What's New Bulletin 89 - 14 April 2022
This is the eighty ninth 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
- Living With COVID Birmingham Provider Meetings (information for all Birmingham providers)
- Questionnaire about Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Champions - please complete by 19 April 2022 (information for all Birmingham Care Homes)
- World Hand Hygiene Day 5 May 2022 – The Infection Prevention Control Champion’s glow box challenge (information for all Birmingham Care Homes)
- Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) webinar supporting implementation of the Infection Prevention and Control (information for all providers)
IN OTHER NEWS
- 24 to 48 hour delay in payments being made to Care Homes (information for Care Homes With and Without Nursing only)
- Department of Health and Social Care, Social Care Reform Markets Survey – Have your say – Deadline extended to 3 May 2022 (information for all providers)
- Planning ahead for the Commonwealth Games road closures (information for all providers)
- Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System Care Home Lifting Cushion Pilot (information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
- Skills for Care Virtual Social Media Masterclasses for Care Providers (information for all providers)
- Please ensure your current insurance documents are uploaded to the CareMatch Portal (information for all Birmingham City Council contracted providers)
COVID RELATED INFORMATION
1. Living With COVID Birmingham Provider Meetings (information for all Birmingham providers)
Birmingham Health Protection Response Team and Birmingham Adults’ Commissioning Team have arranged a number of provider meetings to go over the recent changes to government guidance as we Learn to Live with COVID.
The sessions will cover/covered the following;
- Latest Public Health Guidance Around Outbreaks and How To Manage Them In Care Settings
- Update on IPC Guidance & Practice, Reminder of The Relevant Websites
- BCC Expectations Regarding Covid Positive Hospital Discharges As We Learn To Live With COVID
- Questions/AOB
The remaining date is;
20 April 2022 9:30am to 10:30am – Home support / supported living
The slides for the Care Home events on 13 and 14 April are available. If you want a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
2. Questionnaire about Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Champions - please complete by 19 April 2022 (information for all Birmingham Care Homes)
In November 2021 the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in partnership with The Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI) launched the infection, prevention, and control (IPC) champions network. The aim of the IPC Champions Network is to help maintain and continuously improve standards across the care sector.
New Infection Prevention Network launched for social care
Sign up to receive the IPC Champions Network Newsletter
Birmingham also commissioned an Infection Control Service in December 2020 to provide a dedicated Infection Prevention Control (IPC) service to care homes. The team is made up of infection control nurses and the service is available until September 2022. You can find out more about this service below:
We are asking Birmingham Care Homes to complete the questionnaire below to ensure we have up to date information on dedicated IPC champions (also known as IPC leads or IPC link workers) for the purpose of targeting communications (such as a regular newsletter), establishing a network of champions, and sending invitations to IPC events to share information, good practice, and guidance; The questionnaire is below:
Infection Prevention and control Champions’ questionnaire
The deadline for the questionnaire is Tuesday 19 April 2022
3. World Hand Hygiene Day 5 May 2022 – The Infection Prevention Control Champion’s glow box challenge (information for all Birmingham Care Homes)
To celebrate world hand hygiene day Jean and Ian from the Infection Prevention Control team have been challenged to visit 22 Care Homes with their Glow Box celebrating the excellent hand hygiene practice we have seen. They need your support, are you up for the challenge? Can they visit your home and staff team? They will send out further details if you are interested. Please email jean.dipple@nhs.net or ian.rollason@nhs.net , if you and your staff are up for the challenge.
4. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) webinar supporting implementation of the Infection Prevention and Control (information for all providers)
This event is for all those responsible for setting and maintaining standards of IPC within adult social care in England, care home managers in England and homecare organisation managers in England. It will be chaired by DHSC Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Deborah Sturdy OBE.
Date: Friday 29 April from 10:15am-11:15am
Please use the link below to book a place;
IN OTHER NEWS …………………..
5. 24 to 48 hour delay in payments being made to Care Homes (information for Care Homes With and Without Nursing only)
Residential and Nursing Care providers will have received their payment remittance as at today (14 April) – this is a couple of days late due to end of year processing issues. This means that Care Homes will receive payment into their bank account on Wednesday 20 April or Thursday 21 April – this will be 24 to 48 hours later than expected. Birmingham City Council apologises for the delay.
6. Department of Health and Social Care, Social Care Reform Markets Survey – Have your say – Deadline extended to 3 May 2022 (information for all providers)
On 7 September 2021, the Prime Minister announced changes which will affect the care home and home care provider market. To help understand this market better, DHSC is asking care home and home care providers to complete their survey now available within the Capacity Tracker; Care Home and Home Care providers can access the survey from their respective Manage your care homes or Manage your home care provider pages. The deadline for responding has been extended to 3 May 2022.
The survey is an opportunity for providers to share information about who is receiving care in their service and information about that care. This will help DHSC to understand what it reforms will mean in practice for residents, service users and provider businesses. It will also help monitor how reform is affecting the care market in the coming months. If you have any further questions relating to the DHSC Care Home and Home Care Markets Survey, please email:capacitytrackerfeeratesurvey@dhsc.gov.uk
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.
7. Planning ahead for the Commonwealth Games road closures (information for all providers)
During the Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham this summer (28 July to 8 August 2022), there will be a number of road events which will result in road closures and overall increases in demand for public transport for the duration of the games. Please review the attached presentation (BCC Adult Social Care_040422) for further details and start to consider how this may affect the delivery of your service to citizens.
Public drop-in sessions are taking place in April and May for residents and businesses to ask questions about preparations for Birmingham 2022, in Birmingham city centre, Edgbaston, Perry Barr, Sutton Coldfield and wards along the Marathon route. A full list of the events can be found below;
Get set for the Games - drop-in sessions
All events | Birmingham City Council (bebirmingham.co.uk)
8. Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System Care Home Lifting Cushion Pilot (information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System have just launched a falls prevention lifting cushion pilot. The aim of the pilot is to provide care homes in Birmingham and Solihull with the means and mechanisms to manage falls in a more person-centred way by using post falls risk assessment (istumble) and lifting cushions. The multi-agency partnership pilot is involving 60 care homes that are either participating with a support to care home team or have been identified as a frequent 999 caller that resulted in non-conveyance to hospital.
Lifting cushion devices are a means of manually assisting a person off the floor, this manual handling item therefore is not available through local equipment stores service.
Birmingham City University will be conducting a research project alongside this work to evidence the impact and explore barriers to using the lifting device. For any further information, please email NHS BSol CCG community transformation team at Nhsbsolccg.communitytransformation@nhs.net.
9. Skills for Care Virtual Social Media Masterclasses for Care Providers (information for all providers)
Skills for Care has partnered with Paul Ince at LikeMind Media to deliver a series of exclusive social media masterclasses for adult social care providers.
The first masterclass will give you the knowledge and practical tools you need to optimise your Facebook business account. Whether you are new to using Facebook for your social care service, or already have an established presence on the platform, there will be something for you to learn and put into action. Future webinars will cover Twitter, Linked in, Instagram and TikTok. For more information please see the link below:
Skills for Care joins with marketing expert to host social media masterclasses for recruitment
10. 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;
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
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.