To ask the Minister of Health, pursuant to AQW 632/22-27, how the absence of a rise in fuel allowance rates for domiciliary care workers is impacting the delivery of care packages in rural areas.

Home care workers are raising concerns daily regarding the impact of increased fuel prices. For all trusts, it is becoming challenging to cover staff absence, with some staff choosing not to make themselves available to cover extra shifts as they advise the cost is impacting their own personal finances. The cost of fuel may also have an impact on future recruitment, which would have a negative impact on the ability of trusts to sustain services, particularly in rural areas. It is estimated, for example that a Domiciliary Care Worker will spend between 10 & 20% of their working day driving, depending on whether they are urban or rural based.

To mitigate any service disruption, each trust has a service continuity plan, which has been used during the Covid surge periods, whereby available resources will be targeted at those most critical cases based on a dynamic risk assessment approach.

I recognise the difficulties faced by our healthcare staff due to rising fuel costs and I have approved a 50% increase to the secondary rate on annual mileage over 3,500 miles to bring it up to 30p per mile. This measure, which will be for an initial six month period, to be reviewed, will benefit those who are required to use their vehicles most frequently.

Paying this increased rate through staff payroll systems will take some time to implement, in the interim, I have asked for further work to be undertaken to explore the feasibility of issuing fuel cards to eligible staff when they reach the 3,500 threshold.