1. ACTION REQUIRED - deadline 3 September 2023 Cost of Care 2023 exercise - (Contracted home support, care home, supported living and extra care providers located in Birmingham and the West Midlands region)
2. UPDATED GUIDANCE Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement and updated Flu and COVID-19 vaccine programme dates (information for all providers)
3. Care Quality Commission (CQC) new cross-sector policy position on restrictive practice (information for all providers)
4. Care Quality Commission (CQC) Learning from safety incident resource: Protecting people using wheelchairs (information for all providers)
5. NHS England funded Professional Nurse Advocates (PNA) programme places – expression of interest deadline 13 September 2023 (information for all West Midlands care homes)
6. Message from the Capacity Tracker Team on mandatory ASC Provider data returns (information for all providers)
7. Further updates from the Capacity Tracker Team (information for all providers)
8. REMINDER UPDATED GUIDANCE Free personal protective equipment (PPE) scheme (information for all providers)
9. REMINDER Birmingham and Solihull Nurses and Clinical Leads Network for Nurses working in social care 7 September 2023 (information for all Birmingham and Solihull care homes)
10. REMINDER IPC Champions Forum - Friday 8 September 2023 - Bookings Open Now (All Birmingham care home providers)
11. REMINDER Infection Prevention Control (IPC) Champions Training - 22 September 2023 (information for all Birmingham Care Homes)

1. ACTION REQUIRED - deadline 3 September 2023 Cost of Care 2023 exercise - (Contracted home support, care home, supported living and extra care providers located in Birmingham and the West Midlands region)

Please note that this is a final reminder of this Sunday’s (3 Sept 2023) deadline for submission of completed cost of care templates.

If you have not already done so then we want to remind you that participation in the exercise is a contractual requirement for the contracted provision detailed below and that failure to take part in the exercise will considered a breach of contract and may result in the Council taking further action.

Please submit your cost of care templates to costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk in advance of the deadline – 11.59pm Sunday 3 September 2023.

If you need to ask a question, please email costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk

Home Support exercise – all locations holding a 2019 home support framework agreement must complete the exercise, which is a contractual requirement.

You are required to complete 2 cost of care templates – 1) the Home Care Costing Tool Tab I. – Standard (Cost +) only; and 2) the Home Support CoC 2023 Additional data template. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Submission deadline to costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk - 11.59pm Sunday 3 September 2023.

Care homes – all contracted care homes located in Birmingham or in the West Midlands region (Coventry, Dudley, Herefordshire, Sandwell, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton, Worcestershire) must complete the exercise, which is a contractual requirement.

We are seeking to collect a reduced amount of data compared to previous years and so you are only required to complete 1 template – the Care Home CoC 2023 Additional data template. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Submission deadline to costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk - 11.59pm Sunday 3 September 2023.

Supported Living and Extra Care – all contracted locations in Birmingham or in the West Midlands region (Coventry, Dudley, Herefordshire, Sandwell, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton, Worcestershire) must complete the exercise, which is a contractual requirement.

We are seeking to collect a reduced amount of data compared to previous years and so are only required to complete 1 template – the Supported Living and Extra Care CoC 2023 Additional data template.Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Submission deadline to costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk - 11.59pm Sunday 3 September 2023.

2.UPDATED GUIDANCE Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement and updated Flu and COVID-19 vaccine programme dates (information for all providers)

This guidance sets out how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in adult social care settings in England. The information on accessing COVID-19 treatment and on availability of vaccination for those eligible has been updated.

The full guidance can be found here; Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement

Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk. This is a letter from the Department of Health and Social Care advising of the Flu and COVID-19 autumn vaccine programmes being brought forward. The letter states the 11 September 2023 but it may be as early as 09 September 2023 in Birmingham. Further information will be circulated via this bulletin once available and confirmed. Please begin the process of collecting consent from care home residents.

3.Care Quality Commission (CQC) new cross-sector policy position on restrictive practice (information for all providers)

Restrictive practices, including restraint, seclusion and segregation, can have a devastating impact on people and cause them trauma. Earlier this year, members of the CQC expert advisory group for autistic people and people with a learning disability told the CQC they needed to address the issue head on and develop a clearer and stronger position on the use of restrictive practice.

Rebecca Bauers, Interim Director of People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People, and Chris Dzikiti our Director of Mental Health, have written a blog in which they discuss the CQC’s new cross-sector policy position on restrictive practice and how this translates to providers and people who use services.

Read the blog here;

Restrictive practice — a failure of person-centred care planning? | by Care Quality Commission | Aug, 2023 | Medium

4.Care Quality Commission (CQC) Learning from safety incident resource: Protecting people using wheelchairs (information for all providers)

The CQC have published a new resource (see link below) focusing on wheelchair safety. When something goes wrong in health and social care, the people affected and staff often say, "I don't want this to happen to anyone else." These Learning from safety incidents resources are designed to do just that. Everyone has the right to be kept safe while receiving care. Failing to assess or mitigate the risks to the health and safety of everyone using services can result in incidents and injuries.

Learning from safety incident resource

The CQC recently prosecuted a care home provider for exposing someone using their service to a significant risk of avoidable harm which resulted in a life-changing injury. In this instance, a person’s specially adapted wheelchair wasn’t used to transport them, and they were badly injured. Wheelchairs must be fit for purpose and risk assessed to keep people safe.

Read the full learning from safety incident document to learn ways to manage the risks of injuries to people from wheelchairs here;

Issue 13: Protecting people using wheelchairs - Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)

5.NHS England funded Professional Nurse Advocates (PNA) programme places – expression of interest deadline 13 September 2023 (information for all West Midlands care homes)

NHS England have offered Social Care Nurses within the Midlands a fully funded opportunity to undertake the Professional Nurse Advocates (PNA) programme. 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 individuals changing requirements.

The course offer will consist of a 10-day virtual programme (one day per week), which is accredited at Level 7 and therefore all potential PNA students will need to evidence prior learning at a Level 6. Applications from all employees are welcome, especially those currently under-represented, this includes overseas nurse recruits. It is important that trained PNAs are representative of the nursing workforce as a whole and able to provide culturally sensitive supervision to support workforce resilience and health and wellbeing. (Ethnicity monitoring form attached).

Skills for Care Midlands Team is collating Expressions of Interest from practicing social care nurses in the Midlands. If you or any of your staff are interested in this then please complete the Expression of Interest form and the Ethnicity document. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Due to timeframe – for the 15 November cohort expressions of interest should be submitted by 13 September 2023. Please email shirley.way@skillsforcare.org.uk

Any questions should be directed to our Head of Area, Shirley Way: shirley.way@skillsforcare.org.uk

Cohorts available are as follows:

De Montfort University – remote learning

Start date 15 November 2023 - 32 places

Mode of Assessment: One assessment - two parts 'Reflective Journal'.
1. A RCS session undertaken, observed or simulated.
2. QI example that has been identified by carrying out RCS

University of Hull – remote learning

Start date 1 February 2024 - 53 places

Mode of Assessment: Summative: 5000 word report / Formative: Opportunity to discuss draft report with peers for review and informal feedback. Opportunity to explore and test current understanding of key concepts via feedback and debate

6. Message from the Capacity Tracker Team on mandatory ASC Provider data returns (information for all providers)

Thank you to all those providers who have submitted information for the ASC Provider collection during the August reporting window, we continue to see positive monthly improvements. 

Support remains available to new and existing providers. Details of how to access support ahead of the September reporting window (8– 14 September (inclusive)) are set out below

NECS Capacity Tracker Support Centre: necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net or by calling the Support Centre (8am-5pm Mon-Fri) 0191 691 3729

NHS Business Services Authority (BSA): enforcement@nhsbsa.nhs.uk or by calling 0300 330 2088  (get the BSA opening hours)

System user guidance is accessible via the Capacity Tracker Resource Centre usig the kink below:

here

A report is also available to all providers, to check your monthly update status, it can be accessed via this link:

Update Monthly Status report

NECS provider support and awareness sessions in the next 3 weeks are set out below. These sessions are to help guide providers through the information requests, update methods and reports – they are informal events to offer providers the opportunity to raise any questions or queries:

Provider Type Day Time

Home Care Wed 6 September 2pm

Click here to join the meeting

Home Care Wed 13 September 2pm

Click here to join the meeting

Care Home Wed 30 August 1pm

Click here to join the meeting

Care Home Wed 06 September 1pm

Click here to join the meeting

Care Home Wed 13 September 1pm

Click here to join the meeting

Dates for all future sessions are available in the

Resource Centre

7.Further updates from the Capacity Tracker Team (information for all providers)

Please be advised of the following system refinements;

• Provider Update Page (Costs & Vacancies):The red asterisk (*) will be removed from the '(Vacant) Not Available for Admissions' section on the Provider Update page as this is not part of the mandated collection.
• Provider Update Page (Notification): The provider submission confirmation notice will remain 'fixed' as a visible reference to providers that they have updated in the current reporting window.

Please be advised of the following important reminders;

• Winter Planning Guidance;
• Working together to deliver a resilient winter: System roles and responsibilities
• We recommend that there is more than 1 user registered at each location who can update Capacity Tracker to cover periods of absence (if you are an approver, you will be able to approve new users immediately). Users are reminded that Capacity Tracker is not accessible outside of the UK

8.REMINDER UPDATED GUIDANCE Free personal protective equipment (PPE) scheme (information for all providers)

This guidance covers the provision of free PPE for all health, social care and public sector workers for coronavirus (COVID-19) infection control, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2024 or until the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) stocks for COVID-19 supply are depleted (whichever is sooner). The ‘Estimated stock-out dates by PPE category’ section is regularly updated with current estimates, the full details of which can be found below;

The full guidance can be found here;

Free personal protective equipment (PPE) scheme

9.REMINDER Birmingham and Solihull Nurses and Clinical Leads Network for Nurses working in social care 7 September 2023 (information for all Birmingham and Solihull care homes)

The network is a unique platform that brings together nurses working in social care across Birmingham and Solihull, providing a valuable opportunity for nurses to connect, share ideas and knowledge, and receive support and guidance from peers.

In addition to providing a space for peer-to-peer support and best practice sharing, our forum offers both national and regional updates, ensuring that our members stay up-to-date with the latest developments.

They also provide a platform for Continuing Professional Development (CPD), helping our members to enhance their skills, knowledge, and expertise, and take their careers to the next level.

The presentations are available here:

Nurses and Clinical Leads Network (wmca.care)

The date for the next virtual meeting is 7 September 2023 and booking details can be found here:

Nurses and Clinical Leads Network (wmca.care)

The meeting agenda will include relevant clinical nursing issues

• Positive behaviour management
• Governance in care homes at Sutton Rose and Meadow Rose
• Learning from Quality Bishops Manor
• Update from the Social Care Advisory Board
• How to facilitate Nursing and Paramedic students in a nursing home
• Medicines management update
• Development of the Specialist Practice Course for Social Care Nurses

10.REMINDER IPC Champions Forum - Friday 8 September 2023 - Bookings Open Now (All Birmingham care home providers)

The Infection Prevention and Control Team (IPC) will be holding a forum for existing IPC Champions at The Saffron Centre, Friday 8 September 2023, 9:00am – 12:30pm. Spaces for the event are limited, please book early to ensure your place.

Bookings will only be confirmed upon receipt of the following:

• Name:
• Surname:
• Care Home:
• Job Role:
• Contact Number/Email:

Please note at present we can only offer 1-2 spaces per home, further slots may become available closer to the date.

Light refreshments will be served in the morning, every effort will be made to label food clearly. If you have any food allergies please notify the team in your email.

Free parking will be available on the morning of this event.

How To Get There

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11.REMINDER Infection Prevention Control (IPC) Champions Training - 22 September 2023 (information for all Birmingham Care Homes)

Are you or colleague interested in undergoing Infection Control training? Why not become an IPC Champion.

The IPC Team and Birmingham City Council will be holding a free training event for care home staff at t The Saffron Centre - Friday 22 September, 9am – 5pm.

To book your place please fill in the details below:

• Name:
• Surname:
• Care Home:
• Occupation:
• Contact Number
• Email:

You will need to confirm the above for yourself and all members of your party to guarantee your place. Please note at this time we can only offer 3-4 spaces per home.

Refreshments will be served during the event. If you or any members of your party have any food allergies please notify the team in your email. The IPC team will endeavour to ensure that any food/drink served is labelled clearly.

Free parking will be available on the day.

How To Get There

view on map