Plans to drive forward reform of adult social care published

The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has published a 10-year strategic plan to deliver much-needed reform within adult social care.

An initial delivery plan has also been published setting out what actions will be taken over the next three years, along with timeframes for delivery.

The aim of these plans is to reform how adult social care and support is delivered and experienced across Northern Ireland, with a focus on independence, choice, equity, quality, innovation, prevention, early intervention, and preparedness for the future, to enable people in need of care and support to live fulfilling lives in their communities.

Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt (pictured above), said: “The severe pressures within adult social care and support services in Northern Ireland are well known.

“Challenges with workforce recruitment and retention, increased demand for social care services, greater complexity of need, and delayed hospital discharges are leading to growing pressure on budgets and impacting on the capacity of services to respond to need.

“We therefore can’t just keep doing more of the same. We need different approaches, including a greater focus on earlier preventative measures and more community-based support, as well as finding more-efficient ways to deliver services including through the use of technology where appropriate.

“We also need to focus on ways of attracting, retaining, supporting and developing the social care workforce.

“My Department has already published a 10-year Social Care Workforce Strategy, and I remain fully committed to funding the Real Living Wage at the earliest affordable opportunity.

“The plans that my Department have published today are intended to deliver the vital reform needed to respond to this complex combination of challenges.

“The plans are a careful balance of ambition and realism in the current financial climate. We have sought to prioritise actions which we consider are either the most necessary or have the potential to have the greatest impact.”

The plans include:

• Undertaking an examination of the current approach to the delivery of home care services to determine what changes can/should be made to better meet the needs of those with care and support needs
• Working to develop a comprehensive preventative adult care/support framework that will help enable people to remain safe, healthy, well and with purpose in the place they call home
• Fully embracing and maximising the capability of digital/technology/AI solutions to support traditional social care service delivery options, including harnessing the potential of assistive and adaptive technology to enable people to exercise choice and control over their care and support
• Improving the uptake of Self-Directed Support (SDS) options

Nesbitt added: “Social care is fundamentally preventative in nature and therefore is a vital element of my shift left vision and neighbourhood model of care.

“It plays a critical role in maintaining the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities by addressing needs early and reducing reliance on and demand for more intensive and more-expensive health and social care services.

“These plans taken together provide a roadmap for the reform of our social care system over the next decade. Success will depend on close partnership and cooperation from both the statutory and independent sectors, and of course, a collective willingness to advance the reform agenda.

“I am confident, however, that with the required commitment and leadership, we can ensure we have a person-centred, strengths-based social care sector that is fit for the future and capable of providing better outcomes for all.”