Election candidates hear about independent care at recent meeting

The IHCP manifesto document, which was launched in February, calls for a move towards 75% provision of domiciliary care from within the independent sector, in line with that in other parts of the UK, and election candidates met residents, clients and staff at the meeting on Monday, April 11 as they saw first hand the standard of care the independent sector provides in Northern Ireland.

The IHCP has challenged government, political parties and wider society to proactively debate and come to terms with the scale of the issue of caring for older and vulnerable people in Northern Ireland.

Speaking before the launch of the initiative, Hugh Mills of the IHCP said: “Put simply, there isn’t the money to go around anymore, and we need to find new ways of providing services for the care of older and vulnerable people whilst retaining and augmenting the quality of service provided. To that end we are bringing Assembly election candidates to residential homes and domiciliary care organisations so that they can see for themselves the standard of care which the independent sector provides across Northern Ireland, and hear directly from residents, clients and staff about the challenges and opportunities which exist in the process of caring for older and vulnerable people.”

He added: “Reform requires a fundamental look at how we currently provide care for older people, and this issue is so complex and important that it may well be the greatest logistical challenge facing the next Assembly and those which follow it.

“The IHCP believes that it can help offer innovative ways of caring for those who need it at a cost which society can afford. The longer we delay looking objectively at and imaginatively dealing with this issue the more difficult it will be to do so. Comparisons of costs between the services provided by the statutory and independent sector suggest that as much as £50 million per year could be saved in domiciliary and residential care.”

Mr Mills concluded: “The independent health and social care sector is keen to share our experience. We believe that there must be communication and sharing of ideas on best practice between IHCP and the statutory sector through the Social Care Joint Forum in the interests of enhanced resident and client care.”