Debate contribution: Home Care Provision

Debate contribution by Ms Emma Sheerin on 12 May 2026.

MLA

Ms Emma Sheerin

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

12 May 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Home Care Provision

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5528741

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

At the conclusion of the debate, it is fairly clear that there is consensus across the House. There were a number of recurring themes in Members' contributions here this afternoon. The Minister stated very clearly that he sees the need for action around home care and social care and the benefit that that can bring to us all because there really is no argument against the motion presented here today. Apart from the fact that this is about bringing dignity to the people whom we represent, there is a very clear economic and financial argument that, if you are able to keep people safely at home for longer, you maintain their mental and emotional well-being if they are cared for at home, and they are less likely to have an accident that results in them having to attend hospital, which, ultimately, leads to fewer admissions to hospital. If people can be discharged safely in a timely manner, there are shorter hospital stays, and that reduces the pressure on our hospitals. The Minister referred to the different pressures that he has to contend with in respect of the Health budget, and all Members across the House, particularly on these Benches, sympathise with him on that.

However, one of the frustrating things about that is the fact that we see multiple instances of waste across the system, not least in capital projects. The pressures in our A&E departments and wards across hospitals in the North, which the Member for East Antrim mentioned, are part of the reason that so many of our healthcare staff in hospitals are under such severe pressure and, ultimately, end up on long-term sick leave. That requires their posts to be backfilled, meaning that we have an over-dependency on agency staff, which, again, is not cost-efficient.

I turn to the asks in the motion. I have been raising the need for action on home care provision since I became an MLA, because it is one of the issues that are brought to me most frequently. We see it disproportionately in the rural constituency that I represent, Mid Ulster. I personally struggle with it, because it is one of the most heart-wrenching situations that you can deal with. I have spoken at length about it in the Chamber. The majority of people who contact me about it are women. It is normally the daughters, daughters-in-law, sisters, nieces, neighbours or grandchildren of an elderly relative who ring me in distress, begging for a pitiful amount of care that would allow their loved one to remain safely at home. One of the most frustrating things that I find is that those people will make an argument to me to justify why they need that care. They tell me their story and about all the other pressures that are on them. They may be a wife or mother. They may work full-time hours or manage their own house. Often, it is a combination of all of those factors. They tell me that they are at their wits' end, and I say, "I know. I believe you. You do not have to justify yourself or explain your scenario or situation to me, because we all deserve healthcare that is free at the point of delivery". Our elderly population deserves a certain standard of care and dignity in their own home. They should not have to fight for it. We find that families are asked to fill in a carer's assessment and estimate how many hours of care they can cover themselves. They stop being a loved one — a relative, a wife, a daughter, a sister or a niece — and become an unpaid carer. They have to be there at 7.00 pm on a Tuesday evening and stay until 7.00 am the following morning. That means that their daughter, their son or their neighbour to whom they committed to give a lift is left in the lurch because they are no longer available. We see families who are at one another's throats and have to deal with all the tensions that arise because they are no longer just families who see each other socially when they want but managers of direct payment contracts and rotas. They have to deal with all those things that they should not have to deal with. I am in contact with a family whose 81-year-old mother was admitted to hospital in October last year. At that point, she had a care package with three calls a day. She was ready for discharge before Christmas, but she ended up in a rehab bed. She stayed there longer than she needed to. She was fit for discharge at the beginning of the year, but she ended up reluctantly taking a contingency bed in a different nursing home facility. She has been there since the end of February because the care package that she needs in order to return home safely has not been made available. That family are at their wits' end. They are begging for the bare minimum: four calls a day. On the other side of that are the carers, who, as multiple contributors to the debate mentioned, are paid minimum wage for a job that is emotionally, physically and mentally draining. Again, as we have seen over the years, that workforce is dominated by women. It is not a job; it is a vocation. When people were able to make a decent living from that job, some of them ended up staying in it for far longer than they perhaps would have liked.

I will.

Absolutely. One of that lady's sons has done an economic analysis of how much the trust pays to keep her in the care home, where she is unhappy. Her mental health and emotional well-being are taking a hammering because she does not want to be there; she wants to be at home. It does not make sense, but the carers, who want to be out with her and have a relationship with her, cannot afford to fulfil that call. We have carers, family members, patients and our elderly population in distress. It is clear that there is agreement across the House that this is something that needs action urgently. I would like the Minister, as he has repeatedly told us he will, to deliver on that.

1,062 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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