Green Paper on Home Support Workers

This Green Paper emerges from conversations between LHP Skillnet and Home & Community Care Ireland (HCCI) following HCCI’s involvement in the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group, established by the Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, in March 2022. The Group was charged with examining strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided front-line carer roles in home support and nursing homes and with making recommendations to address these. The present Green Paper provides the foundational evidence to build on the work achieved by the Group.

Leading Healthcare Providers Skillnet is publishing this Green Paper proposal to help develop home support worker careers in response to national and international analyses of the growing ‘care crisis’ in Ireland. This proposal is also intended to prompt discussion and debate, which will inform the final design of changes. The final design will respond to consultation feedback and further research will feed into it to align with key public policy commitments. In particular, the Green Paper developments set out in this paper are intended to address two specific aims.

These are:

1. to expand capacity in the home support workforce by attracting and recruiting more home support workers and improving working conditions so that every worker has time, support and opportunities for career development and progression.
2. to upskill and retain the home support workforce by encouraging professionalism and creating and rewarding more advanced, specialist, and expert roles.

The Department of Health, Health Service Executive (HSE), regulators (HIQA, QQI, CORU), home support service providers including private sector and not-for-profit providers, research groups (ESRI, TILDA, RCSI), education and training providers, voluntary and charity sector organisations, respondents to the public consultation on draft regulations, and any other interested organisations or individuals were invited to provide comment on this Green Paper, before the consultation closed at 5 p.m. on 19 January 2024.

This Green Paper serves as a catalyst for Ireland’s leadership in establishing a world-leading home support sector. It outlines recommendations to address the growing demand for home-based care, emphasizing the transformation of the sector into one focused on skills and career development. The outcomes of stakeholder consultation will shape the enhancement of proposals and the creation of a White Paper, guiding future advancements in Ireland’s home support sector.

Please download the Green Paper below to explore the findings in more detail.