AQW 15287/22-27

Mrs Diane Dodds
Democratic Unionist Party
Upper Bann

Tabled Date: 18/09/2024
Answered On Date: 02/10/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health whether he and his Department remain committed to fully implementing safe staffing levels.

Answer:

To clarify, a commitment was made in 2020 to consider a case for safe nurse staffing legislation as part of the Framework Agreement that led to the suspension of industrial action by Health & Social Care trade unions from late 2019.

Since then, the scope of the proposed legislation was broadened to include all professional disciplines within HSC. Expanding the scope has broadened the focus from “safe nurse staffing” to “safe and effective staffing”.

I remain fully committed to the introduction of safe and effective staffing legislation within the current Assembly mandate. On 22 July 2024, I launched a 12-week public consultation on the Introduction of Safe and Effective Staffing legislation, which closes on 14 October.

The consultation sets out a number of legislative proposals relating to - Guiding Principles of Safe and Effective Staffing; Workforce Planning; Common Staffing Methods and Staffing Calculation Tools; and Reporting and Monitoring Arrangements.

Please note, the consultation is not specifically about implementing safe staffing levels, instead safe and effective staffing is about giving organisations enough support and evidence to allow them to make balanced staffing decisions and have adequate numbers of appropriately skilled staff in the right place, at the right time, to provide an effective service.

Following consultation closure, the responses will be analysed and considered before I publish a Government Response, setting out my decisions on the way forward. I would optimistically hope, contingent on Executive agreement, that drafting of the Bill will begin within the first quarter of 2025.