COVID RELATED INFORMATION

1. UPDATED GUIDANCE Overview of adult social care guidance on coronavirus (COVID-19) (information for all care home providers)
2. UPDATED GUIDANCE Coronavirus (COVID-19): admission and care of people in care homes (information for all care homes)
3. PRESS RELEASE Adult social care given over £250 million extra to continue coronavirus (COVID-19) protections (information for all care providers)
4. REMINDER - ACTION REQUIRED - Adult Social Care Infection Control and Testing Fund (ICTF) – Spend Reporting requirement deadline 16 July 2021 (information for all care providers with a CQC registered location in Birmingham) 
5. National Capacity Tracker – How your data is being used nationally (information for all care providers)
6. National Capacity Tracker – changes to PPE questions from 6 July 2021 (information for all care providers)
7. Care Quality Commission (CQC) update - Death notifications in care homes at location level (information for all care homes)

IN OTHER NEWS

8. Better Security, Better Care (information for all care providers)
9. Include Me, Citizens Panel Champion Opportunity (information for all care providers)

COVID 19 RELATED INFORMATION

1.UPDATED GUIDANCE Overview of adult social care guidance on coronavirus (COVID-19) (information for all care home providers)

This guidance has been updated in line with recent advice for outbreaks in care homes that contain cases of the Delta variant.

The full guidance can be found below

Overview of adult social care guidance on coronavirus (COVID-19)

2. UPDATED GUIDANCE Coronavirus (COVID-19): admission and care of people in care homes (information for all care homes)

This guidance has been updated to clarify that admissions into a care home from the community are able to take a test up to 72 hours in advance.

The full guidance can be found below

Coronavirus (COVID-19): admission and care of people in care homes

3.PRESS RELEASE Adult social care given over £250 million extra to continue coronavirus (COVID-19) protections (information for all providers)

People in care homes or those being cared for at home will benefit from an extra £250 million to continue to protect them from COVID-19 transmission. We will be in touch with further information once the guidance and grant conditions have been received and reviewed.

Read the full press release below:

Adult social care given over £250 million extra to continue coronavirus (COVID-19) protections

4.REMINDER - ACTION REQUIRED - Adult Social Care Infection Control and Testing Fund (ICTF) – Spend Reporting requirement deadline 16 July 2021 (information for all care providers with a CQC registered location in Birmingham) 

Following the distribution of the Infection Control and Testing Fund grants to Care Homes and CQC registered Community Care providers, you are now required to report how the funding has been spent between 1 April and 30 June 2021, and to declare any unspent grant money which will need to be returned to the Council. The reporting requirement is a condition of the grant allocation and the data will be used to enable the Council to report spending to the Department of Health and Social Care. Failure to complete the spend return will mean that the whole of the grant allocation must be returned to the Council. The grant allocation lists confirming the amount of funding allocated to each registered Location have been circulated to care providers. If you don't have copies, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Please complete the relevant online form as soon as possible and by no later than 16 July 2021. A separate form is required for each CQC registered location.

ICTF spending report for Community Care Locations

ICTF spending report for Care Home Locations

The forms now include the facility to print a PDF copy for your own records.

5.National Capacity Tracker – How your data is being used nationally (information for all care providers)

The National Capacity Tracker team are often asked by providers how the information they input into the tracker has been used at a national level during the pandemic. In response to this a series of messages are being released via social media this week and can be found on the following social media platforms;

Capacity Tracker - Home | Facebook

Capacity Tracker - insight for care (@CapacityTracker) / Twitter

There is still the requirement to fill in the National Capacity Tracker daily and this is just as important now with the increasing community cases and the need to monitor variants of concern to ensure cases are identified as soon as possible and the correct support offered to providers to prevent the further spread on Coronavirus within our social care settings. The £250 million of extra funding announced by the Government above will most likely be dependent on the continued regular completion of the National Capacity Tracker.

6.National Capacity Tracker – changes to PPE questions from 6 July 2021 (information for all care providers)

As part of the work to continually review the usefulness of data collected through the Capacity Tracker and to reduce the data input burden on providers the following changes will be made to the PPE questions from 6 July. All current PPE questions will be replaced with the following for all provider types;

• “Do you have less than 48 hours supply of any PPE equipment?” Yes or No.
• Only those replying Yes will be asked to identify the PPE items that have less than 48 hours supply

7.Care Quality Commission (CQC) update - Death notifications in care homes at location level (information for all care homes)

The CQC will be publishing data about the number of death notifications relating to COVID-19 received from 10 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, from every CQC registered care home location in England. They are aiming to bring this data to their Public Board meeting on 21 July 2021, with publication on CQC website on the same day.

You can read more about this on the CQC website

If you’ve notified the CQC of a death notification relating to COVID-19 they’ll share the data they'll be publishing for your location with you. You can expect to receive the data between the 5 July and 9 July. The data will include all death notifications you have submitted between 10 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 where COVID-19 was either suspected or confirmed regardless of the place of death. 

This will be presented quarterly, by the date the notification was received by CQC and not the date of death. If CQC records show that you have not submitted any death notifications relating to COVID-19 during this period, your location will not be included in the published data and the CQC will write to you to confirm this by 9 July. 

“We know that most providers have done all they can to ensure that information about the circumstance of peoples’ death is shared appropriately. As this is historic notifications data, we are not asking you to validate this data. We’re sharing the information to help you to continue important conversations with the families of people who died and those in your care, in advance of publication. We’ll continue to engage before publication with your trade associations.”

Read the CQC news story

IN OTHER NEWS………

8.Better Security, Better Care (information for all care providers)

Better Security, Better Care is a national and local support programme to help adult social care providers to store and share information safely. At national level, the programme is run by the Local Government Association (LGA), Association of Directors or Adult Social Services (ADASS), Care Provider Alliance, NHSX, NHS Digital and NHS England and Improvement. Activity in the West Midlands is coordinated by West Midlands ADASS and the West Midlands Care Association.

West Midlands Care Association website

The main focus is to help providers to understand the importance of data and cyber security, and complete an annual, online self-assessment using the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT).  The programme helps care providers to evaluate and improve their data and cyber security, meaning reassurance can be given to the people they are supporting, their families, staff, health and care partners, regulators and you as commissioners, that good practice is being followed and legal and regulatory requirements are being met.

Care providers who already have an NHS.net secure email account are required to complete the DSPT annually. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) are also encouraging care providers to use the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) to assess their data and cyber security arrangements and provide evidence they are complying with legal and regulatory requirements.

Read information about the role of the DSPT in the CQC regulation of data protection and security

You do not have to be a data or digital expert to get support. The programme can support you – wherever you are on your data security journey. For further information, resources, and how to get support with this programme, please visit our Shaping the Market Better Security, Better Care webpage

Shaping the Market Better Security, Better Care webpage

9.Include Me, Citizens Panel Champion Opportunity (information for all care providers)

A new opportunity for citizens to help shape and influence policy and practice is being launched by the West Midlands Combined Authority. The Include Me Citizen panel are looking to place citizens who are disabled or with long term health conditions at the heart of the conversation. There will be up to 11 Citizens Panel Champions who will work together to understand, interpret and make recommendations / endorsements based on the views and ideas of the wider network to present a collective voice at an organisational / local / regional level.

Please share this opportunity with citizens and networks as appropriate. The advert and job description have been circulated to care providers. If you don't have copies, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk