1. Home Support and Quick Discharge Service Recommissioning - Update & Virtual Meeting 22 Dec 23 – slides and contract extension notice (information for Home Support providers)

2. REMINDER Launch of UKHSA reporting tool and response process for Acute Respiratory Infections in adult social care in the West Midlands area (information for all care providers operating in the West Midlands)

3. REMINDER Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – December 2023 – DEADLINE EXTENDED 28 December 2023 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)

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

5. NHS Learning Hub: How we can help older people cope with depression (information for all providers)

6. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Care Data Matters: strategy update (information for all providers)

7. National Capacity Tracker: Adult Social Care Provider Data Submissions (information for all providers)

8. REMINDER CONSULTATION Non-Statutory Budget Consultation 2024/25 17 January 2024 (information for all providers employing Birmingham residents)

9. REMINDER Junior doctors' industrial action: what this means for the care sector (information for all providers)

1. Home Support and Quick Discharge Service Recommissioning - Update & Virtual Meeting 22 Dec 23 – slides and contract extension notice (information for Home Support providers)

Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

2. REMINDER - Launch of UKHSA reporting tool and response process for Acute Respiratory Infections in adult social care in the West Midlands area (information for all care providers operating in the West Midlands)

A new online Outbreak Risk Assessment Tool for Care Settings (Care OBRA Tool) is being piloted by UKHSA WM HPT (West Midlands Health Protection Team) from December 2023.

It is for use by Adult Social Care (ASC) settings for reporting new outbreaks of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) including COVID-19, and unidentified ARI (e.g. chest infections).

• It will also be used for reporting BOTH single cases AND outbreaks of Influenza
• It will not be used for: Single COVID-19 and single ARI (unknown micro- organism) cases (these do not need reporting), nor updates of existing outbreaks, nor reporting of non-ARI outbreaks e.g. norovirus
• It will not be used by: Children’s Care Homes, any healthcare setting that is not ASC (including Hospitals, Hospices, Dental surgeries, GP surgeries)

This new web based tool enables care settings to report ARI outbreaks directly to UKHSA via the following web-link without the need to call or email the UKHSA HPT;

Care Outbreak Risk Assessment (Care OBRA) Tool: (ukhsa.gov.uk)

Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

3. REMINDER Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – December 2023 – DEADLINE EXTENDED 28 December 2023 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)

Please find the link to the December monthly MIQ below- the deadline for completion is Thursday 28 December 2023.

Care Home MIQ December 2023

This is the shorter monthly version of the questionnaire. Details of the questions are included in the attached briefing.

Please take special care when answering the question on the main reason each of your residents needs care. Only count one reason for each resident (the primary one). The total number of reasons should equal the total number of residents on the day you complete the questionnaire.

Completion 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.

Many thanks to staff at the care homes who completed the previous questionnaires. If this did not include your care home, please ensure that you complete the November and subsequent editions.

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 co-produced 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. There is a shorter monthly questionnaire, a slightly longer quarterly questionnaire with some additional questions, and a slightly longer still annual questionnaire.

Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

4. 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 COVID-19 infection control, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2024. The ‘Estimated stock-out dates by PPE category’ has been updated to move ‘masks, type IIR, ties’ to the list of out-of-stock items.

The full guidance can be found below:

Free personal protective equipment (PPE) scheme

5. NHS Learning Hub: How we can help older people cope with depression (information for all providers)

Supporting and helping to improve the health of older adults in our care is paramount. Depression is a common condition with a real impact on older adults’ wellbeing. A new e-learning resource has been developed to help those caring for older adults to recognise the symptoms and support conversations that may initially feel quite daunting. The full learning can be accessed by using the link below:

logging into the NHS Learning Hub

The videos and podcasts developed as part of this learning can be accessed from YouTube and Spotify using the links below:

YouTube

Spotify

For more information visit;

Make a difference: helping older people cope with depression - Social care (blog.gov.uk).

6. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Care Data Matters: strategy update (information for all providers)

The DHSC has published the final version of Care Data Matters, a strategy and roadmap for the transformation of adult social care data. It was initially published in draft last February as an outline of DHSC's priorities for how social care data should be collected, shared and used. It also meant extensive feedback could be gathered from across the sector on how best to improve the quality and availability of this data.

The department remains committed to working with the sector to co-design the delivery of this strategy.

You can review the updated Care Data Matters strategy and roadmap below;

Care data matters: a roadmap for better adult social care data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

7. National Capacity Tracker: Adult Social Care Provider Data Submissions (information for all providers)

Thank you for continuing to share information through Capacity Tracker. Your data is useful and important and is used by policy officials at the DHSC, by Ministers and across government. Your data also helps manage local and regional commissioning decisions and help target support where it is needed the most so keep sharing your data each month - together we can contribute to ensuring a good social care service for all people who need and rely on care and support.

Support remains available to new and existing providers who may require assistance:

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

NECS provider support and awareness 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.

Dates for future sessions are available using the link below:

Resource Centre.

8. REMINDER CONSULTATION Non-Statutory Budget Consultation 2024/25 17 January 2024 (information for all providers employing Birmingham residents)

As has been widely publicised, Birmingham City Council is in a difficult financial situation and has some challenging budget savings to achieve over the coming years.

We want to hear from you, your staff and service users on what is important to you. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes and include questions about which services matter to you and any suggestions you may have. You can choose whether to comment on all questions or just those you select.

To take part in the consultation, please visit;

Non-Statutory Budget Consultation 2024/25 - Birmingham City Council - Citizen Space (birminghambeheard.org.uk)

9. REMINDER Junior doctors' industrial action: what this means for the care sector (information for all providers)

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has written to the care sector about preparations to cope with industrial action by junior doctors. Action will start again 3-9 January 2024. These new rounds of industrial action come at an already challenging time for the health and care system, alongside winter pressures including flu, COVID-19 and norovirus.

The letter asks Directors of Adult Social Care Services to help care providers coordinate with the NHS, local authorities and other partners to prevent avoidable hospital admission and accelerate patient discharge processes. Your support is hugely appreciated.

Read the full letter from the DHSC below;

Letter to DASS - Forthcoming Industrial Action by Junior Doctors (skillsforcare.org.uk)