Debate contribution: Home Care Provision

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 12 May 2026.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

12 May 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Home Care Provision

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5528672

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Tonight, people across South Down and beyond will be worrying about whether they will get their loved one home from hospital. Families will be wondering whether the care package that they have at the moment will still be there in a month's time. Home care workers, who drive on rural roads in all weathers, will be rushing from call to call to try to offer dignity, compassion and humanity from a system that too often feels stretched to breaking point. In the past days, I have been inundated with responses to my post on social media about the debate. It is important that the voices of the domiciliary care workers who have reached out to me be heard in the debate. They referred to being paid per call, rather than per hour. Imagine if that were the case here, with MLAs being paid per contribution rather than being paid a salary. Domiciliary care workers are frustrated by changes to the system that mean that they can sometimes spend only 15 minutes with somebody for whom they care. They wonder what will happen should they go over time. Will they not get paid? Do they stop the care? Do they jump in their car and move on to the next person? The pay that they get for their mileage does not reflect the cost of the mileage or the number of miles that they cover. One constituent said to me:

"Better pay, proper mileage compensation and more realistic visit times are essential if domiciliary care is to continue providing safe and dignified care."

Is dignified care too much to ask for? I urge the Minister to hear those voices, listen to what they are saying and determine whether we can do something about it. As a member of the Health Committee, it is important that I say that this is one of the issues on which there is consensus among Committee members. The Committee agrees that something needs to be done. We recognise the essential role that home care workers, be they employed by HSC or the independent sector, play not just in supporting vulnerable people but in holding together our wider health service. When home care struggles, obstacles emerge in other places in our health service. Hospitals get backed up, and staff then feel the pressure, families become exhausted and frustrated, and patients remain in beds when they should be at home. That is why I support the intention behind the motion and the amendment on the growing crisis in rural areas. For constituencies such as South Down, rurality is not a footnote in this discussion; it is the bulk of the content, because those in places such as Kilkeel, Attical, Ballykinlar and Leitrim have a very different experience from those in urban areas. A missed call in Belfast may mean a delay. A missed call in somewhere such as South Down may mean that a person does not see anyone for the entire day. We know that the pressures will only increase. The Department's figures show that more than 23,000 people receive care every week from domiciliary services. At the same time, our ageing population is growing rapidly. Within the next year, there will be more people over 65 than there are under 15, and the number of people over 85 is projected to more than double. The demand, complexity and pressure are growing, yet the workforce is shrinking. It is shrinking, in part, because of the wages that we pay. It is about the real living wage. The Minister has repeatedly stated his support for implementing the real living wage. In fact, he promised it last year and then reneged on that promise. Now he says that he will pay up when the Finance Minister does. He is busy blaming the Brits, and nobody in the Executive is willing to stand up. Nobody will take any damn responsibility for paying those people what they need to be paid in order to do the work that provides the dignity that we spoke about earlier. Right now, the cracks are visible. Across the North, more than 2,000 people are waiting for a full home care package. In some trust areas, patients who are medically fit for discharge are waiting weeks because they cannot get the domiciliary care that they need. I urge the Minister to hear the voices of those who work in domiciliary care, to respond to their needs and to deliver a system that truly works for staff, patients and the public at large.

756 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:37 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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