1. Adult Social Care Infection Control Fund 2 (Information for Birmingham CQC non-care home registered locations)
2. Update to Care Home visiting guidance (updated 01/12/2020), new guidance on visiting out of care homes (Information  for all care homes)
3. CareMatch Portal: New Functionality (Information for all contracted care providers)
4. Home care, extra care sheltered housing, and supported living providers added to the NESCU Capacity Tracker (Information for all home support, extra care sheltered housing, supported living providers)
5. New Covid-19 IPC Training for Care homes on HEE's e-learning for health (Information for all care homes)
6. Reminder: Brexit No-Deal Contingency Planning (Information for all providers contracted with Birmingham City Council)
7. Updated guidance on Brexit Transition for social care providers (Information for all providers)
8. Lateral Flow Testing (rapid Covid test) in care homes (Information for Birmingham Care Homes)
9. PPE supply update (Information for all Birmingham providers)

1. Adult Social Care Infection Control Fund 2 (Information for Birmingham CQC non-care home registered locations)

As you will be aware the government announced an extension of the Infection Control Fund from October 2020 to March 2021 – known as Infection Control Fund 2. We have been progressing work to allocate the grant funding to CQC Registered Community Care Locations in Birmingham and expect to be in a position to distribute funds to grant-compliant Locations in the next few days. Further communication will be issued in due course providing details of the allocation amounts, grant conditions and the reporting requirements.

2. Update to Care Home visiting guidance (updated 1 January 2020), new guidance on visiting out of care homes (Information for all care homes)

There is new guidance on care home visiting (updated 01/12/2020):

Government guidance on care home visiting 1 December 2020

There is also guidance for the first time on visiting out of the care home:

Government guidance on visiting out of the care home

The Council will be reviewing its Position Statement in light of the new guidance.

Birmingham City Council Position Statement on Care Home visits

3. CareMatch Portal: New Functionality (Information for all contracted care providers)

As you may be aware, Phase 2 of the implementation of the CareMatch Portal (contract management) has been put on hold due to resources being redirected to support Commissioning’s response to Covid-19. However, some functionality has been brought forward to make efficiencies in the process for ensuring we have up to date insurance information from providers as required within the Home Support Framework Contracts and the Open Contracting arrangements for Care Homes and Supported Living.

What this means for you:

• If the current insurance documents we hold for you in the CareMatch Portal are in date, then when they are due to expire you will receive email alerts from the CareMatch Portal reminding you one month, one week and the day they have expired asking you to upload your new documents. The Market Intelligence Team will be notified when new documents have been uploaded so they can be reviewed. Your Area Commissioners will be informed if new documents have not been uploaded by the expiry date.
   
• If you know that we don’t have your current insurance details, because it has been more than 12 months since they were last requested from marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk or you know they have expired since your application to join a contract was successful (if you applied within the last 12 months), then you can upload your new documents by following the instructions in section 8.8 of the User Guide. When these documents are next due for renewal, you will receive the reminder emails from the CareMatch Portal as described above.
   
• These reminder emails will be sent to all users assigned to your provider. Please ensure users email alerts are switched on to receive these (see section 4.5 of the User Guide for how you can check and change user settings). They will also appear as messages in the Messages table on your dashboard (please see section 4.2 in the User Guide for more information on where you can find your Messages table), so please look out for these if you choose to keep your email alerts off.
   
• If we hold insurance documents for yourself outside of the CareMatch Portal (e.g. because you applied to join the above contracts through Intend, SProc.Net, or you have previously emailed the Market Intelligence Team new insurance documentation) you will notice a record for these appear on your Documents table (see section 8.8 of the User Guide for information on where to find your Documents table). This record will only contain the document name, insurance type and expiry date of the most recent insurance documents we hold for yourselves to trigger the reminder emails described above, the actual documents will be uploaded as part of the full Phase 2 implementation process.

For further information about the CareMatch Portal, updates on Phase 2 implementation progress and access to the User Guide see below: 

Care Match Portal information and User Guide

4. Home care, extra care sheltered housing, and supported living providers added to the NESCU Capacity Tracker (Information for all home support, extra care sheltered housing, supported living providers)

From 30 November 2020, domiciliary care services, extra care housing schemes, supported living schemes need to report their COVID-19 information through NESCU National Capacity Tracker;

• Providers should have received an email invite from the Capacity Tracker team, asking you to confirm your registration on the Capacity Tracker tool, or an email confirming you are already registered and now have access to the home care screens.
• Users who have not received an email (please check email junk folders), by 02/12/20, can register manually.
• Once your access is confirmed you can immediately complete the questions
• If you try to submit responses using the previous CQC link, this will not be successful, and you will be directed to the Capacity Tracker tool

The following support with this transition is available;

• Support Centre number; 0191 691 3729
• Online learning materials, including guidance and videos from the Help menu of the Capacity Tracker

After the transition has completed and providers are used to using the Capacity Tracker, some new questions related to the Infection Control Fund will be added.

5. New Covid-19 IPC Training for Care homes on HEE's e-learning for health (Information for all care homes)

6. Reminder: Brexit No-Deal Contingency Planning  (Information for all providers contracted with Birmingham City Council)

Contingency planning for a no-deal Brexit has been ongoing for some time now and as a key supplier to the Council you are asked to complete this short survey by close of business on the 7 December in order to update our understanding of your position on this.

Brexit no-deal contingency planning survey

Please complete the response covering all of the contracts you may have with the Council as we've tried to avoid sending multiple requests to suppliers.

7. Updated guidance on Brexit Transition for social care providers (Information for all providers)

Please see below an update from the Government on advice and guidance for social care providers, in preparation for the end of the EU exit Transition period at the end of December:

Brexit transition guidance for social care providers

In particular, there is new guidance around recognition of qualifications of EU/ EEA healthcare professionals (including nurses), which is found here:

Recognition of qualifications of EU/EEA healthcare professionals

8. Lateral Flow Testing (rapid Covid test) in care homes (Information for Birmingham Care Homes)

Last week, 385 care homes nationally received Lateral Flow Tests (rapid Covid tests) for use to support care home visiting and regular staff/resident testing as part of Release 1.  All other care homes will be in Release 2 and will receive tests and training from 7 December.  Whilst this is a welcome step to support visiting, we are mindful this may have an operational impact for you.  We don’t yet have any further details we can share, as this is being coordinated nationally, but we will share information as its made available.  If you do require any support, please contact: operationalcommissioning@birmingham.gov.uk

9. PPE supply update (Information for all Birmingham providers)

All providers

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is supporting care providers with PPE as part of the delivery of the Adult Social Care Winter Plan 2020/21. DHSC has committed to providing free PPE to care home providers until 31 March 2021 to meet their COVID-19 PPE requirements.

Adult Social Care Winter Plan 2020 to 2021

What does this mean for you?

Your business as usual PPE should be sourced using your regular supply chain and the additional PPE required due to COVID should be requested via the Government PPE Portal. 

Government PPE Portal

What PPE items are available via the Government PPE Portal?

The following items are available:

• Type IIR mask
• Visors
• Gloves
• Aprons
• Hand hygiene

How do I access the Government PPE Portal?

All Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered care home providers will have received an invitation from Department of Health and Social Care to join the portal, this would have been sent to the email address you registered with CQC.  If you have any queries about the portal you can call the customer service team on 0800 876 6802.

PPE for Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGP)

FFP3s and gowns which are required for use when undertaking AGPs are being distributed from DHSC via Birmingham City Council. You can either email PPEstock@birmingham.gov.uk or by calling 0121 796 2577.

Emergency Support

In the event of an emergency situation whereby you are experiencing a shortage of essential PPE which cannot be immediately provided via the DHSC portal, please contact Birmingham City Council by sending an email to PPEstock@birmingham.gov.uk or by calling 0121 796 2577.

PPE Contingency Stocks

As we move towards the Christmas period it’s important to ensure that you have sufficient levels of PPE, it is recommended that you hold 4 weeks stock of PPE as a contingency at any one time.

Birmingham Care Homes

In order to support Care Homes in building up the contingency stock levels the Council will be delivering a one-off drop of PPE to include masks, gloves, aprons, visors and sanitiser.  This will be a 2-week supply based on the recommended supply levels as detailed on the Government PPE portal order limits..

Government PPE Portal order limits

The Department of Health and Social Care have also contacted Care Homes directly to inform you they will be making a one-off additional delivery of PPE for every Care Quality Commission registered home to make sure there is enough PPE for the new visiting arrangements.

Birmingham Home Support, Supported Living and Extra Care Supported Living providers

If you require assistance building up contingency stock levels for the Christmas period please email PPEstock@birmingham.gov.uk.

Please also ensure you are updating the NECSU Capacity Tracker regularly, including updating your current PPE stock levels. Please see item 4 of this bulletin for further details.