homecare packages;

• Agreeing a dataset which will allows Trusts to consistently monitor available care home bed capacity;

• Introducing the Trusted Assessor/Care Home Liaison process to minimise delays in patients moving from hospital to care homes;

• Developing a workforce strategy for the social care workforce;

• Developing the Care In Practice Career Framework for social care with opportunities for qualifications and continuous professional development;

• Developing a new entry qualification into social care.

The 2024/25 Delivery Plan highlights three key themes: Building a Sustainable Workforce, Improving Commissioning and Contracting Arrangements and Developing Improved Partnership Working. Members of the Collaborative Forum acknowledge that pay, terms and conditions for social care workers are the most urgent issues for stabilizing the current workforce and creating a sustainable workforce for the future.

To address these concerns, the Social Care Fair Work Forum was re-established in December 2023 alongside the creation of the Collaborative Forum.

The Fair Work Forum is made up of representatives of employers, trade unions, government departments and other statutory agencies who are working together to influence priorities and policy regarding fair work in the social care sector in Northern Ireland. Working closely with the Collaborative Forum, a key deliverable for the Fair Work Forum in 2024/25 will be the development of an evidence-based case to support a Real Living Wage sector.