COVID RELATED INFORMATION

1. REMINDER Compulsory vaccination of people working/deployed in care homes: guidance/resources (information for all Care Homes)
2. UPDATED GUIDANCE: Visiting into and out of care homes (information for all care homes)
3. Capacity Tracker – revised COVID and Flu Vaccination Questions (information for all providers)
4. A wellbeing message from Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid (Information for all providers)

   In other news

5. Advance notice - Open Book 2021 exercise (information for Birmingham City Council contracted care homes, home support, and supported living)
6. Canvass reform in care homes (information for all care homes)
7. West Midlands Care Home Safety Network Event, Wednesday 29 September 2021 - 2pm to 4pm, VIRTUAL EVENT (Information for all West Midlands Care Homes)

COVID related information

1. REMINDER Compulsory vaccination of people working/deployed in care homes: guidance/resources (information for all Care Homes)

DHSC has now published operational guidance to support the regulations that come into force on 11 November. The 16-week grace period for all care home workers began on 22 July. This means that to meet the date the regulations come into force, workers have to have their first vaccinations no later than 16 September.

Birmingham Care Homes

Please find attached a letter from Professor Graeme Betts CBE, Corporate Director Adult Social Care – it is requested that Birmingham Care Home managers hand-deliver this letter to care staff who have not yet had both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Download the letter from Professor Graeme Betts CBE, Director Adult Social Care

The letter explains the implications for care staff who have not yet had both doses of the vaccine and confirms deadlines about when they need to book their vaccination appointments.

The letter also advises of an email and telephone contact point in the Council’s Commissioning Team should care staff need more information or have concerns about the vaccine.

The following National resources are available for all Care Homes to assist with planning:

• Social media assets and a Q&A, in DHSC’s stakeholder Google Drive
• Skills for Care vaccination as a condition of deployment resource centre once it has been updated.
• Dr. Pete Calveley, CEO of Barchester Healthcare, has also written a blog on their experiences of implementing a similar policy this year, which may be of interest.
• CQC has also published a statement on their role in relation to mandatory vaccination of people working/deployed in care homes. CQC says the requirement for vaccination will become part of the fundamental standards and be enforced in appropriate cases. They will not begin monitoring until it becomes a duty in November. They will continue to use their existing assessment and enforcement policies and take a proportionate approach. The statement outlines CQC’s approach to registration, monitoring and inspection, and enforcement.

2. UPDATED GUIDANCE: Visiting into and out of care homes (information for all care homes)

The following guidance has been updated to remove reference to the guidance on the MCA and the application of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) during the COVID-19 pandemic;

• Arrangements for visiting out of the care home
• Visiting arrangements in care homes

3. Capacity Tracker – revised COVID and Flu Vaccination Questions (information for all providers)

The following changes will be in place from 31 August 2021;

Care Homes - you will no longer be required to split out workforce vaccination levels by role type (nurses, care-giving staff, non-care giving staff) and instead are only required to update the total numbers of residents/patients, directly employed staff and agency/bank staff vaccinated for the following revised items:

• Number currently known to have received the first dose
• Number currently known to have received the second dose
• Number currently known to have received a COVID vaccination booster
• Number currently known to have received this season's flu vaccination

The following information will no longer be collected;

• COVID vaccination statuses “known NOT to have received” and “not yet known / undisclosed”
• COVID Vaccination Team Visit Information

Home Care providers - you will be asked to update the total numbers of staff who have face-to-face contact with people you support for the following revised vaccination items:

• Number currently known to have received the first dose
• Number currently known to have received the second dose
• Number currently known to have received a COVID vaccination booster
• Number currently known to have received this season's flu vaccination

Further guidance will be made available after these system changes are applied (scheduled for evening 31/08/21) in the What's New section of the Resource Centre.

4. A wellbeing message from Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid (Information for all providers)

"It’s because I care"

That’s one of the key messages of our new “Every Action Counts” campaign, from the Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care. Watching the campaign video was another powerful reminder of the compassion of our adult social care workforce.

Actions like keeping a distance and creating space are so vital, but actions that still, even 18 months later, don’t come naturally to a workforce whose default settings are kindness and comfort.

It’s hard – and harder still because when we look around us, it seems like the rest of the world is beginning to return to some kind of normal. Even as COVID-19 transitions from being a pandemic disease to an endemic disease, we will continue to feel its effect in care settings for some time to come. So I’m determined you get the support you need for your physical and mental health.

COVID-19 vaccination remains the most important tool for protecting your physical health - and the health of the people you care for. Latest estimates suggest 84,600 deaths and over 23 million infections have been prevented as a result of our vaccination programme.

The ‘vaccination as a condition of deployment’ grace period ends 11 November this year, so if you haven’t booked your first or second dose, please do so as soon as you can. I want everyone working in care settings to have the peace of mind that they and those around them are protected.

I am also determined you get the right access to mental health support.

Care managers may wish to use the Skills for Care’s Workforce Wellbeing Resource Finder, which makes it easier for employers and staff to find the resources to help them.

There are also so many resources directly available to colleagues.

The Samaritans’ confidential emotional staff support line has been extended to all social care staff who might be feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed. You can speak with trained volunteers, who will always listen in confidence and point you in the right direction for any further support you need.

Hospice UK has also extended its bereavement and trauma line to social care staff. This service offers a safe space to talk to professionals in the event of bereavement, trauma or anxiety as a result of the pandemic.

And the ‘Our Frontline’ service—a collaboration between Samaritans, Shout, Hospice UK, and Mind—offers information, emotional support, and access to a crisis text service for all those working on the frontline.

I encourage anyone who feels they need to, to draw on these resources. They’re there for you. I know this has been a difficult 18 months – and things still feel far from normal. It’s because you care that you have felt it so profoundly.

We care too – and we’re determined to be here for you.

Read further details of health and wellbeing support at; Coronavirus (COVID-19): health and wellbeing of the adult social care workforce - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In other news…

5. Advance notice - Open Book 2021 exercise (information for Birmingham City Council contracted care homes, home support, and supported living)

Following the success of the Open Book 2019 care cost evaluation exercise, the Council is intending to run a similar process in September 2021 – we wanted to give you advance notice of this in order to allow those with responsibility for finances within your organisation to get prepared.

We intend to launch the exercise and distribute the cost data template in the week beginning 6 September 2021 with a deadline for completion and submission of returns 4 weeks later on, 3 October 2021. The cost template we will be asking you to complete will be very similar to the template used in the 2019 exercise, with a small number of additional questions.

The main difference this year is that the Council will be running the exercise jointly with Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group and so care homes, home support agencies, and supported living providers contracted to both commissioning organisations will be requested to complete a cost return.

Further details, the cost templates, and instructions will be issued in due course.

6. Canvass reform in care homes (information for all care homes)

The Cabinet Office has made changes to how the annual canvass is carried out for care homes. The annual canvass is the process Local Authorities (LA's) use to confirm the people's details on the electoral register, to allow them to have their say in elections.

Traditionally, the legal process for canvassing care homes has been the same as any other property in the area. However, starting last year, LA's are using an alternative approach, working more directly with care home managers to update their records more efficiently.

Over the next few months your LA will be in touch to ask for information about your residents and then to help support your residents to register to vote and participate in local and national elections. They know the challenges you are currently facing and will work with you to find a time that works.

The Electoral Commission has published further information about the process, available for download here; Guidance for care staff in England and Wales (DOC) | Electoral Commission

7. West Midlands Care Home Safety Network Event

Wednesday 29 September 2021 - 2pm to 4pm, VIRTUAL EVENT (Information for all West Midlands Care Homes)

The West Midlands Academic Health Science network (WMAHSN) are hosting the first West Midlands regional care home safety network meeting on Wednesday 29 September 2021 to share developments and celebrate excellence in care homes across the region.

The aim of the Care Home safety network is to;

• Gain an understanding of the importance of Quality Improvement tools and techniques in care home settings
• Gain an insight into how a positive safety culture can impact on quality of care for residents
• Hear from care homes in the region who have examples of using QI to improve medication safety
• Hear from care homes in the region who have examples of using QI to improve recognition and management of deteriorating residents.
• Be signposted to key resources in relation to improving practice in care home settings.

Key topics will include;

• Introduction to Quality Improvement (QI) in care homes
• The importance of creating a positive safety culture in care homes
• Examples of how care home teams have used QI to improve the quality of care for residents and improve the safety culture within the care home.

To find out more and register, please use the following link;

Book tickets for the West Midlands Care Home Safety Network Event 2021