Policy Updates 20th June 2022

 

The following policy updates have been curated from the week commencing 20th June 2022.

People Plan Round Table Discussions - FREE Events

The Institute of Health and Social Care Management have now finalised the dates for their final 3 roundtables discussing some of the focus areas in the plan. These round tables are part of their ongoing consultation and are a great opportunity for us to capture more insights from people within the sector. They are interactive with a Q&A allowance at the end of each discussion, but we will also be recording all information from the chat section to help inform the next publication of the plan.

The next three roundtables are free to join and can be registered for on Eventbrite here:

Recruitment: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/recruitment-a-people-plan-round-table-tickets-361780554377

Retention and Wellbeing: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/retention-and-staff-wellbeing-a-people-plan-roundtable-tickets-361782991667

Pay and conditions: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pay-and-conditions-a-people-plan-for-social-care-roundtable-tickets-361788437957

New Policy

Adult social care charging reform: implementation support funding grant determination 2022 to 2023
Information for local authorities in England about the grant, which will support local authorities in funding adult social care charging reform implementation in 2022 to 2023. This guidance applies to the charging reform implementation support funding. The guidance sets out:

  • allocations of the implementation support grant for 2022 to 2023

  • guidance intended to assist local authorities

Found at: GOV.UK

Updated Policy

Care Act 2014: supporting implementation
Support for local authorities to carry out the implementation for part 1 of the Care Act 2014.
15 June 2022
Following public consultation, we've entirely updated chapter 23 in this guidance. This is to remove references to parts of the Care Act 2014 which have already been implemented and to update the charging reform section which is yet to be implemented.
Found at: GOV.UK
 
Operational guidance to implement a lifetime cap on care costs
15 June 2022
Added the government response to the ‘supporting local preparation’ part of the consultation.
Found at: GOV.UK
  

Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data
This final version of the strategy sets out ambitious plans to harness the potential of data in health and care in England, while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and ethics.
15 June 2022
Under the heading 'A data pact', added the email address to register interest.
Found at: GOV.UK

Wider Stakeholder News

Nursing care uplift will not be enough to solve care home crisis
The rise in the NHS-funded nursing care contribution is welcome, but it will not erase years of failure to increase funding to care homes in line with inflation
RCNI

New funding for Local Authorities
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that more than £15m of funding will be given to local authorities across England, to help LAs implement new social care charging reforms.
CMM

New ICS chief: ‘I’m being managed in a straitjacket’
A new system leader has said she has felt like she is “in a straitjacket” since being in the post, and asked for greater acknowledgement that “I might actually know what I’m doing”.
HSJ

COVID-19: guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk
Guidance for people aged 12 and over whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness if they become infected with coronavirus (COVID-19).
GOV.UK

Care Act 2014: supporting implementation
Support for local authorities to carry out the implementation for part 1 of the Care Act 2014.
GOV.UK

Health and Social Care Secretary sets out vision for year ahead
The Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, will set out his ambition to ensure every pound of taxpayer’s money is well spent in the health and care system when speaking at the NHS Confed Expo today (Wednesday 15 June). Speaking in Liverpool, he will use his speech to discuss the need for the strongest health and social care leadership and better partnerships between health and care services as he looks to the year ahead.
Found at: GOV.UK

Integrated care systems: what do they look like?
The NHS in England is about to be reorganised. In April 2022, government passed the Health and Care Act 2022 – the biggest legislative overhaul of the NHS in a decade. The Act is based on the idea that collaboration – between hospitals, GPs, social care, and others – is needed to improve local services and make the best use of public money. The legislation undoes many of the changes made by the Coalition government in the last round of major NHS reforms in 2012.
Found at: The Health Foundation

Care chief calls for lessons to be learned after Norfolk 'care hotel' mismanaged public funds
Care England has called for lessons to be learned from a care hotel initiative which cost taxpayers £15,555 per care recipient during the Covid-19 pandemic

£500k care hotel branded 'mismanagement' of public cash
A pioneering project which saw hospital patients cared for in a Norwich hotel has been criticised as a "wholly unacceptable" use of public money.
The pilot scheme, which saw patients transferred from local hospitals to the Holiday Inn, on Ipswich Road, has drawn stinging criticism from Care England, an industry body for the care sector.

Hospitals told to relax mask-wearing rules for staff, patients and visitors
Trusts have been told to start transitioning back towards prepandemic policies.
Nursing Notes

Fair cost of care: what is it and will it fix the problems in the social care provider market?
The fair cost of care policy did not make many headlines when plans for social care reform were revealed last autumn, but it is arguably more significant to how the social care system operates than the cap on care costs.
Nuffield Trust

New funding for local authorities to prepare for charging reform
New funding will be given to local authorities and government trailblazers to prepare for the charging reform
GOV.UK

Supporting you through Covid-19: shared learning for South Gloucestershire Community Based Support (CBS) providers

Hot weather warning – how to support residents and staff

Older people and those in residential care are particularly vulnerable in hot weather. It is important to keep your service users and the environment cool. The following links provide more detailed information about the adaptations that providers may need to make to support their service users, staff and visitors: 


Vaccination uptake by health and social care staff

The BNSSG Covid-19 Vaccination Programme are asking for your help to get a better understanding of the reasons why staff working in health and care choose whether or not to receive Flu and Covid vaccinations. 

We would be very grateful if you could ask staff to complete a short online survey using the link below. The results are anonymous and the survey will take no more than 5 minutes. We are particularly interested in members of staff who have chosen not to have their Covid booster and/or flu vaccine.

Complete the short online survey on Survey Monkey. 

We realise that your teams are very busy and to compensate them for the time, we are providing a £5 ‘Love to Shop’ voucher for any staff members who complete the survey. To receive their voucher, staff will be asked to provide their contact details at the end of the survey. This information will not be linked to their survey responses.

We would be grateful if you would provide staff with the opportunity to complete the survey during their working hours, rather during their break to further help with the response rate.

The results of the survey will be invaluable in helping us improve how we provide vaccinations for health and care staff this autumn and help ensure that your teams and the people you care for have the highest possible protection against Covid-19 and flu.

Many thanks
The BNSSG Covid-19 Vaccination Programme


Masks in social care settings

You may be aware that NHSE/I sent a letter to NHS trusts and CCGs at the start of June(Letter: Next steps on infection prevention and control (IPC)) indicating a step down of mask wearing in healthcare settings. 

We have been informed by UKHSA that the national adult social care leads are currently considering whether to apply this new guidance to social care settings but currently there is no change in PPE policy in care settings.


Hydration training

The CCG Infection Prevention and Control team are running a free workshop on the exploration of hydration in elderly residential care settings on Thursday 23 June. Please see the workshop flyer for details.
 

Community Brightside

Community Brightside is a programme of free interactive workshops and network sessions open to Care providers and volunteers and practitioners linked to Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations.

The programme includes two ‘spotlight’ sessions. The first session focuses on Health Inequalities and will include how Public Health measure health inequalities locally and opportunities to reflect on what steps you can take in your organisation to reduce health inequalities. The second spotlight session will be on Health Protection and will increase your understanding of health protection and include information on how to help protect your communities from respiratory and infectious diseases. We will reflect on ways to share messages through your organisation and networks; sharing views of how messages work in the communities you work in to feed into council groups.
 
Please use the signup links below to join: 

 
The next community network session will be held on Monday 27 June. Chris Sunderland will be our guest speaker and talk on Climate Change: How it affects us all and the organisations we work in.

This is a great opportunity to not only access free training on topics of interest, but to increase your own network list and meet other like-minded people.  

Join our network by signing up here: Community Brightside Network Session Tickets, Mon 27 Jun 2022 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information at communitybrightside@southglos.gov.uk or call us on 01454 864606. 


Introduction of DHSC Data Requirements

The Health and Care Act introduces new powers for DHSC to require information from all regulated adult social care providers in connection with the provision of adult social care in England.

This will be introduced from Sunday 31 July.

In practice, this means DHSC will be requiring providers to submit a small number of data items on a monthly basis.

Look out for information from the DHSC in the coming weeks containing formal notice to providers, together with a set of FAQs.


Data Security Protection Toolkit reminder to complete and publish by 30 June

You need to publish your Data Security Protection Toolkit at least once a year to ensure it reflects your current data and cyber security arrangements. Otherwise, your DSPT is not valid.

The deadline for 2021/22 is Thursday 30 June 2022.

Better Security, Better Care is the official, free support programme to help you complete the toolkit and keep your information safe. For more information and details on how to access this support please see the DSPT reminder document.


Frequently asked questions and useful links

These are being updated regularly
COVID-19: Vaccination - Healthier Together (bnssghealthiertogether.org.uk)

Information in English and other languages:
https://www.doctorsoftheworld.org.uk/coronavirus-information/  
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/covid-19-vaccination-programme#leaflets-and-posters .

Statements from the British Islamic Medical Association:
https://britishima.org/operation-vaccination/hub/statements/

Information on how to talk about the vaccines with others:
The Covid-19 Communication Handbook

Video by The Guardian supporting the vaccines by Black, Asian and minority ethnic celebrities

Information on Covid-19 and Pregnancy

Webinars for full details about testing, including to support visiting:
https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1380165&tp_key=dfecd07a9d
Useful linksSouth Gloucestershire Council's Covid-19 homepage
https://beta.southglos.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/health-services/covid19/

GOV UK - Covid-19 vaccination programme
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/covid-19-vaccination-programme

NHS England - Covid-19 vaccine deployment in community settings
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2021/01/C0992-covid-19-vaccine-deployment-in-community-settings-lvs-sop-v3.1-6-jan-2021.pdf

GOV UK - What to expect after your Covid-19 vaccination
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-what-to-expect-after-vaccination/what-to-expect-after-your-covid-19-vaccination

NHS England - Care Home Covid-19 Testing Guidance
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950192/Care_Home_Testing_Guidance_England_v06-01_3.pdf

Registering a PCR Test – Full Guidance
A testing service for homecare workers in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 
 
A summary of how staff should register their PCR Test
Registering test kits for homecare workers (publishing.service.gov.uk)
 
ECSL Testing Guidance
Testing service for extra care and supported living settings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
COVID-19: guidance for supported living - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 
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