1. Revised guidance for care home visiting in relation to LFD testing (Information for all care homes)
2. IPC post vaccination guidance – Birmingham and Solihull CCG (information for all care providers)
3. Workforce Capacity Fund for adult social care grant 2021 (information for all care providers with a CQC location in Birmingham)
4. Capacity Tracker – Changes to Discharge Testing Questions (Information for all Care Homes)
5. ADASS EU Settlement Scheme webinar (information for all care providers)
6. REMINDER Covid Vaccine – Materials to Support Staff Discussions (Information for all care providers)
7. REMINDER Covid Vaccine – Financial Support – (Information for Birmingham care providers and contracted providers outside of Birmingham delivering care to Birmingham residents)

1.Revised guidance for care home visiting in relation to LFD testing (Information for all care homes)

Please see below the link to revised guidance for care home visiting in relation to LFD testing:

Care Home Lateral Flow Testing of visitors guidance

The government has announced its plans for visiting to care homes as we ease out of the current lockdown. The updated guidance is still awaited but the following Government press release sets out some of the expectations;

Government press release about care homes visits

2.IPC post vaccination guidance – Birmingham and Solihull CCG (information for all care providers)

Many healthcare staff have now received a first dose of the COVID- 19 vaccine,reducing the chance of them becoming seriously ill. This does not mean that there can be any relaxation in infection prevention practices and the national guidance should continue to be followed. COVID-19 rates are improving but remain high and it is still very important to help stop the spread .

No vaccine is completely effective and it will take a few weeks for your body to build up protection and it is unclear yet on whether having the vaccination prevents you passing it on to others. So, you will still need to follow the guidance in your workplace, including wearing the correct personal protection equipment and taking part in any screening programmes.

To continue to protect yourself, your patients, your family, friends and colleagues you should follow the general advice at work, at home and when you are out and about:

• practice social distancing

• wear a face mask

• wash your hands carefully and frequently

• follow the current guidance

3.Workforce Capacity Fund for adult social care grant 2021 (information for all care providers with a CQC location in Birmingham)

Further to the government announcement of the Workforce Capacity Fund for adult social care, Birmingham City Council has allocated and distributed funding on a ‘per bed’ basis to care homes and a ‘per user’ basis to CQC Registered Community Care providers which have completed the Capacity Tracker on a regular basis. We expect funds to reach bank accounts before 1 March 2021.

A Grant agreement letter has been sent to providers which sets out further details, purpose, payment amount, conditions and reporting requirements of the grant. You can also read further information about the grant on the government website:

Workforce Capacity Fund

Provider who receive the grant are required to complete and return a Assurance Statement, which has been sent to them, and send it to marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk by 3 March 2021. We will issue further reporting requirement instructions via this bulletin. Failure to return the Assurance Statement or complete future spending reports will disqualify the provider from receiving the grant and any funds distributed must be returned to the Council.

If you are a provider with a CQC registered location in Birmingham and you need a copy of the Grant letter or Assurance Form, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

4.Capacity Tracker – Changes to Discharge Testing Questions (Information for all Care Homes)

Care Homes and Hospices that have admitted residents / patients from an NHS Trust hospital to their location are asked to complete the Discharge Testing section found within Costs, Vacancies and Business Continuity. The questions have been updated to reflect and support the latest Hospital Discharge Testing Policy and will result in a reduction in unnecessary calls to Providers that have admitted within policy.

• Read the Hospital Discharge Testing Policy
• Additional information outlining the system changes made to support the latest Hospital Discharge Testing Policy can be found via the Help Tab and What’s New Section
• If further help is required on how and where to input your data please contact the Capacity Tracker Support Staff on 0191 691 3729

5.ADASS EU Settlement Scheme webinar (information for all care providers)

ADASS are holding a webinar on Thursday 4 March 2021 1pm - 2pm to provide information about the EU Settlement Scheme. Primarily aimed at those who are likely to be supporting vulnerable EEA citizens and their families to ensure they submit their application before the deadline of 30 June 2021. This event will be Chaired by James Bullion, ADASS President

6.REMINDER Covid Vaccine – Materials to Support Staff Discussions (Information for all care providers)

Vaccination appointments are still available for frontline workers via the National booking site  

We ask that you continue to have conversations with staff that have reservation about having the vaccination and have collated below a number of useful materials that have been published to assist with providing accurate information to your staff regarding the Covid vaccine:

Government Communication Toolkit – circulated to care providers (if you haven't received a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Government advice and materials on the vaccine programme for social care staff

Care Provider Covid questions and answers

Celebrity video including Romesh Ranganathan, Meera Syal and cricketer Moeen Ali 

Dr Imran Sattar offers information in a short video

COVID-19 Vaccine Programme - Information for health and social care staff from Birmingham and Solihull CCG

Scientists leading the development of a COVID-19 vaccine at the University of Oxford explain how they assess safety at each stage of the process

A message about the COVID-19 Vaccination for the BAME community - Dr Sumara Afzal - Urdu

A message about the COVID-19 Vaccination for the BAME community - Dr Sumara Afzal - Punjabi

A message about the COVID-19 Vaccination for the BAME community - Dr Sumara Afzal - English

Public Q&A Sessions on COVID-19 Vaccination:25 February at 6pm-7.30pm. Central Birmingham

Information about vaccination during pregnancy and impact on fertility

7.REMINDER Covid Vaccine – Financial Support – (Information for Birmingham care providers and contracted providers outside of Birmingham delivering care to Birmingham residents)

We are aware that for some social care staff, there is a barrier to taking up the Covid vaccine as they are unable to do so in work time and are therefore not being paid for their time. To ensure our invaluable workforce have the maximum opportunity to take up this essential vaccine to protect; themselves; their families; their services users; and our community, we are pleased to confirm we will provide financial support to cover these costs as follows:

• Wherever possible we would of course encourage you to release staff for this essential activity during their working day, however we do recognise the operational challenges this can pose.
• Secondly you should then draw upon your Infection Control Funds to support staff in this way.
• However, should you have exhausted these options, but find that paying staff for their time to attend vaccination remains the only barrier to uptake, the Council will consider this as a reasonable additional Covid-related cost under our existing Covid funding scheme.
• The details about how to claim can be found using the link below. You will need to clearly set out in your claim (through your covering email accompanying your claim form), the number of staff you have paid, how many hours you have paid them for collectively and the total amount of your claim for this reason.
• You will not be able to retrospectively claim for these costs, however you will be able to claim for any such costs from 16 February 2021.

COVID-19 additional cost claim