Home Support Contract Decision Puts Thousands At Risk – Alliance Party
The Alliance Party says Health New Zealand’s decision not to renew home and community support contracts with three Auckland non-profit providers shows what happens when essential care is put out to competitive tender.
Alliance Party Health Spokesperson Ethan Gullery says the decision affects more than 1,200 support workers employed by Visionwest, Lifewise and Presbyterian Support Northern, which runs the Enliven service.
The three organisations currently support around 4,500 older and disabled people across Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waitematā.
“These are the people who go to someone’s home in the morning and make sure they have showered, eaten and taken their medication,” says Mr Gullery.
“That work is only possible because of trust built over years. You cannot re-tender a relationship.”
Presbyterian Support Northern chief executive Shaun Greaves told RNZ’s Checkpoint the decision came as a shock and that his organisation does not understand it.
Mr Greaves told RNZ the provider challenged the decision, and an internal review concluded the procurement process was still valid. Mr Greaves said his concern is that the process does not take into account tenure of service, quality, experience, or the depth of a provider’s relationships in the community.
Mr Gullery says that objection goes to the heart of the problem.
“If a procurement model cannot see twenty years of continuous care as a value worth counting, the model is measuring the wrong things. It is not a neutral technical exercise. It reflects a decision about what matters.”
The Ministerial Advisory Group’s final report on aged care, A Place to Grow Old: Securing the Future of Aged Care, made 40 recommendations including strengthening home and community support services so more older New Zealanders can remain independent at home for longer.
“The advice to the Government points in one direction and this decision points in the other,” says Mr Gullery.
The Public Service Association has called on Health New Zealand to guarantee that every affected worker transfers to the incoming providers on the same pay, terms and conditions.
PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons has said the union will not hesitate to take legal action to secure that.
The Alliance supports that call in full.
Mr Gullery says the wider lesson is that competitive contracting for care produces exactly this kind of disruption, and that no amount of process improvement fixes it.
The Alliance Party is calling for:
Job and continuity guarantees: Every affected worker transferred on no less favourable terms, and every client’s continuity of carer protected through the transition.
An explanation to the providers and the public: Health New Zealand should publish the basis on which these contracts were awarded.
An end to competitive tendering for core community care: Home support should be publicly delivered and directly employed as part of an integrated community health service, not re-bid every few years between providers.
“Older New Zealanders should not have to find out from the news whether the person who helps them out of bed will still be there in March,” says Mr Gullery.
