Director of Social Care & Children
Health & Social Care Board
12-22 Linenhall Street
BELFAST BT2 8BS
Tel: 028 90321313
Fax: 028 90 553625
Website:
29 November 2013
I would like to invite you to participate in the public consultation process for ‘Making Choices: Meeting the current and future accommodation needs of older people’.
On 21 August 2013, I announced a new two-stage consultation process about statutory residential care homes for older people in Northern Ireland. The first stage of consultation starts today.
I have been meeting residents, their families and carers as well as staff and other stakeholders over the last few weeks. We have discussed ideas for deciding how best to help people who need care now and in the future. I have carefully reflected upon what I have been told. These views have been instrumental in developing proposed criteria which will be used to make decisions about the future of statutory residential homes across Northern Ireland.
We are now keen to hear from anyone, or any group, who have a view on the proposals outlined in the consultation document. Through this consultation I am now sharing the proposed criteria with as wide an audience as possible. This is because I wish to know how relevant and useful you feel the proposed criteria will be. I would also welcome other suggestions about our future approach to providing services for older people.
At this point, we have not taken any decisions about any individual care home and we will not do so until we have considered everyone’s views. The consultation will last for 14 weeks until 7 March 2014, so you have plenty of time to reply.
Equality Impact Assessment
Today, I am also publishing the draft equality impact assessment (EQIA) for the proposed criteria. This document looks at the impact of our proposals on different groups, and how this can be reduced. We will consult on the draft initial EQIA alongside the ‘Making Choices: Meeting the current and future accommodation needs of older people’ consultation document.
Other formats and languages
Our documents are available in different formats including Easy Read, large print and audio cassette. It is also available in Braille and other languages. So if you would like the document in a different format or language, please contact us.
How should I reply?
You can respond to the consultation in a number of ways:
- Fill in the form attached to our consultation document, detach it, and post it back to us.
- Fill in the online form available on
- Download a MSWord or PDF version of this questionnaire from complete it and email or post it back to us.
- Contact us and we will send you out a hard copy of this questionnaire.
- Email or write to us with your comments (contact details below).
However you choose to give us your views, we want to hear from you.
Please send us your comments by 7 March 2014
You can contact us or send us your response to:
Transforming Your Care Office
Health and Social Care Board
12-22 Linenhall Street
Belfast
BT2 8BS
Email:
Telephone:(028) 9055 3790
Textphone:18001 028 9055 3790
Fax:(028) 9055 3625
Website:
You can also find us on the Transforming Your Care Facebook and Twitter pages – see Facebook.com/transformingyourcare and Twitter@TYC_Action
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully
Fionnuala McAndrew
Director of Social Care and Children
Health and Social Care Board
This correspondence can be made available upon request in alternative formats, including
Braille, large print and audio tape.