What's New Bulletin 83 - 3 March 2022
This is the eighty third weekly provider bulletin, containing information on guidance, procedures and new initiatives. Very urgent or high priority communications may still be issued on an ad hoc basis, but we will try to keep these to a minimum.
COVID RELATED INFORMATION
- Department of Health and Social Care: Frequently asked questions in relation to Living with Covid-19 plan (information for all providers)
- REMINDER CONSULTATION OUTCOME Revoking provisions which require vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and social care settings (information for all providers)
- UPDATED GUIDANCE To reflect the changes to self-isolation regulations (information for all providers)
- UPDATED GUIDANCE PPE portal: how to order COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) (information for all providers)
IN OTHER NEWS
- Capacity Tracker Care Home Deterioration Tool Survey (information for all care homes)
- Please ensure your current insurance documents are uploaded to the CareMatch Portal (information for all Birmingham City Council contracted providers)
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) annual report on the use of the Mental Health Act (information for all providers)
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) Care Management Matters (information for all providers)
- Webinar on the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) regulatory approach 24 March 2022 (information for all providers)
- Skills for Care Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) (information for all providers)
COVID RELATED INFORMATION
1. Department of Health and Social Care: Frequently asked questions in relation to Living with Covid-19 plan (information for all providers)
The government published its Living with COVID-19 plan on 21 February 2022. Further information can be found in Item 1 of the following provider bulletin
What's New Bulletin 82 - 24 February 2022 - Care services providers' bulletin (birmingham.gov.uk)
The Department of Health and Social Care are working through the next phase of the COVID-19 response and protecting the most vulnerable in Adult Social Care whilst enabling people to live their lives with as few restrictions as possible. They have put together a few top FAQs about next steps.
What does the removal of self-isolation regulations mean for ASC? Should staff still self-isolate if necessary from 24 February 2022?
There will be no change in advice for staff who currently need to self-isolate across ASC from Thursday 24th. Guidance will be updated to remove references to the legal requirement but anyone who tests positive and who is an unvaccinated contact should still stay at home and avoid contact, and should stay away from work. This advice will also be provided to the general public so although self-isolation will no longer be the law, there will continue to be strong guidance to stay at home and avoid contact with people. The same applies for care home residents where guidance currently advises self-isolation.
Did anything change about testing to reduce isolation periods from 24 February 2022 - e.g. if you’re a vaccinated contact or if you’ve tested positive?
There will be no change in advice in when to test from Thursday 24 February apart from updates to guidance to remove references to the legal requirement. For example, if staff are asymptomatic vaccinated contacts, advice remains that they should stay away from work, take a PCR, and if negative, they can return to work whilst testing daily. Or, if an individual has tested positive, the advice continues to be that individuals should stay home, and only come back to work following two negative consecutive LFD tests from days 5 and 6.
Is the ICTF still available to fund ICF and testing measures including self-isolation?
Providers can still use the ICTF to pay their staff full wages whilst they are self-isolating, and is available until the end of March 2022. This is not impacted by the legal duty to self-isolate being dropped.
If everything is staying the same for ASC right now, when will there be changes to IPC guidance?
We are reviewing measures over the coming weeks, and as discussed, we are looking at providing updates guidance by 1 April 2022. We want to develop this with the sector and will continue engagement with you on what the future guidance to the sector will be over the coming weeks.
The PM’s speech and Living with Covid document didn’t mention continued free asymptomatic testing for staff. Should we keep testing now and will testing provision end?
Testing for all staff, residents, and visitors should continue in line with the relevant testing regimes set out below – testing remains important to quickly identify individuals who are likely to be highly infectious and enables them to self-isolate to reduce transmission and keep the most vulnerable safe. Further detail on future testing will be provided in due course.
Coronavirus (Covid-19) testing for adult social care services
2. REMINDER CONSULTATION OUTCOME Revoking provisions which require vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and social care settings (information for all providers)
The outcome from the consultation on revoking provisions which require vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and social care settings has now been published and the legal requirement for health and social care staff to be double jabbed will be removed from 15 March.
The press release can be found below:
Regulations making COVID-19 vaccination a condition of deployment to end
The consultation response can be found below
Revoking vaccination as a condition of deployment across all health and social care
The following guidance has been updated as a result of the consultation response;
Vaccination of workers in social care settings other than care homes: operational guidance
COVID-19 vaccination of people working or deployed in care homes: operational guidance
Vaccination still remains the best line of defense against COVID-19 and protection for the vulnerable people that access your services. Health and care workers still have a professional responsibility to be vaccinated and we are asking for dialogue to continue with staff in all social care settings about the benefits of vaccination. The Department of Health and Social Care vaccine communications toolkit is still available to aid these discussions - if you haven't got a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk The communications toolkit can be used to provide information and resources about the COVID-19 booster and flu vaccine.
Please also continue to ensure you are regularly updating the National Capacity Tracker with your staffs vaccination status. The Capacity Tracker can be accessed below
If you have questions or queries regarding how to update the data and where to report specific scenarios, please contact capacitytracker-guidance@dhsc.gov.uk.
If you are experiencing technical issues with Capacity Tracker, please contact necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net or the Capacity Tracker Support Centre on 0191-691-3729.
3. UPDATED GUIDANCE To reflect the changes to self-isolation regulations (information for all providers)
The following guidance has been updated to reflect the changes to self-isolation regulations;
Coronavirus (COVID-19): providing home care
Supported living services during coronavirus (COVID-19)
Coronavirus (COVID-19): testing in adult care homes
Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing for homecare workers
Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing in extra care and supported living settings
Visiting arrangements in care homes
Coronavirus (COVID-19): admission and care of people in care homes
4. UPDATED GUIDANCE PPE portal: how to order COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) (information for all providers)
This guidance covers how eligible health and social care providers can order PPE through the portal to meet the increased need that has arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been updated to add a call out informing of the dates for migrating to the new PPE portal.
The full guidance can be found below:
PPE portal: how to order COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE)
IN OTHER NEWS……………………
5. Capacity Tracker Care Home Deterioration Tool Survey (information for all care homes)
Following on from the first Deterioration Survey, published in August 2021, the second care home Deterioration Survey is now live on the Capacity Tracker and will close on 31 March 2022. The survey only has to be completed once by each care home and should take no longer than five minutes to complete. A notification for the survey can be found on the Capacity Tracker homepage when logged on (for Capacity Tracker link, see item 2 above).
By completing the survey care homes will be helping the NHS National Patient Safety Improvement Team including Patient Safety Collaboratives through the Academic Health Science Network, to understand more about what happens when residents experience an episode of acute physical deterioration. It will help the team to understand which tools are used and how deteriorating residents are identified, and managed, across care homes in England.
NHS National Patient Safety Improvement Team
Academic Health Science Network
To find out more about the deterioration work the team are doing, the tools which can be used and how to get in touch please see below
Supporting patient safety in care homes
6. Please ensure your current insurance documents are uploaded to the CareMatch Portal (information for all Birmingham City Council contracted providers)
It is an important part of your contractual obligations to Birmingham City Council, and a legal requirement, to ensure you have valid insurance at all times. It is important that when you renew your insurance documents you remember to upload a copy to the CareMatch Portal following the instructions in Section 8.8 of the Care Match Portal User Guide - see below
If you are experiencing technical issues uploading the documents, please contact market.intelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
Reminder alerts were added to the CareMatch Portal in December 2020 to inform you when your insurance documents were coming up to their expiry date and when they had expired to assist you to remain compliant with your contractual obligations around insurance. For further information about this CareMatch Portal functionality and how to ensure you are receiving these alerts, please review the following previous provider bulletin items on this topic,
No evidence of current insurance cover on the CareMatch Portal at the levels mentioned below will be treated as a breach of contract until evidence of cover is provided
The levels and types of insurance required by the Framework Agreement for the Provision of Home Support for Children and Young People with Disabilities and Home Support for Adults and the Flexible Contracting Arrangements for the Provision of Care Homes With and Without Nursing Services and Care and Support (Supported Living) are as follows;
- Employers Liability (including volunteers) Insurance - to be as a minimum in accordance with statutory legislation (currently £5m)
- Public Liability Insurance (including loss or damage to service user’s personal effects) - Minimum £10m
- For nursing homes only: Professional Indemnity / Treatment Cover, which must be a minimum of £5m and Negligence which must also be a minimum of £5m
Birmingham City Council requires £10m Public Liability Insurance for the following reasons;
- This was the outcome of a review of risk around all services either contracted out or provided to the Council taking into account recent judgements around risk and benchmarking the levels of cover we require against those set by other public authorities.
- The limit of £5m has been unchanged for many years. The £10m takes into account the size of awards given by the courts, general claims inflation from the period when the £5m limit was set and the effect of the Lord Chancellor’s decision in 2017 to significantly reduce the discount rate to be applied to awards for personal injury.
Providers are finding the cost of insurance has risen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and as such it is important you allow enough time for finding an alternative insurance provider, if needed, before your current insurance expires. Please contact your Care Association to see what support and advice they can offer. It is important that you inform you area commissioners if you are having difficulty arranging future cover before the expiry of your current insurance.
Who to contact in the Commissioning Team?
7. Care Quality Commission (CQC) annual report on the use of the Mental Health Act (information for all providers)
The CQC’s annual report on the use of the Mental Health Act (MHA) looks at how providers are caring for patients, and whether patients' rights are being protected.
This year's report finds:
- The workforce is under extreme pressure
- Community services are key to reducing levels of detention in hospital
- Urgent action is needed to address longstanding inequalities in mental health care
Writing in the foreword, Jemima Burnage, our lead for mental health, says:
"This year’s report reflects on the full year under the cloud of the pandemic. This has been, of course, a time of unprecedented stress on services, staff, and on patients managing under restrictions introduced in response to the pandemic, as well as their detention in hospital under the MHA. There has been much tragic loss of life in mental health services, as everywhere else. But both this year’s and last year’s reports also describe a story of resilience. In our discussions with patients, carers, advocates and staff during the year, people were appreciative of each other’s efforts."
For further information, please see the following;
Report: Monitoring the Mental Health Act
8. Care Quality Commission (CQC) Care Management Matters (information for all providers)
The latest article on Care Management Matters from Debbie Ivanova, Deputy Chief Inspector for people with a learning disability and autistic people is available. The article talks about the importance of using a range of communication tools to enable good care.
The article also introduces the Supported Living Improvement Coalition. CQC has started this work to bring together people with lived experience of supported living services, their relatives and carers with providers, Local Authority and housing organisations with the goal of enabling people to share their stories and guide improvement and best practice across these services. The article can be found below:
Inside CQC: Improving supported living - Care Management Matters
9. Webinar on the Care Quality Commission's regulatory approach - 24 March 2022 (information for all providers)
Join the latest CQC webinar where they will update you on their current regulatory approach and share the latest on what their new regulatory model will look like. The webinar will take place on Thursday 24 March 10am to 11am and will be led by Kate Terroni, Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care.
There will be a presentation and time to answer questions.
Sign up to the webinar below:
10. Skills for Care Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) (information for all providers)
The Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) is an online data collection service that covers the adult social care workforce in England. Skills for Care collect workforce data from around 20,000 care providers. That data helps build a detailed picture of the adult social care sector. Developing understanding around workforce challenges.
ASC-WDS gives you tools to help you store staff records. The training and qualifications feature helps to keep track of staff training and you can benchmark your organisation against similar providers in your area.
The ASC-WDS gives users other benefits around training and qualifications. You can watch a new video from Skills For Care to find out more by visiting their website;