What's New Bulletin 128 - 19 January 2023
This is edition 128 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 Important information about the tendering of care homes, supported living and home support sensory services for Birmingham City Council (information for all providers)
- UPDATED Level 3 Cold Weather Alert (information for all providers)
- It's never too late to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and flu (information for all providers)
- Digitising Social Care – ‘face to face’ market engagement event 02 February 2023 (information for all providers)
- Care Home: Chair Based Exercise Training Pilot – dates between February and June 2023 available (information for Birmingham and Solihull older adult care homes)
- REMINDER Adult Social Care Discharge Fund – applications invited closing date 31 January 2023 (Information for all Birmingham CQC Registered Care Providers)
- REMINDER Fee increases 2023/24 (Information for all contracted care providers)
- REMINDER Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund – payments update (information for all Birmingham providers)
- REMINDER Please ensure your current insurance documents are uploaded to the CareMatch Portal (information for all Birmingham City Council contracted providers)
1. REMINDER Important information about the tendering of care homes, supported living and home support sensory services for Birmingham City Council (information for all providers)
Please be aware that tender applications can now be made for the following contracts:
- 2023 Care homes for over 65’s
- 2023 Care homes for under 65’s
- 2023 Supported Living
- 2023 Home Support – Sensory Loss
Existing care providers who wish to continue to work with the Council will need to re-apply for these 2023 contracts which will replace the current arrangements on 3 April 2023. New providers may wish to consider applying should they wish to do business with the Council in future.
The tender application period is currently scheduled to end on 6 February 2023, so please do ensure you make your application before this date.
For details about how and where to apply, please see the below webpage and links:
Tender opportunities | Tender opportunities | Birmingham City Council
How do I ask questions during the tender period?
As the tender process has now launched, there will be restrictions on the contact Commissioners may be able to have. Please do not contact Commissioners in relation to any aspect of the tender.
To ensure the tender process is fair and transparent, support will need to be accessed as follows:
Procurement Support Step 1 – Check the Guidance Document
Should you have questions about the procurement exercise or how to complete the Questionnaire, you should check the relevant guidance document which is available from the list of dropdown documents under each contract heading on the CareMatch Portal:
- For Care Homes or Supported Living 2023, please read document “001 P0996 FCA SQ Instruction Doc FINAL”
- For a Home Support Sensory Loss 2023 contract, please read document “001 P0995 Sensory Loss Framework Instructions Doc FINAL”
Procurement Support Step 2 – check the Clarification Log
Check the Clarification Log to see if your question has already been asked and answered:
Tender opportunities | Tender opportunities | Birmingham City Council
Procurement Support Step 3 – raise a clarification question via the CareMatch Portal
Raise a clarification via the Questions function in the CareMatch Portal. The answers to these questions will be published regularly here:
Tender opportunities | Tender opportunities | Birmingham City Council
How can I get support with the CareMatch Portal during the tender?
CareMatch Portal Support Step 1
Review the tender instructions document and any guidance in the CareMatch Portal, to check you are entering the correct type of information.
CareMatch Portal Support Step 2
Review the CareMatch Portal User guide for instructions, which can be found here:
User Guide for providers using Care Match Portal | Birmingham City Council
CareMatch Portal Support Step 3
Check the Clarification Log and bulletins, as we may have published some further information already to support you:
Tender opportunities | Tender opportunities | Birmingham City Council
CareMatch Portal Support Step 4
Only after you have attempted to resolve your technical issue using the above support, should you contact the Council’s Market Intelligence Team via email at: marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
Please ensure you give as much detail as possible in your email, including screenshots where possible and which stage of the process you are stuck at. The team will respond either by email or will contact you by phone if they cannot resolve easily by email.
Please be aware once again that the Market Intelligence Team can only answer technical questions relating to the CareMatch Portal and not about any other aspect of the tender process. Please see guidance above for how to raise procurement/tender related questions.
2. UPDATED Level 3 Cold Weather Alert (information for all providers)
The recent Level 3 Met Office Cold Weather Alert has been updated for the West Midlands. There is now a 90% probability of severe cold weather and icy conditions until 09:00 on Monday the 23rd of Jan. This weather is likely to increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services.
Please share the following information with your staff, service users, communities and partner networks to help ensure that citizens - particularly those who are most vulnerable - are adequately prepared:
West Midlands - Level 3 (Amber) - 90% Risk - Cold weather expected to continue with widespread overnight frosts and daytime temperatures just above freezing. Some icy conditions possible with the risk of wintry showers, mainly until Friday. Perhaps turning a little less cold later in the weekend, but low confidence.
Updated winter guidance for those experiencing homelessness produced by Groundswell Charity has been circulated to care providers. If you don't have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
In addition, please be aware that you can sign up to the Met Office email alert service via the following link:
Guide to Met Office email alerts
3. It's never too late to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and flu (information for all providers)
Book appointments via the National Booking Service and visit the NHS website to find your nearest pharmacy offering free flu jabs. To promote vaccination to care colleagues, visit the Campaign Resource Centre for free leaflets, posters and social media content.
Find your nearest pharmacy offering free flu jabs
There is more we can all do to protect our health as the weather changes. The Stay Well this Winter leaflet for 2022/23 is also available to download. This helpful resource provides health information and guidance on how to stay well over the winter months.
Download the Stay Well This Winter leaflet below;
Stay Well This Winter | Campaign Resource Centre (phe.gov.uk)
4. Digitising Social Care – ‘face to face’ market engagement event 02 February 2023 (information for all providers)
Are you thinking about transitioning to digital care records? The West Midlands Care Association has match funding available (via Birmingham City Council and NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB) to help you make this important transition. Digitisation of Social Care (DiSC) is a national program to support Adult Social Care Providers make the move from paper to electronic dedicated care planning and a records management system referred to as a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR).
There is also financial support available for Sensor Based Falls Prevention and Detection Technologies (Care Homes only) and for piloting other technology (TEC) solutions (all Care Providers). West Midlands Care Association (Birmingham City Council’s digital program partner) are hosting a market engagement event at Bescot Stadium, Walsall. This will be an opportunity to talk to Digital Social Care providers and find out more information about the funding available.
Click the following link for more information and how to book your FREE place
Digitising Social Care (DISC) face to face event 2 February 2023
5. Care Home: Chair Based Exercise Training Pilot – dates between February and June 2023 available (information for Birmingham and Solihull older adult care homes)
Birmingham & Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) are pleased to announce the availability of a training course aimed at empowering and skilling care teams to improve the health of residents through the model of regular structured exercise sessions.
We would like to help you give a member of staff the skills and confidence to lead exercise classes and encourage movement in your residents, safely and effectively. The fully funded pilot is aimed at reducing the number of falls in the elderly by intervening to improve their physical fitness levels and strength. Even the smallest amount of exercise will help improve mobility and flexibility/range of movement along with coordination.
Our training partner, Amac are going to be offering a free place on their ‘Chair-based Exercise Instructor Course’ for every older adult care home across Birmingham and Solihull. This will require staff to be able to attend two three-hour Zoom workshops on consecutive days.
If you would like to learn more and book a place on the next available session, please contact Liz.Lee@amactraining.co.uk.
6. REMINDER Adult Social Care Discharge Fund – applications invited closing date 31 January 2023 (Information for all Birmingham CQC Registered Care Providers)
On 18 November 2022 the DHSC shared details of the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund. Further details can be found on the government website below:
Adult Social Care Discharge Fund - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Birmingham City Council and Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSol ICB) have allocated £6m of the funding to be distributed to Birmingham located CQC regulated care homes, home support, supported living and extra care schemes on a discretionary basis in order to enable them to implement measures to enhance workforce capacity. The funding must be spent prior to 31 March 2023 on measures including, but not limited to:
- activities to support hospital discharge or to prevent or address delays as a result of workforce capacity shortages
- supporting payments to boost the hours provided by the existing workforce – including childcare costs and overtime payments
- the creation and maintenance of measures to secure additional or redeployed capacity from current care workers. For example, staff banks and redeploying staff
- local recruitment initiatives
- bringing forward planned pay increases
The following documents which provide further details about the grant and how to apply for funding have been circulated to care providers. If you don't have copies, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk –
Grant Conditions; Appendix 1 – Grant application form; Appendix 2 – Spend return form; Appendix 3 – Allocations list care homes; Appendix 4 – Allocation list home support, supported living, extra care; Appendix 5 – Application instructions.
Should you have further questions please submit these to ascdischargefund@birmingham.gov.uk
Applications for grant funding from eligible registered locations are now invited before the closing date on 31 January 2023. Please read carefully all grant documentation before applying. You should submit your application form to ascdischargefund@birmingham.gov.uk by midnight on 31 January 2023. Applications submitted to other Council email addresses risk not being considered or accepted.
7. REMINDER Fee increases 2023/24 (Information for all contracted care providers)
The Council has concluded its fee setting process for contracted care homes, supported living, home support and extra care sheltered housing provision for the year 2023/24. Details are set out in a fee summary document that has been circulated to providers and are applicable from 3 April 2023. The fee summary document is available on the Council’s website via the link below:
Invoice, payment and fees | Birmingham City Council
Please note the fees will apply to all new and existing packages of care with contracted providers under the contracts set out in the summary document, from Monday 3 April 2023 (or from date of contract award, whichever is the later). N.B. for care homes, supported living and home support (sensory loss) the fees will apply only to 2023 contract holders.
For the avoidance of doubt, existing packages of care (commissioned under 2018 care home, supported living or home support sensory loss contracts) will not be uplifted to the fees set out until the care provider has been awarded a 2023 care home, supported living or home support sensory loss contract, which are currently open for tender until 6 February 2023. For further information and to apply go to the link below:
Tender opportunities | Tender opportunities | Birmingham City Council
8. REMINDER Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund – payments update (information for all Birmingham providers)
Further to the submission to the DHSC and the publication of the Council’s 2022 Cost of Care Exercise report and the draft Market Sustainability Plan, we have been working to progress the distribution to eligible care providers of Birmingham’s £3.78m funding for the year 2022/23.
We set out the in the draft Market Sustainability Plan that we intend to make one-off payments equivalent to an indicative 2% fee uplift to older adult 65years+ care homes, and 3.5% to 18 years+ home support and extra care sheltered housing schemes.
Distribution of the grant funding is subject to approval by the Council’s Cabinet on 14 February 2023. Once approval is granted we shall release further details of the payments and will distribute funding to eligible care providers before 31 March 2023.
9.REMINDER 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.