What's New Bulletin 116 - 20 October 2022
This is edition 116 of the 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.
- Please give us your views and suggestions about the weekly care provider bulletin (information for all providers)
- Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund update (information for Birmingham Home Support, Extra Care and Older Adult Care Homes)
- REMINDER Adult social care providers urged to complete energy use survey deadline Monday 24 October (information for all providers)
- CONSULTATION Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance: call for evidence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (information for all providers)
- Every Mind Matters: new campaign urges people to be kind to their mind (information for all providers)
- Autumn COVID-19 booster and flu vaccinations: Long COVID and why the jabs still matter (information for all providers)
- Help shape a new Care Quality Commission (CQC) factual accuracy process (information for all providers)
- How the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are changing their ratings and reports (information for all providers)
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) The state of health care and adult social care in England 2021/22 report (information for all providers)
- Improving the Capacity Tracker for providers – Survey and Workshop (information for all providers)
- Capacity Tracker refresher sessions – including mandatory data completion (information for all providers)
1. Please give us your views and suggestions about the weekly care provider bulletin (information for all providers)
We would really appreciate it if you could take five minutes to complete the bulletin survey below:
We are interested to hear if you find the bulletin useful, and any suggestions that you have for improving it. You will find the feedback survey link at the top of each edition. If you no longer wish to receive it, you can unsubscribe by using the link below which is also at the top of each edition.
2. Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund update (information for Birmingham Home Support, Extra Care and Older Adult Care Homes)
Further to the publication of detailed guidance by the DHSC in March, the Council and care providers have been working through the processes of undertaking cost of care exercises and market sustainability planning for the home support (inc. home support in Extra Care) and older adult care home markets. Following the completion of those exercises the Council submitted a Fair Cost of Care summary report and Draft Market Sustainability Plan to the DHSC in line with the deadline of 14 October 2022. We have been informed that the DHSC will review our submissions over the Autumn and provide feedback to enable us to submit a Final Market Sustainability Plan in February 2023. Copies of the submissions have been circulated to providers. If you don't copies, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
We want to take this opportunity to thank all care providers which took part in the cost of care exercises, and also to those providers which volunteered to join the home support and care home representative groups and attended the engagement sessions over the last couple of months – we found the sessions really useful forums to share our thinking and findings as the analysis progressed, and we gained some insightful feedback which we have been able to build into our planning.
The Fair Cost of Care summary report is representative only of the data supplied to us by care providers during the exercise, and does not represent the Council’s opinion or view of the cost of care in Birmingham, nor a commitment to amend fees to match the outputs of the report. The government has allocated Birmingham £3.78m in grant funding for 2022/23 to support us to prepare care markets for the forthcoming social care reforms and to move towards paying a ‘Fair Cost of Care’. The Council is of the view that the impact of the social care reforms must be fully funded by the DHSC, and that consequently any changes to the fees it pays to care providers are constrained by this and future years’ funding settlements or grant allocations.
The Draft Market Sustainability Plan sets out how the Council proposes to spend this year’s £3.78m fund grant and summary details of how this will be split between older adult care home and home support (inc. home support extra care) provision. Please read this detail in the context of the broader plan document.
Although subject to approval of the plans by the DHSC and confirmation of future funding, we shall now begin to work through the process of administering the grant funding to ensure this is spent prior to 31 March 2023. We shall provide further details in due course via this comms bulletin.
3. REMINDER Adult social care providers urged to complete energy use survey deadline Monday 24 October (information for all providers)
Following the recent launch of the Government Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is asking businesses, including adult social care providers, to complete an important survey to better understand energy needs.
Government Energy Bill Relief Scheme
This is part of a three month review to identify businesses and organisations most at risk from higher energy costs and those which may need ongoing support beyond 31 March 2023. The survey closes at 11.55pm on Monday 24 October, so please do complete it before then.
Click below to take the energy use survey;
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
4. CONSULTATION Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance: call for evidence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (information for all providers)
The Government wants your views on what should be included within the Down Syndrome Act statutory guidance via it’s consultation that closes at 11:45pm on 8 November 2022.
For further information, please visit the link below:
Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance: call for evidence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
5. Every Mind Matters: new campaign urges people to be kind to their mind (information for all providers)
The public, including care and health colleagues, were urged to “be kind to your mind” recently as the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) launched the latest Better Health – Every Mind Matters campaign on the eve of World Mental Health Day.
Better Health – Every Mind Matters
The annual day of awareness raising took place on Monday 10 October. The Mental Health Social Work Lead, Jason Brandon, took the opportunity to applaud its reassuring messages of support in a new blog. He once again reaffirmed social work's important role in supporting people with mental health issues and signposted the £122 million of NHS funding to provide mental health support alongside employment advice to help more people stay in work or return to the job market.
£122 million of NHS funding to provide mental health support alongside employment advice
Read Jason’s blog in full on the Social Work with Adults site below;
World Mental Health Day - reassurance in trying times - Social work with adults (blog.gov.uk)
Download Every Mind Matters resources below;
Every Mind Matters - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
6. Autumn COVID-19 booster and flu vaccinations: Long COVID and why the jabs still matter (information for all providers)
It is estimated around two million people in the UK are currently experiencing Long COVID. Deborah Sturdy, Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, applauds a recently published practice framework for nursing colleagues in social care and clinical settings.
Long COVID and why vaccination still matters - Deborah Sturdy, Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care,
She also signposts the evidence that vaccination helps reduce the risk of developing Long COVID and urges all frontline care colleagues, yet to have their COVID-19 boosters and flu jabs, to book their appointments and keep themselves, their colleagues and those they care for safe, well and protected as winter approaches.
Book COVID-19 booster appointments
To help promote the benefits of vaccination to colleagues, visit the Campaign Resource Centre, where you’ll find Q&A leaflets, posters, social media content and stickers, all free to download and share.
Visit the Social Care blog for the latest vaccination stories;
7. Help shape a new Care Quality Commission (CQC) factual accuracy process (information for all providers)
The current factual accuracy process is important to ensuring that the information the CQC publish accurately matches the care your service provides.
The CQC are currently developing a new regulatory approach, which will include an equivalent to the factual accuracy process. The CQC want your input on what works well in the current model and what you would like them to do differently in the future.
Before completing the survey. Please either watch the video of the CQC’s recent webinar.
Watch the video below;
Provider review process in the new assessment framework - YouTube
8. How the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are changing their ratings and reports (information for all providers)
The CQC are proposing changes to the way they publish reports and ratings following their assessments of health and social care providers. These updates include the layout of reports on their website, sections and information on how the CQC have assessed providers. The changes are part of the work the CQC are doing to meet their strategy ambitions and support people to make decisions about their care. Find out more about the proposed changes by watching the recording of a recent webinar.
Watch the video below;
Publishing findings from our assessments - YouTube
9. Care Quality Commission (CQC) The state of health care and adult social care in England 2021/22 report (information for all providers)
On Friday 21 October 2022 the CQC published their annual assessment of the state of health and social care in England. They look at the quality of care over the past year, based on CQC’s inspection activity, information received from the public and those who deliver care alongside other evidence. Use #StateOfCare to join the conversation on social media and to raise awareness of issues the report unveils.
The full report can be found below;
20211021_stateofcare2021_print.pdf (cqc.org.uk)
10. Improving the Capacity Tracker for providers – Survey and Workshop (information for all providers)
The Capacity Tracker team want providers to get the most out of Capacity Tracker and are looking at:
- Ways to share your information back to you in a way that helps you, your service, and the people you care for
- How you might want to monitor your service using Capacity Tracker information.
There will be workshops later this month to understand what our first steps should be.
Before the workshops take place, the Capacity Tracker team would like providers to complete a survey so that they have an idea about the information that matters most to you.
Please complete the short survey below and show your interest in taking part in the workshops – it will only take a few minutes.
Capacity Tracker Provider Survey
11. Capacity Tracker refresher sessions – including mandatory data completion (information for all providers)
30 minute Demonstration Q&A Sessions are available for those new to the Capacity Tracker, or in need of a refresh. The sessions will include how the Capacity Tracker updated screens will look following the introduction of mandatory completion.
To find dates and links to attend the Demonstration Q&A sessions, please log into the Capacity Tracker (link below), go to the Help menu, select 'Resource Centre', then 'Events, and then 'Provider Training Sessions'
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.