Home-help agencies may struggle to afford the Southern District Health Board's new home support plan for the elderly, New Zealand Home Health Association chief executive Julie Haggie says.
The DHB's "restorative" home help model requires minimum qualifications for all care workers at a time of possible cuts to training subsidies, Ms Haggie said.
A Ministry of Education consultation signalled a shake-up of training subsidies, the outcome of which was unknown, Ms Haggie said.
It had the potential to affect the "entire zone of the disability sector" in terms of less or no support for employers paying for staff to gain qualifications, she said.
Under the DHB's planned changes to be implemented from the middle of next year, agencies performing household chores will be required to take a holistic view of client needs, including liaising with health providers.
Expectations on providers in several areas increased, including providing computer-based needs assessments for the first time, Ms Haggie said.
She appreciated the DHB, under financial pressure, had come up with a "great ideal" for home-based services, but funding was the key question.
In a worst-case scenario, lack of proper funding could pressure agencies into removing clients from the service, she said.
Asked to respond to Ms Haggie's concerns, finance and funding executive director Robert Mackway-Jones said through a spokeswoman the DHB would discuss funding with providers once they were selected in a tendering process.
Home-based support cost $13.3 million in 2011-12.
