COVID RELATED INFORMATION

1. NEW GUIDANCE Adult Social Care Infection Control and Testing Fund: round 3 (Information for all Birmingham providers)
2. REMINDER from the Department of Health and Social Care, COVID-19 medical exemptions for care home workers (Information for all care home providers)
3. ACTION REQUIRED Care Homes Business Continuity - Deployment of Vaccinated Staff (information for Birmingham Care Homes)
4. Infection Prevention Control – support offer information on Shaping the Market web pages (information for all providers)
5. Capacity Tracker – Quick view guidance for how to record care home vacancies (information for all care homes)
6. UPDATED GUIDANCE PPE portal: how to order COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) (information for all providers)
7. CONSULTATION REMINDER Extending free PPE to the health and care sector, deadline 31 October 2021 (information for all providers)

IN OTHER NEWS

8. Care Quality Commission (CQC) State of Care 2020/21 annual report (information for all providers)
9. Message from the Department of Health and Social Care, New £162.5 million fund to boost social care workforce (Information for all providers)

COVID 19 RELATED INFORMATION

1.NEW GUIDANCE Adult Social Care Infection Control and Testing Fund: round 3 (Information for all Birmingham providers)

This guidance sets out the measures that round 3 of the Infection Control and Testing Fund supports, including distribution of funds, conditions and reporting requirements. We will be in touch with further information about the local process shortly, however access to the fund will continue to be conditional on timely completion of the Capacity Tracker, as per previous funds. Please ensure you are regularly updating all sections of the Capacity Tracker. If you need assistance or guidance in doing so, please contact the Capacity Tracker Team on 01916913729 or necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net The full guidance can be read below:

Adult Social Care Infection Control and Testing Fund: round 3

2.REMINDER from the Department of Health and Social Care, COVID-19 medical exemptions for care home workers (Information for all care home providers)

If your staff are unable to receive COVID-19 vaccinations for medical reasons, recently published guidance explains what your staff need to do to prove their status. A letter from Claire Armstrong, Director of Adult Social Care Delivery and COVID-19 Response, has also been published providing further details on exemptions. including self-certification, and has been sent to care colleagues and local authorities (11 October 2021).

Letter from Claire Armstrong, DHSC, about exemptions

Read the full government guidance below;

Vaccination of people working or deployed in care homes: operational guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

3.ACTION REQUIRED Care Homes Business Continuity - Deployment of Vaccinated Staff (information for Birmingham Care Homes)

Thank you to the majority of Care Homes that have already sent their business continuity plans to the Commissioning team. The focus now on is reviewing these plans and working with providers to ensure they have fully considered the impact and risk to their organisations of the new Regulations and that robust mitigations have been identified and activated where needed. Please continue to engage with Commissioners who may be asking for further information or clarification around the information submitted so that we can be assured of the above and also so we can offer support where we can.

For those providers that are yet to share their business continuity plans, we strongly encourage you to review your current plans in line with the guidance we have circulated and submit them to your Commissioner for review as soon as possible. If you don't have copies of the guidance, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

As you are already required to have a detailed Business Continuity Plan in place, we are not asking for these to be re-written or the format changed. At this point, we do not need to consider your wider continuity risks such as fire, IT failure etc. What we are looking for is written confirmation that you have assessed the impact of the new Regulations on your service, that you have identified robust actions to reduce the risk to the service and that you have identified any further support or actions that need to be taken. There is no set format for this, but we do need homes to share with us that they have carefully considered these points and have robust plans in place. To try and simplify this process for you, a table and guidance has been circulated to care homes, highlighting the information we need and the key questions we are asking that you have carefully considered and documented. If you don't have copies of the table and guidance, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk Please do get in touch with your Commissioner should you require any support with this and we will be happy to help.

Who to contact in the Commissioning Team

Many thanks in advance for your time and cooperation in helping us understand and plan for potential disruption across the care market.

4.Infection Prevention Control – support offer information on Shaping the Market web pages (information for all providers)

New materials are available for all providers on Infection Prevention and Control on the following Shaping the Market page:

Infection Prevention and Control information and training material for care providers

5.Capacity Tracker – Quick view guidance for how to record care home vacancies (information for all care homes)

An easy visual aid explaining when vacancies should and shouldn’t be recorded on the Capacity Tracker has been circulated to all providers. If you don't have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

For further information, support or a demonstration please contact the Capacity Tracker Team on 01916913729 or necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net

6.UPDATED GUIDANCE PPE portal: how to order COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) (information for all providers)

This guidance covers how eligible health and social care providers can order PPE through the portal to meet the increased need that has arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been updated to increase order limits of visors by 50% across all categories.

The full guidance can be found below

PPE portal: how to order COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE)

7.CONSULTATION REMINDER Extending free PPE to the health and care sector, deadline 31 October 2021 (information for all providers)

The Department of Health and Social Care is seeking views on whether it should extend the provision of free personal protective equipment (PPE) to the health and care sector after 31 March 2022. The deadline for responses is 11.45pm 31 October 2021.

Further information about the consultation and how to take part can be found below:

Extending free PPE to the health and care sector

IN OTHER NEWS ………………………

8.Care Quality Commission (CQC) State of Care 2020/21 annual report (information for all providers)

The annual assessment of health care and social care in England, State of Care, looks at the trends, highlights examples of good and outstanding care, and identifies factors that maintain high-quality care. This year's 'State of Care' reflects on how the system has dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic by working collaboratively and the impact on people who use care services. The report highlights key areas affecting the system as a whole across four common themes. For the first time the report is not in sector specific chapters, but looks at the system as a whole.

The full report can be found below:

Read this year's State of Care online

Let the CQC know what you think of this year's State of Care report and see what others are saying by joining the conversation using #StateOfCare or follow @CQCProf

9.Message from the Department of Health and Social Care, New £162.5 million fund to boost social care workforce (Information for all providers)

Care homes and home care providers will benefit from a new £162.5 million workforce retention and recruitment fund to bolster the dedicated care workforce. Local authorities (LAs) across England will soon be able to access the fund based on their need, helping to boost the number of people working in adult social care and supporting those already working in the sector to continue to deliver high quality care.

The ring-fenced funding, available until the end of March 2022, will support (LAs) working with providers to recruit staff. It will also be available to help retain the existing workforce - through overtime payments and staff banks of people ready to work in social care - and will provide further capacity to support their health and wellbeing through occupational health. We will share guidance for this fund once it has been published.

Find out more about the funding below:

Multi-million pound fund to boost adult social care workforce