HRC Report Welcomed by Home Health Association

The New Zealand Home Health Association is welcoming the Human Rights Commission report Caring Counts. Chief Executive Julie Haggie says the report puts a spotlight on issues of fairness, leadership and transparency in the employment of aged care workers.

The New Zealand Home Health Association represents 48 organisations that provide health care, personal care and support for people living in their own homes.

“Home support workers often provide very personal services to people who are quite frail, without any direct supervision. For this they are usually paid very low wages – often less than health care assistants working in DHBs. The amount our employers can pay their staff is directly related to the hourly rate for the service paid by DHBs.  This amount differs from region to region, because individual DHBs fund providers to different levels using different models.

“We welcome the Commission’s recommendation that DHBs develop a mechanism for pay parity between health care assistants working in DHBs and carers working in home support and residential facilities.”

Julie Haggie says the Home Health Association is also pleased the report highlights travel as a major issue in the home support sector, and not just in rural areas.

“For the 21,000 of our workers who support people to live at home, travelling by car – their own car – from one client to another is essential.   DHBs operate what they call a fair travel policy, but in reality the travel component built into the service rate comes to around 19c per kilometre.  Providers top that up to around 30-33c per km, but that is still under half of the IRD recommended rate. In addition, providers get no compensation for travel time except in very exceptional cases.  

“As a comparison, support workers who are employed directly by DHBs drive DHB pool cars and don't have to pay petrol costs.

“The Commission’s report recognises this and recommends the Minister of Health and DHBs develop a fair travel policy which is reviewed annually and which covers the real and actual costs of travelling, including vehicle costs and time spent travelling.”

She says the Commission’s recommendations for providers to ensure all staff achieve a level two care qualification, and the introduction of compulsory safety standards are also positive, but providers must be adequately funded so they can reach these levels.

“More will be needed from workers and their employers in terms of training, supervision, assessment and reporting. Our members want to provide this level of service, but we need DHBs to understand the costs, so that we can have honest, transparent conversations about what is aspirational, and what can realistically be achieved for the funding.”

Mrs Haggie says an objective look into the employment of carers in the aged care sector was long overdue, and the Commission’s report has a number of very important recommendations.

“We look forward to the Government’s response to this report, and to working with DHBs in the future as they implement the recommendations.”

ENDS

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