|
|
|
|
|
ASC Provider briefing - 17 June 2022
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Care Provider Colleagues,
|
Welcome to this week's briefing.
|
We hope you are enjoying the warm weather. This week's briefing includes: information about heat-health concerns, a reminder about a survey, a link to the Safeguarding Adults newsletter, advice and a video on moving more and increasing mobility, a lot of updates from Proud to Care including a request to visit your care settings, an invitation to Train the Champion sessions on deteriorating residents, and finally the Covid update. Please fill out our very short Feedback Form to tell us what you want from this briefing going forward - this form is closing next Friday the 24th of June.
|
|
Please find the latest news and updates from Adult Social Care below:
|
|
|
|
Are you weather ready?
The current forecast: There is high confidence for temperatures to rise significantly through the second half of this week, becoming widely warm or very warm across England and likely hot, or perhaps even very hot in central and southern areas for a time. The highest temperatures are expected on Friday, with daytime maxima likely to reach into the low to mid-30s of Celsius across large parts of central and southern England. A cold front will move slowly south-eastwards across the country overnight Friday into Saturday. This is likely to bring rain or thundery showers, with an eventual return to drier, but fresher conditions. There remains uncertainty in regards to the speed of progression of this weather front on Saturday. A slower outcome may allow for the very warm or hot conditions to persist in the south and east for another day on Saturday, before a more definitive return to more seasonable temperatures for all regions of England by Sunday.
|
There is a 60 % probability of Heat-Health Alert criteria being met between 0000 on Friday and 0000 on Sunday in parts of England.
|
Reminder that we have links to information on extreme weather and other business continuity issues on our Business Continuity page on PEN.
|
Reminder: Survey for those over 70 or with Long-term health conditions
A survey has been launched by the PH behavioural science unit, specifically for those who are over 70 and those with long term health conditions. Here is a link to the survey: https://forms.office.com/r/bb0U2E0b0p We would like to hear directly from this group, so we would be grateful if you could share this survey with your service users where appropriate.
|
Individual experience of living through the pandemic is important, as the pandemic has changed many aspects of life and has impacted us all in different ways. This survey aims to find out experiences of the impact of Covid-19 and how people are adjusting back to “normal” life, now that there are no longer any restrictions.
The results of this survey will help us to inform the public health schemes that will support groups of people in this next phase of the pandemic. There are no right or wrong answers. Responses to this survey will be completely confidential and securely stored, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). No information that will identify individuals will be recorded in any reports.
|
We aim to use the results to identify what support might be required for these population groups, since Covid-19 restrictions have now been lifted.
|
|
The closing date for the survey is 30th June.
|
|
|
|
|
|
17th Edition of the Somerset Safeguarding Adults Board’s Newsletter
|
The 17th and latest edition of the Somerset Safeguarding Adults Board’s (SSAB) newsletter is now available here.
|
- News from the SSAB
- Guidance and leaflets
- Professional Curiosity Webinar
- Every Life Matters
- Violence Against Women and Girls
- National Safeguarding Adults Awards 2022
- Choking Awareness
- Money Mules
- RESTORE 2: Recognises early soft signs, Take observations, Respond, Escalate
- New NHS Rapid Read Documents
- New online course for victim-survivors
- Somerset Open Mental Health Website Launched
- Business Manager Blog
- Learning Lessons
- Local: ‘Kathleen’ Joint Death Review
- Local: ‘Diane’ Domestic Homicide Review
- Local: ‘Penny’ Domestic Homicide Review
- National: Manchester Carers Thematic Review
- Learning from the Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership
- Local & National News and Information
- Your Adult Safeguarding Experience Feedback Form
- Training and Development
- SSAB Board Meetings
- Useful Safeguarding Adults Links
We continue to welcome any feedback, views, contributions, or ideas for future content.
|
|
Please share this newsletter with colleagues or anyone you feel would find it informative or useful.
|
|
|
|
Moving more and breaking up time spent sitting
- It’s time to feel confident about moving more.
- It is important to try and ensure residents and service users begin to re-condition by moving more and breaking up time spent sitting following periods of inactivity during Covid.
- Gentle movement can increase muscle strength, boost general health and improve balance, which in turn can help to prevent falls.
- In Somerset, Age UK and SASP have a wide range of ideas and activities that are designed to get people moving again gradually following periods of inactivity and can be contacted for support.
- Take a look at this short video exploring how we can get moving again following the Covid-19 pandemic: Somerset Public Health Catch Up - Week 62, 15 June - YouTube
|
|
|
|
|
Visits from Proud to Care
We would really appreciate it if you would allow the Proud to Care Team (Natasha Gosney and Rose Wheeler) to visit your care settings to capture parties, activities and the strong bonds between staff and the people they support and create some positive media representation of what it’s like working in care. Tash and Rose would come in, film, make cups of tea and would love to meet the team and the people they support. If we use the content created, your settings will be tagged on our social media and if you advertise jobs through the Proud to Care platform we will add links to your vacancies. We want it to be a relaxed meeting and nothing formal.
|
SWAPs Programme expanding to Care Providers
The SWAPs programme provides excellent opportunities for those who were unemployed, being made redundant or who had faced barriers to getting into work. The SWAPs programme offers a free 3 week training course ending with a guaranteed interview with a care provider, drawn from the Proud to Care vacancies page here. It’s really important you upload your vacancies with us so you can benefit from this programme.
|
|
Upon completing the course, SWAPs candidates will have completed the Level 1 Gateway Qualification in Health and Social Care and will have had face-to-face Introduction to Care training.
|
Here is what Hiring Managers have to say about SWAPs –
|
|
“SWAPs is amazing, I would recommend them – in fact I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops! We are already reaping the rewards of working with them”
|
Natasha Green - Administration Lead
|
|
“The quality of the SWAPs candidates has been very good”
|
Alex Pryde – Manager of Outpatients and responsible for the mass vaccination programme booking team.
|
|
“I have pointed other people in the direction of SWAPs – the service could be useful to many other departments”.
|
James Warren – Lead, Covid 19 Testing Team
|
Glastonbury festival – are you planning anything fun?
|
|
Glastonbury Festival is upon us! We’re planning some Glastonbury festival themed social media content this year, as it’s a real attraction to the county, and could also help us attract people to come and work in our care sector.
|
We know that a number of you sometimes run mini-festivals in your homes and with the people you care for - if you are planning something fun for Glastonbury this year, we’d love to hear about it!
|
Celebrating #SharedLivesWeek
13 – 17 June
Please join us in celebrating #SharedLivesWeek this week by checking out and sharing our posts on social media:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gifted Levy partnership helps care home apprenticeships in Somerset
Somerset County Council has linked up with one of the UK’s leading training providers and a fast-growing care company to help ease the industry-wide staffing crisis in residential care homes in the region.
|
The Council is helping to fund the training of 14 new apprentices to support care home provider Harbour Healthcare.
|
Harbour Healthcare has recently acquired care homes in Chard and Taunton and already owns three other care homes in the South-West.
|
The company had been facing a shortfall in the delivery of its apprenticeship programme due to limits on the number of new learners it could enrol on training programmes each year.
|
However, apprenticeship training provider Realise has been working with Harbour Healthcare to help bolster its apprenticeship offer through the ‘Gifted Levy’ programme, reaching an agreement for Somerset County Council to donate £42,000 to help directly fund the training of 14 Level 2 and Level 3 apprentices.
|
Businesses or organisations with an annual wage bill in excess of £3 million must pay 0.5% of their payroll into the Apprenticeship Levy each year, while smaller employers who are exempt from the Levy can start up to 10 new apprentices annually.
|
The Gifted Levy scheme allows Levy-paying employers to gift payments they don’t use on their own training programmes to help supplement apprenticeship training with another business.
|
Lesley O’Connor, National Account Manager for Health and Social Care at Realise, said: “Apprenticeships can make a huge difference to businesses in all sectors but particularly in health and social care where recruitment and retention of staff has become something of a challenge.
|
“Companies struggling to meet their apprenticeship requirements through the normal channels can pursue a Gifted Levy approach and that has worked extremely successfully in the case of Harbour Healthcare.
|
“They have more than doubled in size in the last two and a half years and that has increased the importance of attracting, training and retaining staff.
|
“Somerset County Council has been fantastic in stepping forward with a Gifted Levy donation and that has made a huge difference to Harbour Healthcare.
|
“Importantly, it will also help protect and enhance vital care services in Somerset and the wider south-west and ensure care homes are staffed by a dedicated, qualified and trained workforce.”
|
Councillor Liz Leyshon, Somerset County Council Executive Lead Member for Finance and Human Resources, said: “I am delighted the Council has been able to make use of the Gifted Levy initiative in this way and help fund the training of more than a dozen new care apprentices.
|
“This funding will make a real difference by creating rewarding job opportunities for these apprentices and supporting Harbour Healthcare to provide a valued service, delivering a high standard of care for the residents of local care homes.”
|
|
Harbour Healthcare has 20 care homes across the UK offering services including residential, dementia, nursing, mental health and end of life care.
|
Simon Nettleship, Recruitment Business Partner at Harbour Healthcare, said:
|
“We are hugely grateful to Somerset County Council for gifting Apprenticeship Levy funds to support our training programmes.
|
“There is no hiding recruitment has been difficult throughout the sector so apprenticeships – and the career pathway, management progression and investment in people that brings – are a crucial part of our recruitment strategy.
|
|
“The Gifted Levy funding from Somerset County Council is being used exclusively for our apprentices working in the south-west region so will support learners in that area, in turn enhancing our five care homes in and around Somerset as we continue to rebuild after Covid.”
|
|
|
|
Train the Champion - The Deteriorating Resident
Somerset End of Life Care are offering new train the champion sessions about deteriorating residents.
|
Topics covered include: How to run a successful training session, Advance Care Planning, Restore 2 / News2 / SBARD Somerset Treatment Escalation Plans
|
|
There are 4 training dates available, from October 2022 to March 2023.
|
|
|
|
|
Latest Covid-19 Outbreak update
(Friday 17 June 2022)
|
Our 7 day rate per 100k this week has increased slightly, today being reported at 109.9 (for the period 4th to 10th June). We are still experiencing substantial pressure in the system, which is currently OPEL level 4.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Event Reminders
- Weekly meeting: Every Friday at 3pm the Health Protection Team host a meeting to answer any questions care providers have about updated Covid guidance. Teams meeting link.
- Somerset Wellbeing Conference from 20th to 24th June
- 'Roots and Boots' Memory Group Taster Session, Friday 24th June from 10.30am to 12.00pm. Poster
- Looking After People's Oral Health; A Training Session for Health & Social Care Professionals, Tuesday 5th July, 9.30am to 12.30pm. View the meeting agenda here, and Sign Up Here
- Application of the Mental Capacity Act for 16 and 17 Year Olds, Tuesday 11th October 2022, 9am to 1.30pm. See the flyer, and book your place here.
|
|
|
Updated Guidance
- No new guidance this week
|
|
|
Please continue to share or promote these briefings and our webpage to others in your organisations.
|
Our incident room mailbox and contact details (see below) remains operational during core working hours so please get in touch if you have any urgent concerns or queries we can look to assist you with.
|
Somerset’s Provider Engagement Team
|
|
Adult Social Care (ASC) COVID19 Response Team
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
