What's New Bulletin 218 - 10 October 2024
This is edition 218 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 Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – October 2024 – DEADLINE 18 October 2024 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)
2. NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSOL ICB) - Seasonal Vaccination Services for Autumn/Winter 2024/25 (AW24/25) (information for Birmingham and Solihull care homes)
3. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – The new Learning and Development Support Scheme (information for all providers)
4. Care Quality Commission (CQC) - Re-building a trusted approach to their regulation (information for all providers)
5. Care Quality Commission (CQC) – Care Provider Alliance (CPA) to support review of single assessment framework – Survey Deadline 20 October 2024 (information for all providers)
6. Care Quality Commission (CQC) – Medicines support in adult social care (information for all care home providers)
7. Care Quality Commission (CQC) – Claiming research and development (R&D) tax relief (information for all providers)
8. The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) - Unequal Treatment in the Workplace in the Health and Adult Social Care Sector – Survey (information for all providers)
9. REMINDER Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (BSol ICS) - Oliver McGown Mandatory Training Tier 2 – various dates October 2024 (information for all Birmingham and Solihull providers)
10. REMINDER Solihull Support to Care homes Team - Support to Care Homes Training October 2024 (information for Birmingham and Solihull care homes)
11. Skills for Care - Midlands regional manager network – Tuesday, 22 October 2024 - 10:00am - 11:30am (information for all providers)
12. Birmingham and Solihull Nurses and Clinical Leads Network for Nurses working in Social Care virtual network meeting – Tuesday, 26 November 2024 - 2.00pm to 4.30pm - (information for care homes with nursing in Birmingham and Solihull)
1. REMINDER Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – October 2024 – DEADLINE 18 October 2024 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)
Please click the link below to access the questionnaire:
The deadline for completion is Friday 18 October 2024
This questionnaire is issued quarterly. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
Completion of the questionnaire is part of the terms of the Care Homes 2023 contract, for contracted providers, but we ask all Birmingham care homes 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 October 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.
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk This includes our approach and how the data we are asking for will be used.
2. NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSOL ICB) - Seasonal Vaccination Services for Autumn/Winter 2024/25 (AW24/25) (information for Birmingham and Solihull care homes)
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
The COVID campaign started on 3 October 2024 and ends on 20 December 2024, with some outreach vaccination continuing until 31 January 2025.
Please ensure to start the consent process prior to getting a date of visit confirmation, it will be helpful for the team visiting to vaccinate the residents to have those in hand prior to them visiting.
If the GP Practice you are aligned to is part of an active (vaccinating in phase) Primary Care Network (PCN) then they will arrange a date to visit the care home to vaccinate the residents. However, for those care homes that are not aligned to an active PCN, external providers will be contacting you to arrange a vaccination for your residents.
Please note, if you are unsure whether the external provider contacting you is the correct one, please contact the ICB Immunisations and Vaccinations Team nhsbsolicb.immsandvacs@nhs.net for verification. The team will be able to confirm the legitimacy of the external provider.
3. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – The new Learning and Development Support Scheme (information for all providers)
The DHSC has recently published a new guidance document below on the funding available for learning and development for the adult social care workforce. This new fund is called the Learning and Development Support Scheme.
The Learning and Development Support Scheme is administered via a new digital online claims service that allows adult social care employers to claim funding for certain training courses and qualifications on behalf of eligible care staff. Funding is available for eligible courses and qualifications that have been both paid for and started between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 (inclusive).
In order to manage the roll-out, for the first few months access to the service will be via invite only but providers can complete the expression of interest form below to be onboarded onto the new system.
If you have questions about the Learning and Development Support Scheme you can get in touch with the team by emailing ascreimbursement@dhsc.gov.uk
4. Care Quality Commission (CQC) - Re-building a trusted approach to their regulation (information for all providers)
The CQC have set out how they will drive the improvements needed to re-build trust in their regulation.
This involves making immediate changes to support their response to the recommendations in the interim report from Dr Penny Nash (see link below) and to improve ways of working ahead of the publication of the final report. These changes will help them to deliver:
- a clear and transparent programme of assessment and ratings
- quicker and more effective registration and assessments of providers
- simpler and clearer reports.
interim report from Dr Penny Dash
For further information visit:
Re-building a trusted approach to our regulation - Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)
5. Care Quality Commission (CQC) – Care Provider Alliance (CPA) to support review of single assessment framework – Survey Deadline 20 October 2024 (information for all providers)
The CPA is a coalition of the 10 main national associations that represent independent adult social care providers in England. It advocates for the sector and ensures a co-ordinated response to the major issues that affect it. Members take it in turns to lead the CPA and there is a new Chair each year.
Members of the CPA will focus on giving an operational perspective on the single assessment framework from an external care provider’s viewpoint. The review will explore aspects such as how the new approach works in practice, its effectiveness, and how providers are experiencing the process. It will also give a view on changes providers would like to see.
The first stage of the review will focus on providers’ experiences of the single assessment framework, either in preparing for it or during inspection. Any managers, deputy managers, senior managers, nominated individuals, quality or compliance leads working in a regulated care service is able to respond to the online survey below by 20 October 2024. Feedback from this survey will inform a second stage, which will look more closely at what people want from CQC for the future.
6. Care Quality Commission (CQC) – Medicines support in adult social care (information for all care home providers)
Earlier this year the CQC commissioned Ipsos to undertake research with adult social care providers. The project was to understand what support providers are receiving to ensure medicines are managed safely, how the support impacts the quality of care that providers are able to deliver, and future support needs.
The research shows that adult social care services have access to a wide range of different types of medicines support from a variety of sources, including community pharmacy and a range of healthcare professionals. However, just under half of those accessing support from community pharmacies say it fully meets their needs, with making contact with pharmacies a key issue where support didn’t meet their needs.
Follow the link to find out more:
Provider survey: Medicines support in adult social care - Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)
7. Care Quality Commission (CQC) – Claiming research and development (R&D) tax relief (information for all providers)
Claims from the care sector are highly unlikely to be eligible for research and development (R&D) relief. However, colleagues at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have advised that the care sector is being targeted by some agents who are persuading businesses to make ineligible claims. These agents often promise a ‘100% success rate’ and guarantee ‘no HMRC investigation’. Once the claim is paid, they take their fee and often become unreachable once HMRC begins investigating.
If you are contacted by an agent offering to make an R&D claim, please think carefully. Don’t give them your HMRC log-in details. Read the guidance below:
R&D Guidelines for Compliance.
Anyone who has a concern about an R&D claim they have made, or may have been made on their behalf, should email: rd.incentivesreliefs@hmrc.gov.uk and title the email ‘For the attention of the R&D Anti Abuse Unit’.
8. The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) - Unequal Treatment in the Workplace in the Health and Adult Social Care Sector – Survey (information for all providers)
The IES are researching workforce inequalities in health and social care and want to hear from you. They want to understand how employees with certain characteristics are unequally treated while at work, including discrimination, bullying or harassment, not being fairly considered for promotion, or not being able to get issues like these recognised or resolved when they arise.
The online survey below takes 20 minutes to complete and will provide evidence of how workforce inequalities are experienced and observed in the health and social care sector, providing a better understanding of the frequency and types of workforce inequalities. If you have any questions, please contact workforce-inequalities@employment-studies.co.uk.
9. REMINDER Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (BSol ICS) - Oliver McGown Mandatory Training Tier 2 – various dates October 2024 (information for all Birmingham and Solihull providers)
The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disabilities and Autism is for all staff in a CQC registered organisation. Staff must complete Part 1 (The e-Learning) followed by Part 2 (as per the requirements of their job role). Part 2 of the training is divided into Tier 1 (one-hour online learning) or Tier 2 (one day’s face to face training)
Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System are running Oliver McGown Mandatory Training for Tier 2 with sessions at the venues below. They are running 6-8 sessions a day of face-to-face training and have several empty spaces. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
Flash Climbing Centre - Solihull
Kenrick Centre - Birmingham
Perry Tree Centre - Birmingham
Ann Marie Howes Centre - Birmingham
For booking and further information visit:
10. REMINDER Solihull Support to Care homes Team - Support to Care Homes Training October 2024 (information for Birmingham and Solihull care homes)
Details of the Support to Care Homes Team virtual training for all Care Home staff across Birmingham and Solihull Care homes has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
There are valuable informative training sessions this month on:
• Recognising Deterioration
• Infection prevention
• Pressure Ulcer classification
• verification of death
• falls prevention
The training will be hosted by the Solihull Support to Care homes Team and is open to all Care Home staff across Birmingham and Solihull and joining details can be accessed via the BSol Healthzone Care Home App.
Instructions on how to download the BSol Healthzone Care Home App are also attached. Please see What's New Bulletin 184 - 15 February 2024 - Care services providers' bulletin (birmingham.gov.uk), item 3 here for further information about the App
Care services providers' bulletin (birmingham.gov.uk)
Or contact Supportto.carehomeservice@uhb.nhs.uk
11. Skills for Care - Midlands regional manager network – Tuesday, 22 October 2024 - 10:00am - 11:30am (information for all providers)
If you're looking to take your skills and knowledge to the next level, this regional network is the perfect opportunity to do just that.
This time speakers are:
Shirley Way – Skills for Care, Midlands Head of Area will provide an overview of the adult social care workforce strategy and the next steps regionally
Jane Collinson – Programme Manager, NHSE Digital Policy Unit | NHS England who will provide an update on the Digital Transformation Fund and digital social care records before the deadline for applications closes
for this Zoom webinar
Browse other scheduled events on Skills for Care’s website.
If you are not yet connected to your local registered managers network and WhatsApp group contact lucy.mcdonald@skillsforcare.org.uk to join – membership is free and a great source of peer support and information.
12. Birmingham and Solihull Nurses and Clinical Leads Network for Nurses working in Social Care virtual network meeting – Tuesday, 26 November 2024 - 2.00pm to 4.30pm - (information for care homes with nursing in Birmingham and Solihull)
Birmingham and Solihull Nurses and Clinical Leads Network for Nurses working in Social Care would like to invite registered nurses to the next virtual network meeting for Tuesday, 26 November 2024, 2.00pm to 4.30pm
The meeting agenda will include relevant clinical nursing issues:
- Update from Director of Social Care Nursing
- Birmingham Hospice - Palliative Care
- Manager perspective of an ICB assessment
- Update from the Social Care Advisory Board
There will be an update from BSOL Integrated Care Board, Skills for Care and West Midlands Care Association on support/resources for nurses.
To find out more about the meeting, and to book your place, follow this link: