Board members updated on Statutory Residential Care Home Consultation

This was the first of a two stage consultation process which was announced on 21 August 2013.

Speaking after the meeting Fionnuala McAndrew, Director of Social Care and Children with the Board said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone, especially the residents themselves, their families and staff who participated in the consultation process and who have taken part in any way or responded to this very important issue.

“I want to reassure everyone that we will carefully consider their views which will guide our approach and help us to make better decisions for the future,” she said.

The consultation document entitled, ‘Making Choices: Meeting the current and future accommodation needs of older people’ outlined four criteria to be used as the basis for assessing the future role and function of statutory residential care homes across Northern Ireland. The criteria are designed to be used by Health and Social Care Trusts to assist decision making about the role of statutory residential care homes in the context of planning suitable services for older people in the future.

The proposed criteria detailed in the consultation document were: Availability and accessibility of alternative services - this is about assessing the suitability of current and proposed service developments or redesign of services to meet individual needs including alternatives to residential care.

Quality of Care - assessing the quality of care in each residential care home against standards.

Care Trends – this relates to assessing the past and current need for residential care. This includes changing patterns of demand not just for residential care.

Best use of public money – assessing whether we are making the best use of funding to provide as much care as we need at a reasonable cost, and making sure that standards of care remain high.

Mrs McAndrew continued: “Over the 14 week consultation process, we undertook an extensive targeted engagement process with every effort being concentrated on meeting with residents and their families in 18 individual homes and listening first hand to their views and concerns. At these meetings Age NI provided support to residents who sought help with any questions or assistance in responding to the consultation.”

To raise awareness of the consultation process and encourage members of the public to get involved:

a series of press releases were issued to both regional and local media outlets;

public notices were placed in all weekly papers across the region;