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ASC Provider Briefing - 03 March 2023
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Dear Care Provider Colleagues,
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Welcome to this week's briefing.
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This week in the briefing: an update on CQC Local Authority Assessments, an upcoming Adult Social Care co-production session, the latest guidance from the UKHSA SW Protection Team, and details on upcoming Somerset Dementia Wellbeing Service Roadshow events.
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Please find the latest news and updates from Adult Social Care below:
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Assurance of Local Authority Adult Social Care: CQC Assessment
These are set to start from April 2023 and, together with assessments of Integrated Care Systems, are intended to support greater understanding of the quality of care in a local area/system and provide independent assurance to the public.
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Assessments will focus on how LAs discharge their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act (2014), and will focus on 4 overarching themes:
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- How local authorities work with people
- How local authorities provide support
- How local authorities ensure safety within the system
- Leadership
The guidance has been approved by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and focuses on the:
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- Themes and quality statements
- Evidence categories
- How they will assess Local Authorities
- Reporting and sharing information, and
- Intervention and escalation.
For each quality statement, the CQC will assess the required evidence and assign a score. The interim guidance will be expanded and updated in collaboration with stakeholders as the CQC develops their model and approach to ongoing assessment.
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What will the CQC roll out of Local Authority Assessments look like?
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The CQC aims to ensure visits to Local Authorities are conducted as part of the assessment process but are currently working on timescales for this. In the interim, they expect to implement their assessment regime as follows:
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CQC to start to review available data and published documentary evidence across all Local Authorities. They will focus initially on themes in the following quality statements:
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- Care provision, integration and continuity;
- Assessing needs
They will also look at themes and insight on access, commissioning, market shaping, workforce, and personalisation.
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For these initial assessments, the CQC will start by assessing evidence that they have already (eg statutory data returns), followed by evidence they need to request from us (eg specific policies, strategies, surveys or self-assessments), and finally evidence they need to actively collect (eg people’s experiences through case tracking and focus groups).
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Additionally, the CQC intends to commence a limited number of pilot assessments within LAs from April 2023 (covering up to 5 nationally through to September 2023).
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September – December 2023
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Assessing local authorities is a new duty for the CQC. Before they move to ongoing assessments, they need to complete an initial formal assessment for all LAs to establish a starting point position.
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They intend to commence formal assessments in September 2023 and aim to carry out up to 20 between September and December. They will work with the LAs in question and others on the best way to publish findings from these pilots.
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The CQC will continue to carry out further formal assessments from 2024 and report on their findings.
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The Government has also asked the CQC to publish individual ratings of LAs following the pilots and assessments.
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What is being done within Somerset to prepare?
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Within the Local Authority, Strategic level ‘theme leads’ have been identified, each responsible for 1 of the 4 areas of focus.
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Working closely with Policy, Performance and Assurance team staff, they are currently undertaking a detailed self-assessment against the quality statements. We are utilising underpinning Local Government Inform datasets to support this activity and evidence our performance.
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The completed self-assessment is due to be presented and discussed at an internal leadership meeting on 31st March. From April 2023 we plan to share the findings more widely across our wider staff teams and key partners (including care providers) to support awareness and ongoing input and maintenance.
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Additionally, Somerset has been ‘buddied up’ with Devon and Gloucestershire as part of South West ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services) and the wider sector-led improvement work. Assurance Leads from across the region are also meeting routinely to support each other through a new assessment approach nationally and regionally.
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If anyone has any questions about the Local Authority’s assessment work and readiness activity, please email Niki Shaw (Strategic Manager – Quality, Performance and Assurance) in the first instance via niki.shaw@somerset.gov.uk.
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We will ensure care providers are kept updated as activity progresses and develops.
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Would you like to influence social care in Somerset?
Adult Social Care is hosting workshops to obtain your views about how we work in social care in Somerset. The work we do in the workshops will help us develop our Practice Quality Framework which is about how social workers, occupational therapists and adult social care practitioners work with individuals, families and carers.
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Alongside citizens, a number of community-based organisations will have stands at the events.
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There is space for one more stall holder at the event in Taunton on 28 March which will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Please email ASCLearningandDev@somerset.gov.uk if you would like to book this space.
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There are also a few more places for citizens to attend to have lived experience of social care services. Carers are welcome to attend too. Please do share information about the event with anyone who might be interested in attending. Again, places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
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A hot breakfast will be available for stallholders and participants.
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The details of the workshop are:
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28 March 9:30am – 11:30am at The Albermarle Centre, Taunton.
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If you plan to attend, please could you let us know your breakfast choice from the following options:
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Bap or Sandwich - 3 bacon rashers or 2 sausages; 2 bacon and 1 sausage; 2 bacon and 1 egg; 1 sausage and 1 egg; 2 veggie sausage or 2 egg
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Bookings can be made by emailing ASCLearningandDev@somerset.gov.uk For those who don’t have access to email, a text or voicemail message to book can be left on 07790 579205. The phone will be checked regularly for messages.
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We hope that you will be able to join us look forward to meeting you in person.
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Carolyn Smith, Principal Social Worker (Adults)
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Paulette Baker, Principal Occupational Therapist
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UKHSA SW Protection Team update
The UKHSA SW Health Protection Team would like to take this opportunity to give all adult social care settings a few reminders to help you through the coming months.
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Circulation of COVID-19, Flu and other acute respiratory viruses
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As I am sure you are aware, we have seen flu this winter for the first time since just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, this wave of flu seems to have peaked. However, there is still a possibility of another wave this winter season. Also, we are now beginning to see another rise in numbers of COVID-19 outbreaks in care settings, as well as an increase in hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19 in care home residents.
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Infection Prevention and Control
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Please do remember that good infection prevention and control measures are key in preventing transmission of all infectious hazards, particularly amongst elderly and /or vulnerable populations such as those in care settings.
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Nursing and residential care homes should always have a stock of LFD and PCR COVID-19 test kits within the setting – enough to complete one round of whole home testing (staff and residents). This is so that you can begin the outbreak testing regime as soon as you know that you have an outbreak. You can then order further test kits in time for the second round of testing.
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For other types of care setting, you should have enough stock of LFD test kits to complete 5 days of staff testing (if your setting is eligible for rapid response testing)
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When to contact SW Health Protection Team (HPT)
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Tel: 0300 303 8162 (24/7 for emergencies) Email: swhpt@ukhsa.gov.uk (monitored working hours only)
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(Definition of an acute respiratory outbreak: two or more cases of acute respiratory infections that could be linked to transmission within the care setting and with onset dates within 14 days.)
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You should report any outbreak of acute respiratory infections in your setting promptly to UK Health Security Agency’s SW Health Protection Team (HPT): Tel: 0300 303 8162
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We will then send you a link to complete our electronic Care Outbreak Risk Assessment (OBRA) Tool. It is really important that you do this as soon as possible, and complete it as best you can.
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From the information you put into the CareOBRA, we carry out a risk assessment and decide on our further course of action.
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For low risk outbreaks, this is usually in the form of an email that guides you through the steps you need to take to manage your outbreak.
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For higher risk outbreaks, or when you have a specific problem that we can assist with, we may also ring you and/or ask one of our partners (usually local authority or NHS) to assist you.
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The sooner you complete the Care OBRA, the quicker we can assist you.
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At weekends or bank holidays, if you require urgent assistance, we also ask you to ring the HPT because we do not routinely access the CareOBRA output outside of working hours. This is in addition to completing the CareOBRA.
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You should always contact the HPT if you have
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- A new outbreak – we usually ask you to ring us for a new outbreak. However, if you are entirely confident in the management of the outbreak then you can email us at swhpt@ukhsa.gov.uk
- You have a large increase in the number of cases in an ongoing outbreak – call 0300 303 8162 (you do not need to inform us of a trickle of new cases unless you need our assistance or advice)
- ANY of your residents or staff members are hospitalised or die due to suspected or confirmed Flu or COVID-19
(if you don’t need any assistance or advice, please email swhpt@ukhsa.gov.uk making sure you say that this is for information only; if you need assistance or advice – call 0300 303 8162)
- You have difficulty in applying the relevant control measures – Call 0300 303 8162
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You do NOT need to inform us of SINGLE cases of COVID-19
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You DO need to inform us of SINGLE cases of FLU
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You DO need to inform us of any acute respiratory outbreak
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If you are certain that the cases are NOT LINKED you should manage them as single cases – guidance on linkage can be found as per the table below. If in doubt, report as an outbreak.
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Key relevant DHSC guidance with further information on all the following topics is available:
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Somerset Dementia Wellbeing Service Roadshows
Please find information below about the Somerset Dementia Wellbeing Service Roadshows taking place across the county bringing together organisations and services that support those living with dementia, their families and carers.
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The roadshows are free to attend with no booking needed and are open from 10am - 4pm each day. There will also be free access to the Virtual Dementia Tour simulator from 12.15pm - 13.45pm, offering a chance to see how it might feel to live with dementia.
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Upcoming Event Reminders
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Please continue to share or promote these briefings and our webpage to others in your organisations.
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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.
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Somerset’s Provider Engagement Team
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Adult Social Care (ASC) COVID19 Response Team
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