Policy Updates 17th January 2022
The following policy updates have been curated from the week commencing 17th January 2022.
Policy Headlines
Infection prevention and control for seasonal respiratory infections in health and care settings (including SARS-CoV-2) for winter 2021 to 2022
This guidance is issued jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health Wales (PHW), Public Health Agency (PHA) Northern Ireland, NHS National Services Scotland, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England as official guidance. The guidance is published on their behalf by UKHSA. GOV.UK
Free PPE for frontline extended for another year
Offer of free personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health and care staff extended until 31 March 2023.
GOV.UK
Self-isolation for those with COVID-19 can end after 5 full days following 2 negative LFD tests
From Monday 17 January, people with COVID-19 in England can end their self-isolation after 5 full days, as long as they test negative on day 5 and day 6.
GOV.UK
Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing in adult care homes
How to access test kits and step-by-step guides on how to use PCR and rapid lateral flow test kits for regular and outbreak testing of residents, staff and visiting professionals. GOV.UK
Fit notes for Statutory Sick Pay purposes
The Department for Work and Pensions suspended the requirement for fit notes for benefit purposes between 17 December 2021 and 26 January 2022. Claimants whose fit notes expire, and those who make new claims due to a health condition between 17 December and 26 January (and are still ongoing), will need to provide medical evidence from 27 January, and may therefore contact their GP for a fit note in advance of this date. These should be issued.
Fit notes for Statutory Sick Pay purposes will be required for absences which begin on or after 27 January and last for longer than 7 days. Individuals whose sickness began between 10 December and 26 January inclusive will continue to be able to self-certify their absence for up to 28 days.
Found at: GOV.UK
Community services prioritisation framework
To aid local decision making about service and staff prioritisation until 1 March 2022. The decision about where community health workforce are re-deployed is a local one but is most likely to focus on the priority areas of supporting as many patients as possible to be discharged, admission avoidance work and supporting the COVID vaccination programme.
Found at: NHS
Updated Policy
NHS Test and Trace in the workplace
18 January 2022
Clarified definition of critical workers.
Found at: GOV.UK
Coronavirus: how to stay safe and help prevent the spread
18 January 2022
'Get tested and self-isolate if required' updated to reflect new testing and isolation rules.
Found at: GOV.UK
Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing for adult social care settings
18 January 2022
Added information about giving feedback about your test kit or reporting harm.
Found at: GOV.UK
COVID-19 vaccination: booster dose resources
17 January 2022
Added COVID-19 vaccination: a guide to booster vaccination for individuals aged 16 years and over and those aged 12 years and over who are at risk.
Found at: GOV.UK
COVID-19 vaccination: myocarditis and pericarditis information for healthcare professionals
17 January 2022
Updated the 'Why are serum samples being requested if myocarditis is suspected after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine?' section.
Found at: GOV.UK
COVID-19: management of staff and exposed patients and residents in health and social care settings
17 January 2022
Updated to reflect change in isolation period in hospitals from 14 to 10 days for cases and contacts of cases of COVID-19 and includes new changes to self-isolation periods for staff in health and care settings. The following guidance has also been updated in relation to the latest updates:
Found at: GOV.UK
Removing confirmatory PCR
As of 11 January, if an individual tests positive using a rapid lateral flow test (LFT), they will no longer need to take a confirmatory PCR and should being their self-isolation period immediately. However, anyone with symptoms should test with a PCR test and self-isolate until they receive their result. This is a temporary change that has been made during this period of high prevalence. It is highly likely that a positive result from a lateral flow test is a true positive and therefore confirmatory PCRs add limited value at the current levels of prevalence.
Found at: GOV.UK
Testing within 90 days of a positive test result
From 11 January 2022, anyone who has tested within 90 days of a positive PCR or lateral flow test should continue to undertake regular asymptomatic rapid Lateral Flow testing (LFTs) during this time. Therefore, anyone who is not currently carrying out regular LFT testing because they have tested positive in the last 90 days should now restart regular asymptomatic LFTs and anyone who tests positive in the future should continue their regular LFTs when they return to work. This applies to all individuals, including staff, people receiving care and support and visitors. Individuals should continue to be exempt from regular asymptomatic PCR testing within 90 days of a positive result, apart from in certain circumstances, such as if they become symptomatic
Found at: GOV.UK
Supported living services during coronavirus (COVID-19)
13 January 2022
Updated to reflect changes to self-isolation advice for people who have received a positive COVID-19 test result; advice for staff and residents who are identified as a suspected or confirmed case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19; and for international travel guidance.
Found at: GOV.UK
Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing in adult care homes
12 January 2022
Updated information on what to do in the case of a positive COVID-19 result.
Found at: GOV.UK
Asylum seekers can work in care homes following rule change
Asylum seekers who have waited more than a year for a decision can now work to help ease the care home recruitment crisis under a rule change sanctioned by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary.
Mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers
NHSE England published phase 2 guidance on 14 January 2022. This will assist employers to comply with the legislation making it mandatory for healthcare workers to be vaccinated as a condition of deployment (VCOD). As a reminder the key dates are:
3 February 2022 – First dose of vaccine
1 April 2022 – Regulations come into force.
There is an incredibly short time scale to comply with the legislation. As a minimum, organisations should ensure that they follow the ACAS code of practice before they issue notice of dismissals, including offering employees the right of appeal. Importantly all employees should be treated consistently to avoid any claims of discrimination.
Found at: RLB
Stakeholder News
Events stopping a service running
You do not need to notify CQC about individual coronavirus cases in your service. You only need to notify CQC if coronavirus affects the day to day running of your business, using the events that stop a service running safely and properly form. But you should continue to send us other notifications as usual. You must send your notification by email or submit it online.
Found at: CQC
COVID-19: ethical framework for adult social care
This is a framework to support the planning and organisation of adult social care during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The CQC want to highlight the ethical framework as a resource that could help providers when making difficult decisions, the principles in it may be transferrable to services they deliver.
Found at: GOV.UK
New advertising drive calling on young people to Get Boosted Now
A new advertising campaign to encourage 18 to 34 year olds to get their vital COVID-19 booster jabs has launched as uptake among young people is lower than other age groups. While more than 80% of eligible adults in England have had a booster jab, just 57% of eligible 18 to 34 year olds have been boosted. The new campaign, running across digital and radio, highlights that being unvaccinated or not booking in for your booster jab increases your risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19.
Found at: GOV.UK
Code of Practice for International Recruitment Short Survey
NHS Employers are inviting all those with an interest in the ethical international recruitment of health and care workers to participate in the Code of Practice for International Recruitment short survey. The survey should take no more than five minutes to complete and is a great opportunity to provide feedback which will help to shape the future Code of Practice when it is re-published in Spring 2022. All feedback will be kept anonymous. The Department for Health and Social Care will also be running some virtual focus groups to explore elements of the Code of Practice in more detail. If you are interested in joining one of these, please provide your email address in the final question of the survey. To ensure anonymity, email addresses submitted for the focus groups will not be not be used in the analysis of survey responses. The survey will close on Monday 31 January.
Found at: NHS Employers
Opportunity to recruit care workers from overseas but only for 12 months
Care workers will soon be added to the Shortage Occupation List, which means they will be eligible for sponsorship and the Health and Care Visa. This is a response to the urgent recommendations from the Migration Advisory Committee to address the staffing shortages in the care sector. It will cover care workers, support workers and home care assistants. Following the changes, care workers will join other social care roles, such as senior care workers, in being eligible for sponsorship. Care workers will need to be paid a minimum salary of £20,480, with an hourly rate of at least £10.10, to qualify for sponsorship.
Found at: Royds Withy King
Urgent Community Response and care homes - slides
The implementation of the two-hour urgent community response standard is a key commitment of the Long Term Plan, and a requirement of the NHS Operational Planning Guidance 2022/23. Two-hour urgent community response teams provide assessment, treatment and support to people over the age of 18 in their own home or usual place of residence who are experiencing a health or social care crisis are at risk of hospital admission within the next two to 24 hours. The slides set out the national recommendations, the importance of UCR for care homes and examples of ongoing falls response projects in care homes.
Found at: Care England
New learning and development opportunities for 2022
As the new year begins it’s the perfect time to start planning learning and development opportunities for your team to make use of this year. Providing your team with ongoing learning and development can improve job satisfaction, make staff feel more valued, upskill your team, and as a result help you to keep staff for longer. We’ve rounded up some of our core learning and development initiatives which are new or updated for 2022, as well as those which are calling for final applications at the start of the year.
Found at: Skills for Care
Delivering safe, face-to-face adult day care
This guide aims to support you, day care managers, social workers, commissioners and providers, to restart or continue activities. It is focused on community-based day services, day centres (with and without personal care), including specialised day centre environments, and those with outdoor spaces. The latest updates to the guidance include:
Infection control and testing
Vaccination information
Changes to restrictions – Omicron
Found at: SCIE
Guidance for COVID vaccination in care homes where there are cases and outbreaks
There should always be a presumption that COVID vaccine should be offered to older adults in care homes and their carers, with the aim of achieving high uptake as rapidly as possible. This includes when other residents have been diagnosed as having COVID-19 infection. Whilst vaccination against COVID may be temporarily deferred in some individuals e.g., acutely unwell or still within four weeks of onset of COVID symptoms, all other staff and care home residents should receive prompt COVID vaccination. There is no evidence of any safety concerns from vaccinating individuals with a past history of COVID-19 infection, or with detectable COVID19 antibody
Found at: NHS England
Cold weather alert: Level 3 – cold weather action
There is a 90% probability of severe cold weather between 6pm on Thursday 13 January and 9am on Monday 17 January in parts of England.
NHS England
Interview: how I plan for the new year as a registered manager
As the new year begins, we spoke with Laura Hambridge, Registered Manager of Eden House, about how she plans for the year ahead and what advice she would give other social care managers about balancing yearly planning alongside remaining flexible to the changing requirements of social care.
Found at: Skills for Care