What's New Bulletin 153 - 13 July 2023
This is edition 153 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.
1. REMINDER Restart of revised Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – Care Homes July 2023 – DEADLINE 20 July 2023 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)
2. Birmingham and Solihull's Social Care Nurse Advisory Board (information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
3. Birmingham and Solihull training hub – call for hosts of student nurses (information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
4. Skills for Care report on The Size and Structure of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England (information for all providers)
5. Skills for Care resources and upcoming events (information for all providers)
6. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Visiting consultation – Deadline 16 August 2023 (information for all Care Homes)
7. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - Consultation on learning disability and autism training requirement code of practice – Deadline 19 September 2023 (information for all providers)
8. Skills for Care Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set – how it can help your sector (information for all providers)
9. Cost of Care exercise 2023 (Information for all contracted care providers)
1. REMINDER Restart of revised Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – Care Homes July 2023 – DEADLINE 20 July 2023 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)
Please find the link to the July monthly MIQ here;
The deadline for completion will be two weeks initially, 20 July 2023. As the process becomes established, we will send out the questionnaire during the first week of the month with a week’s deadline.
This initially request for the questionnaire return is via our bulletin distribution list with a link to BeHeard (the Council’s consultation system). The questionnaire asks for dedicated email addresses to be used going forward.
The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information to assist our market shaping and development role, the production of our Market Position Statements, fulfil our Care Act duties around ensuring a quality and sustainable market, to help us direct resources, identify areas of risk, and monitor progress towards our strategic aims. It has been coproduced with health colleagues to reduce duplication in data collection, and has been streamlined so that we are only collecting information that is not available to us from elsewhere e.g. the Capacity Tracker.
We will only be collecting data that we will use and at the frequency we need it. Therefore, instead of quarterly questionnaires, there will be a shorter monthly questionnaires, a slightly longer quarterly questionnaire with some additional questions and a slightly longer still annual questionnaire.
This is the first questionnaire since restarting the MIQ process. We are starting with a monthly questionnaire in this instance while we re-establish the process, but ordinarily July would be a quarterly return and slightly longer.
The return of the questionnaire is part of the terms of our current contracts for contracted providers, but we ask all Birmingham providers to take part in the process to help us meet our responsibilities to all Birmingham citizens.
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
2. Birmingham and Solihull's Social Care Nurse Advisory Board (information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
Paula du Rand will chair the BSol Social Care Nurse Advisory Board. She would like to engage and support sector colleagues to have a voice at a strategic level and is keen to hear from her peers across Birmingham and Solihull.
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
3. Birmingham and Solihull training hub – call for hosts of student nurses (information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
The Training Hub is looking for Nursing Homes to offer to host student nurses for the next placement allocation dates. Any student hosted will be fully supported. The Training Hub will also support you fully with any queries and issues you may face to ensure that the experience is as smooth and enjoyable for both you and for our students.
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
4. Skills for Care report on The Size and Structure of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England (information for all providers)
Skills for Care have published The Size and Structure of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England. This publication provides data for 2022-23 on workforce supply and demand – including filled posts, vacancies and international recruitment.
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
You can view a visualisation of the data here:
The main findings include:
The workforce started to grow again by 1% after shrinking the previous year
The estimated number of vacancies on any given day fell to 152,000 – a vacancy rate of 9.9%
Around 70,000 people were recruited from abroad into direct care-providing roles
5. Skills for Care resources and upcoming events (information for all providers)
The Skills for Care July newsletter with event dates into September and some other reminders about resources to help local social care providers has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
6. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Visiting consultation – Deadline 16 August 2023 (information for all Care Homes)
The DHSC has launched a consultation on visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices. The consultation will inform their decisions around making visiting rules mandatory for the good of people who use services.
They want to ensure that visiting (including accompanying people to hospital appointments) is protected and that it remains a priority for health and care providers so that people can receive visitors whenever it is reasonable and safe.
Share your views by 11.59pm, 16 August 2023.
Respond to the consultation here;
Visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
7. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - Consultation on learning disability and autism training requirement code of practice – Deadline 19 September 2023 (information for all providers)
The DHSC has launched a consultation on the Oliver McGowan Code of Practice on statutory learning disability and autism training. This code of practice outlines how CQC-registered health and social care providers can meet the legislative requirement to ensure their staff receive training on learning disability and autism, appropriate to their role. This requirement has been in force since 1 July 2022 – further information on this requirement can be here;
It’s essential that autistic people and people with a learning disability have access to safe, high-quality care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) have closely engaged with DHSC on the implementation of the training requirement and the development of this code of practice.
The consultation is open until 19 September 2023. You can respond to the consultation here;
Oliver McGowan draft code of practice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
8. Skills for Care Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set – how it can help your sector (information for all providers)
Sharing your data in Skills for Care’s Adult Social Care Workforce Dat aset (see link below) helps to produce accurate insights about the sector. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) relies on these insights to understand the sector and those who work in it. They use it to inform decisions about the future of social care.
Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS)
The data can also help you in your workplace (see link below). By accessing the free benchmarking tool, you can see how you’re performing on factors like pay and turnover, and how you compare to similar providers. This is a valuable workforce planning tool which can help you understand your workforce and make informed decisions about its future. For example, it can help to inform pay reviews and develop staff retention plans.
This summer, the benchmarking feature is expanding to include even more useful data for you to use, including registered nurse and registered manager pay.
Find out more here;
Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (skillsforcare.org.uk)
9. Cost of Care exercise 2023 (Information for all contracted care providers)
Birmingham City Council will be launching its Cost of Care 2023 exercise for care homes, home support, supported living and extra care services shortly and we want to give you advance notice of this. We intend to launch in the next 2 weeks with a submission deadline of early September 2023 – full details will be provided through the weekly comms bulletin.
The year’s exercise will involve a reduced data collection (with the exception of home support which will involve full data collection) which recognises the significant amount of information which was collected last year and the desire to minimise the burden on care providers taking part in the exercise.
Full details and data collection templates will be published in future bulletins and we thank you in advance for your participation.