NCF Members' Briefing

Please see below for NCF’s briefing to members including information about the extension to self-certification on sickness, information about supporting visiting from the CQC and key points from the workforce recruitment and retention fund – round 2. Just a quick reminder, if you have any queries over the Christmas and New Year period please also ensure you email Liz.Jones@nationalcareforum.org.uk & Vic.Rayner@nationalcareforum.org.uk

Extension to Self-Certification on Sickness

On 17th December 2021, the DHSC introduced temporary changes to the self-certification on sickness process for employees. Employees can normally self-certify sickness absence for the first seven days. Temporarily, employees can self-certify for 28 days, to enable GPs to focus on the COVID-19 booster programme. If an employee goes off sick on or after 10 December 2021, up to and including 26 January 2022, you cannot ask them for proof of sickness until they have been off for 28 days or more. The self-certification period will revert to seven days for absences beginning on or after 27 January 2022. More information about how the 'fit note' works is available from the following link: The fit note: guidance for patients and employees.

We are seeking more clarification from DHSC to understand this policy change.

CQC - Supporting visiting over the festive season

The CQC have shared a message on visiting to help people understand the approach they’ve been taking on visiting during the pandemic and how they will continue to support providers to follow the most up to date government guidance. They have also been collecting feedback on visiting and following up with providers where concerns have been raised. This will continue to be their approach using risk-based targeted or focused inspections and utilising their ongoing monitoring approach. Throughout their communications on visiting the CQC have been clear that blanket approaches are unacceptable, this has not changed and where they are made aware of blanket bans, they will investigate and take regulatory action if required.

Through their inspection and monitoring activity, the CQC will be looking for you to demonstrate how you’re following the latest visiting guidance, with risk assessments to support your approach. It is also important that you share clear, transparent and regular communications with families and residents about visiting. They have expanded their Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) inspections to gather information on visiting practices, and they will be increasing the number of IPC inspections in the coming months. 

The CQC know that the majority of providers are making every effort to follow the latest guidance but if something changes and you’re unable to do this, please talk to your inspector, or contact their National Customer Service Centre so that they can ensure your query is picked up by an inspector.

Workforce Recruitment & Retention Fund Round 2 – Key points for members

On 16th December, the guidance on the £300 million Workforce Recruitment and Retention fund was published. This aims to provide urgent support for care providers to alleviate workforce pressures. The conditions of the grant state that the money must be spent by 31 March, and the grant is to be paid in 2 instalments, the first in January and the second in February. The grant allocations can be found here. We sent you some information about this on friday, but we have had a look at the guidance and have produced a summary of some of the key points. 

The main purpose of the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund, Round 2, is to support local authorities to urgently address adult social care workforce capacity pressures in their geographical area through recruitment and retention activity this winter. It builds on the first round of this funding but has one key difference: it can be used to support payments to boost the hours provided by the existing workforce – including childcare costs and overtime payments.

Do note that the guidance says: unlike round 1 of the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund, the second round of the fund can be used for bringing forward planned uplifts relating to pay in advance of the new financial year. However, it should be noted that the fund is time limited between 10 December 2021 and 31 March 2022 and any ongoing burden would be incurred at risk.

Round 2 guidance also points specifically to the issue of workforce capacity issues & hospital discharge delays: Noting the link between adult social care workforce capacity and hospital discharge, local authorities should engage with CCGs and NHS trusts to work collaboratively to address workforce pressures which in some areas are delaying people from returning to their home from hospital.

Like Round 1 of the WR&RF, the money should be used to support the full range of social care providers, regardless of whether the local authority already commissions care from them and LAs are encouraged to passport the money directly and speedily to social care providers. This guidance for round two says:

‘To ensure maximum productivity of any payments to providers, local authorities should be mindful of ensuring money is available to support the sector quickly. Therefore, if a local authority chooses to make payments to providers, they should endeavour to passport funds as early as possible to ensure that providers have time to use the resources to maximum effect.’

‘If a local authority chooses to make payments to providers financed by this grant, it must ensure those providers will use the funding within the grant period to support new expenditure that retains existing workforce capacity or delivers additional staff capacity, and which has not already been funded by the Infection Control Fund or other sources of public funding. In addition, care providers should keep sufficient records to be able to demonstrate what specific staffing capacity was secured using this funding. Further information can be found in the 'Financial management and the risk of fraud' section of this guidance.’

Another condition of passported funding is to complete the Capacity Tracker at least once a week: 

‘If passporting funds, the local authority should work constructively and collaboratively with providers receiving those funds to ensure that it imposes conditions on the provider requiring that they commit to completing the capacity tracker at least once per week until the conclusion of the fund.’

There are reporting requirements for LAs on Round 2 of the WR&RF (Jan 2022 & April 2022) and of course, this, in turn, means that LAS who do passport the funds directly to care providers will need to put in place due diligence reporting requirements from those care providers.

Guidance Updates

We anticipate that several pieces of guidance may be updated in the coming days including testing guidance for most social care settings to reflect the increase in LFD testing, and updates to the admissions to care home guidance and designated settings guidance. We will circulate updates as we spot them. There may be other last-minute updates to other guidance and we will keep you informed.