What's New Bulletin 122 - 1 December 2022
This is edition 122 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.
- REMINDER Digitising Social Care and Technology Enabled Care Survey (information for Birmingham Care Homes, Home Support, Supported Living and Extra Care providers)
- National Capacity Tracker Vaccination Survey (information for all providers)
- REMINDER Autumn COVID-19 booster and flu campaign (information for all providers)
- Birmingham Continuing Health Care (BCHC) and Project ECHO fortnightly interactive educational sessions - Care in the Last Days of Life – 5 December 2022 (information for Birmingham care homes)
- Developing a minimum dataset for homecare (DACHA-DOM) (information for all homes support providers)
- Royal College of Nursing - Networking for learning disability nurses in social care (information for all nursing homes)
- Professional Nurse Advocate Programme (PNA) – expressions of interest by 6 December 2022 (information for all nursing homes)
- REMINDER Opportunity to be chair of Shared Decision Making Councils (information for all providers)
- UKHSA surveillance data indicates that influenza is circulating in the community (information for all care homes)
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) - Learning from safety incidents (information for all providers)
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) - Help shape the CQC staff experience framework (information for all providers)
- Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Regulatory Leadership Team Webinar 5 December 2022 (information for all providers)
1. REMINDER Digitising Social Care and Technology Enabled Care Survey (information for Birmingham Care Homes, Home Support, Supported Living and Extra Care providers)
West Midlands Care Association (WMCA) are working in partnership with Birmingham City Council (BCC) to establish a local picture of Birmingham based care providers digital capability and use of Technology Enabled Care (TEC).
There will be various funding opportunities available to you as a care provider, to adopt one or more digital technologies to meet your future needs. The first step in this process is the completion of the following brief survey (which will only take a few minutes to complete).
It is important that all care providers complete this survey, for which we thank you in advance for your support. Regardless of where you are as an organisation in your transformation to delivering on digital enabled care and TEC this information is vital in helping the WMCA and BCC in determining what support care providers need. Should you have any questions about this survey please contact: Carol Leach, carol.leach3@nhs.net
The survey can be found below:
2. National Capacity Tracker Vaccination Survey (information for all providers)
A survey for Care Homes and Home Care providers has been added to Capacity Tracker today. Please see the message below from DHSC which details the background to this.
"Your continued efforts to share information on COVID-19 and seasonal flu vaccination uptake with us through Capacity Tracker are very much appreciated. This is vital in helping central and local government monitor uptake this autumn / winter and we thank you greatly for this.
However, we are aware from stakeholders that provider locations sometimes encounter issues in obtaining this information. This was acknowledged in the provider information provisions originally published in July where we said we recognised that staff may choose not to disclose their vaccination status to their employer. Collecting staff and resident data (where they are comfortable sharing this) is essential for local systems and the government to understand overall levels of uptake during a booster campaign, because it’s vital that settings in which there are people vulnerable to COVID-19 achieve high levels of protection against coronavirus, and similarly for influenza. With regularly updated data, the NHS vaccination programme can direct and target resource in the right place and where it is needed.
Provider information provisions
To better understand the information you are currently reporting – and to inform data collection for possible future Covid booster and flu vaccination campaigns – throughout December and January we will be running a voluntary survey to find out more about the potential issues that may arise for providers in gathering this information. This survey has been initiated by the Data & Analysis team at DHSC with the goal of improving their understanding of how you gather vaccination information to submit into Capacity Tracker."
We would be very grateful if you could take some time to complete the survey. We recommend that you first look through the survey questions to check you have all the information you need before answering them. If you leave the survey page without submitting your response, all answers will reset.
3. REMINDER Autumn COVID-19 booster and flu campaign (information for all providers)
All those eligible for the flu vaccine have been urged to come forward as cases rise to levels not seen since before the pandemic. There is a particular need for pre-schoolers, pregnant women and those in the care and health workforces to take up the offer.
Eligible people urged to get vaccinated
The country-wide marketing campaign, urging millions of eligible people to get their flu and COVID-19 booster vaccines, continues to run across television, radio and social media. You can watch the TV advert here.
Country-wide marketing campaign
You can watch the TV advert here.
To learn more, and promote the benefits of vaccination to care colleagues, visit the Campaign Resource Centre for Q&A leaflets, posters, social media content and stickers, all free to download and share.
4. Birmingham Continuing Health Care (BCHC) and Project ECHO fortnightly interactive educational sessions - Care in the Last Days of Life – 5 December 2022 (information for Birmingham care homes)
Please see below the link to join the next Project Echo on Monday 5 December at 02:00pm, where Annie Hands, Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice, will share their expert knowledge in regards to Care in the Last Days of Life.
Care in the last days of life session - 5 December 2022
Case based scenarios have been circulated to providers, to print off before the session starts ready for breakout rooms. If you don't have copies, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
A registration form needs to be completed if this is your first time on Project Echo and have never completed one before. The form has been circulated to providers. If you don't have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
If you have already completed a registration and Data Agreement form, you will only need to do this once and will automatically be invited to the next session/topic.
5. Developing a minimum dataset for homecare (DACHA-DOM) (information for all homes support providers)
Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University and the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York are conducting a survey of homecare providers. They're asking how homecare data is collected, recorded and stored, together with the barriers faced.
The project is focused on understanding the feasibility of implementing a ‘minimum data set in homecare’, meaning a system of standardized data collection that could be used to evaluate the support needs of local populations over time, inform resource allocation and monitor quality.
In their recent Care Management Matters column, you can learn more.
Care Management Matters column
The survey can be completed below;
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
6. Royal College of Nursing - Networking for learning disability nurses in social care (information for all nursing homes)
Many learning disability nurses work in social care settings, in a wide variety of roles. It can be isolating sometimes, particularly if you don’t have other learning disability nurses in your organisation.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Learning Disability Nursing Forum has organised an online networking event for learning disability nurses working in social care to help nurses connect with each other, share experiences, and identify ways to support each other.
Register below to join the forum;
7. Professional Nurse Advocate Programme (PNA) – expressions of interest by 6 December 2022 (information for all nursing homes)
PNA training provides those on the programme with skills to facilitate restorative supervision to their colleagues and teams, in nursing and beyond. A version of this programme exists already for maternity colleagues, where outcomes point to improved staff wellbeing and retention, alongside improved patient outcomes. The training equips them to listen and to understand challenges and demands of fellow colleagues, and to lead support and deliver quality improvement initiatives in response.
The training will provide the participants with the skills to facilitate restorative supervision to colleagues and teams within services they work within and beyond. In addition, the training equips nurses to lead and deliver quality improvement initiatives in response to service demands and changing patient requirements.
There are some unallocated places for the next cohort and it’s a first come and first served basis and there are places available for nurses working within social care.
Candidates will be studying virtually and must have completed a level 6 qual (degree level) previously.
Please email your expression of interest to renny.wodynska@skillsforcare.org.uk by 6 December 2022.
Further information can be found below;
NHS England » Professional nurse advocate
8. REMINDER Opportunity to be chair of Shared Decision Making Councils (information for all providers)
The Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Deborah Sturdy, is working with colleagues at NHS England and across all 42 local Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England, to establish Shared Decision Making Councils (SDMCs). The purpose of these councils is to help provide a better understanding of nursing in adult social care, as well as insight into the wider adult social care sector, to Directors of Nursing in ICBs. Deborah Sturdy is seeking expressions of interest from individuals with an active nursing registration working in adult social care to become chairs of these new SDMCs. This is an exciting opportunity to inform local understanding and recognition of their profession and the wider sector. ICBs are responsible for planning and funding NHS services in a local area. They also have a wider role in ICSs who have responsibility for decisions around social care and health. It is vital that these organisations hear the voice of nursing in adult social care, and the voice of the wider sector.
For further information about what the role entails and to express an interest, visit the Florence Nightingale Foundation website below.
Florence Nightingale Foundation
9. UKHSA surveillance data indicates that influenza is circulating in the community (information for all care homes)
Prescribers working in primary care may now prescribe, and community pharmacists may now supply antiviral medicines (oseltamivir and zanamivir) for the prophylaxis and treatment of influenza at NHS expense. This is in accordance with NICE guidance, and Schedule 2 to the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts (Prescription of drugs etc) Regulations 2004), commonly known as the Grey List or Selected List Scheme (SLS).
Antiviral medicines may be prescribed for patients in clinical at-risk groups as well as anyone at risk of severe illness and/or complications from influenza if not treated.
Further information is provided from the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer below;
CMO and Chief Pharmacist antiviral medicine authorisation.pdf
10. Care Quality Commission (CQC) - Learning from safety incidents (information for all providers)
Our learning from safety incidents series describes a critical issue: what happened, what CQC and the provider have done about it, and the steps providers and people working in health and care can take to avoid it happening in their service.
The latest issue focuses on promoting sexual safety. It describes a recent prosecution of a care home provider and a registered manager for failing to protect a resident from avoidable harm.
Read more below;
Issue 11: Promoting sexual safety - Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)
11. Care Quality Commission (CQC) - Help shape the CQC staff experience framework (information for all providers)
The CQC are developing a new regulatory model, based on a single assessment framework, which they will implement in 2023.
In the new single assessment framework, ‘Feedback from staff and leaders’ is a required evidence category for all the quality statements. As part of this development work, the CQC want to improve how they gather feedback from staff who may be more likely to face inequalities in the workplace and how the CQC will consider their experiences in their assessments and other regulatory work.
This includes staff from ethnic minority groups, disabled people, LGBT+ people, as well as people who have other protected equality characteristics and staff in less stable employment situations (for example, bank, agency or outsourced workers).
Protected equality characteristics
To support this work we'd like your feedback through a short survey.
The aim of this survey is to gather initial feedback from staff at all levels in all health and care sectors. We use some monitoring questions in the survey to make sure we include a diverse range of workers across health and social care. All survey responses are anonymous. Your responses will help us to shape our approach to collecting and using staff feedback and we will hold more in-depth co-production sessions in 2023.
Share your feedback below:
Staff Experience Framework (typeform.com)
12.Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Regulatory Leadership Team Webinar 5 December 2022 (information for all providers)
Meet our new regulatory leadership team and hear about the work they’ll be doing to support more effective regulation and drive improvement across health and social care.
CQC new regulatory leadership team
This one-hour webinar will be an opportunity for providers and professionals who work in healthcare services, organisations who represent them and other stakeholders, to hear about our new regulatory leadership team and what it means for them.
The webinar will be led by Kate Terroni, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Integrated Care and Interim Chief Operating Officer, and Dr Sean O’Kelly, Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services, and will take place on Monday 5 December, 4:00-5:00pm.
There will be a presentation and time to answer your questions from our live chat.
Register your place below. Registration will close at 1pm on Monday 5 December. We will not be able to accept new registrations after this time.