White paper: Advancing a home support worker career pathway

This White Paper on Advancing a Home Support Worker Career Pathway offers strategic recommendations based on comprehensive research and stakeholder consultations. Its aim is to inform and encourage policymakers, researchers, provider organisations, and home support workers (HSWs) across Ireland and beyond in ongoing efforts to address workforce expansion and sustainability in the home support sector.

This White Paper focuses on setting out an action plan for advancing a career pathway – which will be crucial for expanding and enhancing the workforce in the context of rising demand for home support. As more individuals choose to age in place in their homes and communities, the demand for skilled home support workers has surged. Healthcare is also moving closer to home and new forms of supported self-management, digital health and remote healthcare need to be supported in the home setting. New types of home support roles are emerging, for example in companionship, supported social interaction, home comfort and safety, mobility and functional health, e-health/telehealth support, and delegated health interventions (supervised by qualified health professionals).

Establishing a structured career pathway for home support workers is essential for alleviating current workforce shortages across Ireland and taking action now to expand the workforce for the future. This initiative aims to enhance the appeal of home support as a career choice by providing clear avenues for training and continuous professional development (CPD), as well as diversifying opportunities for advanced skills development and career advancement within the sector, building leadership capacity, specialist knowledge and sector expertise. Such initiatives not only seek to address immediate staffing supply challenges but also cultivate a sustainable and dynamic workforce capable of meeting the evolving and diverse levels of need of aging populations in the forthcoming decades.

This White Paper aligns with ongoing multidisciplinary collaborations in the sector. Notable amongst these is the Department of Health (DoH) led Strategic Workforce Implementation Group (SWIG) on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants, which is working to address the 16 recommendations put forward by the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group (SWAG) on Home Carers and Nursing Home Health Care Assistants (Recommendation 10: Training and Development).

To develop and implement a comprehensive career pathway, this White Paper proposes four knowledge workstreams and suggests what the key components of these workstreams should be. This approach will facilitate coordinated investigation, planning, and development for the whole sector, while breaking down the work into manageable focused areas.

Knowledge Workstream 1) Competency Framework Development: Establishing a competency framework to support career development and enhance job satisfaction and staff retention in the home support workforce

Knowledge Workstream 2) Connecting the Career Pathway to Multi-pronged Workforce Solutions: Connecting the career pathway to diverse ongoing solutions to address workforce challenges, such as pay and conditions, revising qualification requirements, providing skills training at different levels, and exploring innovative workforce models

Knowledge Workstream 3) Digital Technology Integration and Data: Integrating digital technology, establishing a robust data collection system, and conducting research on service economic perspectives to inform policy decisions and optimise the delivery of home support services

Knowledge Workstream 4) Stakeholder Engagement and Expert Guidance: Facilitating stakeholder engagement and seeking expert guidance to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of proposed solutions in developing a structured career pathway for home support workers

The paper also underscores the need for KWs leadership, collaborative KWs groups, adequate resourcing, a central reporting framework, and independent evaluation of the proposed KWs to ensure they meet the evolving needs of the population.

In conclusion, this White Paper serves as a critical resource for advancing the career pathways of home support workers in Ireland, advocating for a structured approach that not only enhances the professional development of HSWs but also ultimately improves the quality, safety and sustainability of support provided to Ireland’s ageing population.