What's New Bulletin 228 - 19 December 2024

This is edition 228 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. Message from Louise Collett, Acting Strategic Director Adult Social Care (information for all providers)

2. Message from Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) NHS Foundation Trust - Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Care Home Providers)

3. Birmingham City Council - Support for Domestic Abuse Survivors Over the Holiday Season (information for all providers)

4. REMINDER CONSULTATION Birmingham City Council – Care Centres, Deadline 20 December 2024 (information for all Birmingham providers)

5. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - Increased Norovirus Risk in Care Homes (Information for all Care Homes)

6. Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Commissioning Board (BSOL ICB) - STOMP (Stopping the Over medication of people with a learning disability, autism, or both) Guidance (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Providers)

7. REMINDER 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)

8. REMINDER The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – The new Learning and Development Support Scheme (information for all providers)

9. REMINDER Care Quality Commission (CQC) update for adult social care providers - New online immigration status (eVisa) – To be completed by 31 December 2024 (Information for all Providers)

10. West Midlands Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (WM ADASS), International Recruitment: The rollout of e-Visas and what they mean for care providers webinar (Information for all West Midlands Care Providers)

11. Birmingham City University – Improving Residents’ Outcomes and Quality of Life - (Information for Care Homes with Nursing in Birmingham and Solihull)

12. Healthwatch Birmingham - Help to Improve Home Care Services in Birmingham Questionnaire – 12 January 2025 Deadline (Information for all Home Support Providers in Birmingham)

13. REMINDER NHS Birmingham and Solihull (BSOL) - Bladder & Bowel Health TENA Virtual Training Sessions – 20 December 2024 (information for Birmingham and Solihull care homes using Tena products)

14. Skills for Care and The National Care Forum - 9 January 2025 (Information for all Providers)

15. Skills for Care – Virtual Session - Learning Exchange for Delegated Healthcare Activities - Tuesday 21 January 2025 (Information for all Providers)

Please Note: There will be no regular weekly bulletin next week, any urgent items will still be sent out to the bulletin distribution list. The weekly bulletin will resume on the 2 January 2025. Wishing you a Merry Christmas from the Market Intelligence Team.

1. Message from Louise Collett, Acting Strategic Director Adult Social Care (information for all providers)

To all our colleagues in the community and independent provider sector

I thank everyone for all their hard work and dedication through another challenging year. You have made an immense contribution to ensuring adults with disabilities and older people are achieving better outcomes and receiving quality services. We will continue to work closely with you in the coming year and believe this partnership will ensure we continue to serve our citizens well.

I hope you all get a chance to have a break over the festive season and we look forward to working with you in the New Year

Louise Collette

Acting Strategic Director Adult Social Care

2. Message from Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) NHS Foundation Trust - Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Care Home Providers)

Dear Care Home Teams,

I am contacting you on behalf of Infection Prevention and Control.

The team and I hope this message finds you all well and ready for the holiday season ahead.

IPC wanted to send you all a message to let you know how appreciative we all are for your engagement over the last 12 months.

It has been a joy to audit, provide training and support your various care homes in Birmingham and Solihull.

In turn we hope you found the various event scheduled throughout the year both enjoyable and informative as we did ourselves.

Thank you to all our IPC Champions (and future IPC Champions) for joining us for the following:

  • IPC Champions Training Day
  • IPC Champion of Champions Awards
  • IPC Champions Forums
  • IPC Expo
  • IPC Virtual Training Sessions.
  • Gloveless, Less Gloves Campaign
  • World Hand Hygiene Day

We realise many of you will be working during this time, but we hope you’re able to make the most of the festivities with your resident and colleagues.

For IPC advice, support and/of training requests please contact bchc.ipcdata1@nhs.net

Wishing you all the very best this Christmas.

3. Birmingham City Council - Support for Domestic Abuse Survivors Over the Holiday Season (information for all providers)

As we approach the Christmas holidays, it’s important to keep raising awareness of domestic abuse. We hope you will all have a peaceful holiday period, but we know incidents of domestic abuse increase over the holidays, as people are away from work and school and perpetrators use increased stress and alcohol to excuse abuse.

Every year, the Domestic Abuse Prevention team sees through our commissioned support services, as well as services across the country, that reports of abuse peak after the holiday period.

The holidays can also be a hard period for survivors after reaching safety, exacerbating trauma, isolation and financial pressures.

You can make a difference simply by reaching out to check on loved ones, offering a listening ear to combat the isolation caused by abuse and sharing contact details for specialist support. Anyone can be affected by domestic abuse. If you, or someone you know, needs support, please reach out.

Our commissioned support services will be working throughout the holiday period:

Anyone can call the Domestic Abuse Hub helpline, open 9:00 to 17:00 every day except for the 25th, 26th and 1st, on 0808 800 0028. You can also use the webchat at:

https://bswaid.org/

For women, there is also an in-person drop-in at the Hub, open Monday to Friday at Bank House, 36-38 Bristol Street, except for the 25, 26 December and 1January.

For men, the Trident Reach helpline is open 9:00 to 17:00 every Monday to Friday on 0800 111 4223 and more information is available at:

https://tridentgroup.org.uk/care-support/domestic-abuse-services

For LGBT+ people, Birmingham LGBT’s helpline is open Monday to Friday, except for the 25, 26Decemberand 1January, on 0121 643 082. More information is available at:

https://blgbt.org/services/support-services/domestic-violence/

The National Domestic Abuse Helpline is available 24/7 every day, including the Bank Holidays, on 0808 2000 247 or by live chat at:

www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk

In an emergency, please call 999.

4. REMINDER CONSULTATION Birmingham City Council – Care Centres, Deadline 20 December 2024 (information for all Birmingham providers)

Birmingham City Council currently provides residential care for adults at three Care Centres across Birmingham – the Ann Marie Howes Centre; the Perry Trees Centre; and the Kenrick Centre.

The Council’s budget which was approved in March 2024 recommended a review of the Care Centres, to consider how the services they provide can be delivered as efficiently as possible. The review has been completed and has identified a range of options about how these services could be delivered more efficiently in the future.

The current consultation aims to gain feedback on the options available for the future of the care centres and on the preferred option. The preferred option is for the Council to stop operating these services in the future and for the Council to support current residents to find a new care home and to rent the current Care Centres to the NHS (or others).

The consultation questionnaire and the Care Centres public consultation documents which explains the current service, the outcome of the recent review and the range of options that are being consulted upon can be found here:

Care centre public consultation

If you live or work in Birmingham, we encourage you to have YOUR say about the future of our residential Care Centres. The online survey aims to capture your feedback on what the future of our Care Centres could look like under the proposed options and is available here:

Residential Care Centre's Consultation October 2024

The survey opened at midday on Monday 14 October 2024 and closes at midday on Friday 20 December 2024.

5. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - Increased Norovirus Risk in Care Homes (Information for all Care Homes)

The 2024/2025 season has seen a high level of norovirus activity, which began earlier than usual. This is expected to result in increased outbreaks in care homes this winter. A letter from the UK Health Security Agency (See link below) (UKHSA) outlines the implications and recommendations for care homes. This includes information on infection and prevention control (IPC), reporting outbreaks to Health Protection Teams, supporting resident health and wellbeing and guidance for supported living settings.

letter from the UK Health Security Agency

There is also a poster which can be printed out to display information on norovirus, its symptoms, how to prevent its spread and advice on recovery.

poster

6. Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Commissioning Board (BSOL ICB) - STOMP (Stopping the Over medication of people with a learning disability, autism, or both) Guidance (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Providers)

The Bsol LeDeR Programme (Learning from lives and deaths of people with Learning disability and/or Autism) have recently completed reviews which have highlighted that citizens continue to experience situations whereby people with a learning disability or autism or both, continue to be over – medicated with Psychotropic medications.

Such medications can not only impact upon the citizens Physical health but also significantly impact on their mental well-being. Care and Support providers are ideally placed to be able to be able to identify this issue and as such should actively work with others such as the relevant health professionals to ensure that such medications are being reviewed and remain appropriate.

Please see the following link for a fuller explanation of the STOMP Programme.

NHS England » Stopping over medication of people with a learning disability and autistic people (STOMP) and supporting treatment and appropriate medication in paediatrics (STAMP)

Thank you

Bsol LeDeR team

7. REMINDER 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.

8. REMINDER The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – The new Learning and Development Support Scheme (information for all providers)

The DHSC has published a new guidance document (see below) on the funding available for learning and development for the adult social care workforce. This fund is called the Learning and Development Support Scheme.

new guidance document

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 an expression of interest form using the link below to be onboarded onto the new system.

complete an expression of interest form

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

9. REMINDER Care Quality Commission (CQC) update for adult social care providers - New online immigration status (eVisa) – To be completed by 31 December 2024 (Information for all Providers)

The CQC are advising you of a change to some immigration documents. Biometric residence permits (BRP) and biometric residence cards (BRC), are being replaced with digital proof of immigration, called an eVisa.

From 31 October, new visa applicants are being issued with eVisas, and existing visa holders who currently prove their rights with a BRP, BRC or a passport containing a visa vignette or ink stamp, will need to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa. This needs to be completed by 31 December 2024.

Some helpful guidance on how to create an eVisa account:

Information on what people need to do and by when, including for those who hold a physical immigration document, and a list of grant funded organisations offering support, at

www.gov.uk/eVisa

Guidance videos explaining how to access and use eVisa, available at:

Online immigration status (eVisa): help videos - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Download the eVisa Partner Pack - this includes factsheets and guides for organisations, helpful materials to inform your colleagues/organisations you may collaborate with of the transition to eVisa, including a suggested email to send and drag and drop copy for intranets:

Partner Pack

For further information please follow the link

Online immigration status (eVisa) - GOV.UK

10. West Midlands Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (WM ADASS), International Recruitment: The rollout of e-Visas and what they mean for care providers webinar (Information for all West Midlands Care Providers)

The West Midlands ADASS held a live webinar on the 5 December 2024, focusing on The Rollout of e-Visas. International Recruitment: The rollout of e-Visas

The recording and slides are now available -

you can access this here

West Midlands Care Association (WMCA) will also be sharing this with Care Providers who registered to attend the webinar.

If you do have any questions, please contact IR Legal & HR Service: WMIRHelpline@la-law.com

11. Birmingham City University – Improving Residents’ Outcomes and Quality of Life - (Information for Care Homes with Nursing in Birmingham and Solihull)

Are you interested in improving residents’ outcomes and quality of life and would you like to be part of research and be recognised for it? Researchers from Birmingham City University would love to talk with you about improving care in a one-off online meeting at a good time for you (after Christmas!) If you are interested, please do contact Fiona Cowdell fiona.cowdell@bcu.ac.uk to find out more.

12. Healthwatch Birmingham - Help to Improve Home Care Services in Birmingham Questionnaire – 12 January 2025 Deadline (Information for all Home Support Providers in Birmingham)

Healthwatch Birmingham is seeking to understand what life is like for people who rely on domiciliary services in Birmingham. Therefore, they want to hear from citizens about their experience of the care and support they receive via a questionnaire. This questionnaire should be completed by service users and/or their family member/carer. Please support your service users to be able to complete the questionnaire by the closing date of 12 January 2025.

If you have any questions, please ring 0800 652 5278/0121 636 0990 and ask for Chipiliro Kalebe-Nyamongo or Ghazanfar Khan or email us on chipilirok@healthwatchbirmingham.co.uk or ghazanfark@healthwatchbirmingham.co.uk

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

13. REMINDER NHS Birmingham and Solihull (BSOL) - Bladder & Bowel Health TENA Virtual Training Sessions – 20 December 2024 (information for Birmingham and Solihull care homes using Tena products)

BSOL are holding continence training in bladder and bowel health along with best and safe practice in TENA Continence Pad usage.

20 December 2024 – 10:00am – 11:00am

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

To book your place Contact Darren Clothier Darren.Clothier@Essity.com Tel 07721 244420

14. Skills for Care and The National Care Forum - 9 January 2025 (Information for all Providers)

Digital leadership programme 9 January 2025 - Skills for Care and The National Care Forum have refreshed their digital leadership programme designed specifically for leaders and managers working in social care. It will support managers to have the underpinning skills, knowledge and models of digital leadership that can be practically applied when implementing technology in a care service and promote best practice. The programme and costs £575 + VAT

Find out more

Registration will close at 17:00 on Monday 6 January 2025.

If you have any questions about the January 2025 cohort of the Digital leadership programme, please email events@skillsforcare.org.uk.

15. Skills for Care – Virtual Session - Learning Exchange for Delegated Healthcare Activities - Tuesday 21 January 2025 (Information for all Providers)

A delegated healthcare activity is an activity that a regulated healthcare professional, such as a nurse, nursing associate, occupational therapist or speech and language therapist, delegates to a care worker or personal assistant. The guiding principles for delegated healthcare activities have been revised and can be found here

Revised guiding principles

Skills for Care will be holding a virtual session for the Learning Exchange for delegated healthcare activities: Tuesday 21 January 2025| 10:3am - 12:00pm

This virtual session will continue to explore practical approaches to care planning and accountability. This is a key theme which has been identified from previous learning exchanges. The session will be an opportunity to connect with others and dig deep into the challenges, share solutions and best practice. The session will be structured to mix in smaller groups.

Register for this learning exchange


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