Policy Updates 21st December 2022
The following policy updates have been curated from the week commencing 19th December 2022.
Adult Social Care Discharge Fund
The government announced the Adult Social Care Discharge Fund - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for use;
“on the interventions that best enable the discharge of patients from hospital to the most appropriate location for their ongoing care…. and provision of homecare is recognised as an effective option for discharging more people in a safe and timely manner. Funding can also be used to boost general adult social care workforce capacity, through staff recruitment and retention, where that will contribute to reducing delayed discharges.”
Bristol City Council Adult Care is looking at a number of initiatives to support safe and timely discharges and wish to alert you to three specific to our active contracted framework home care providers;
a time-limited contractual change so providers receive payment for all commissioned visits up to a maximum of 14 days while a service user is in hospital during an unplanned admission. You will receive further information over the coming days.
we will be providing providers with a grant for use for recruitment and retention of staff to increase capacity of home care in Bristol. The grant conditions and allocation will be communicated in early January.
a project to support providers to free up capacity by reviewing Service Users who no longer need the support provided. This is an ongoing project we have already begun.
Once you have received further information, we can answer any queries via adultcommissioning@bristol.gov.uk .
Also if you have any new home care capacity available please email Russell.Henderson@bristol.gov.uk in the Support Planning and Brokerage team stating the number of hours and the area.
System Pressures
The health and care system across our area is currently in a critical condition.
Ambulance emergency response times are severely compromised. This is due to delayed ambulance handovers, caused by high numbers of individuals already in hospital, and high volumes of people attending our emergency departments.
All parts of the health system are working closely together to help tackle the situation and are taking measures to help get people out of our hospitals (including community rehabilitation units) and into other care settings.
The measures include postponing some non-urgent appointments and procedures to prioritise treatment for those most acutely unwell in community settings, GP practices and hospitals. People will be notified directly if they are affected by the changes.
We are writing to ask you to take extraordinary actions to support the health and care system at this difficult time:
Exhaust all available options before deciding to convey a resident to hospital. Your residents are likely to get poorer care if they were to be conveyed to hospital, compared to staying in their own bed.
Facilitate the discharge of one extra person per care home from hospital until Christmas. This will help relieve pressure on our hospitals and free up beds for people most in need of acute hospital care.
As usual, primary care support is available and community support is available from Sirona care & health. See the attached Sirona care & health services available to support your residents.
CQC Update on the implementation of our new regulatory approach
From: Provider Engagement <providerengagement@cqc.org.uk>
Sent: 21 December 2022 09:58
To: Samuel Wallace <Samuel.Wallace@cqc.org.uk>
Subject: Update on the implementation of our new regulatory approach
Dear colleagues,
I’m sharing an update on the implementation of our new regulatory approach
We had previously shared that we would introduce our new regulatory approach in January 2023. Following a full review of our timeline we have decided this will not happen until later in 2023.
Today we’ve published a full update on our website that covers how we’ll be implementing our new approach in 2023, this covers:
· introducing a new regulatory approach for health and care providers, integrated care systems and local authorities
establishing a new Regulatory Leadership team to shape our priorities and drive improvement
changing how our operational teams are structured to better deliver our regulatory activity
delivering a new and improved provider portal.
You can read the full update on our website and we’ll be shortly sending to all providers. We’ll be sharing more information in early 2023. If you have any questions please let me know.
Sam
Samuel Wallace MCIPR (he/him)
Provider Engagement Lead
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
E-mail: samuel.wallace@cqc.org.uk
Tel: 07837021306
Web: www.cqc.org.uk