Protecting vulnerable people in hot weather

Following the recent heat wave, hot weather guidance has been sent out to our Provider Services to  ensure we protect our vulnerable People in Cumbria. We would ask our Practitioners to make themselves familiar with this guidance and just ensure we are considering the following on any visits we partake in:

• Ensure high risk people have visitor / phone call arrangements taking place and consider where appropriate, daily visits / phone calls for high risk individuals living on their own who have no regular daily contacts.
• Advise carers to contact the GP if they have concerns regarding a person’s health - consider weighing high risk people regularly to identify dehydration; look out for anyone feeling dizzy, weak, anxious or experiencing intense headaches / thirst.
• Check room temperatures on visits – are there cool areas are below 26°C? Reduce internal temperatures through shading and turning off unnecessary lights / equipment. Windows that are exposed to the sun through the day should be kept closed with the curtains drawn (however take care with metal blinds / dark curtains which can absorb heat); advise people to open their windows at night when the temperature has dropped. Advise keeping indoor plants and bowls of water in the house / room; as evaporation helps cool the air.
• Ensure sufficient cold water / fruit juice and ice is being consumed.
• Advise vulnerable people to keep out of the sun between 11am and 3pm, to wear light, loose-fitting clothing and if they have to go out in the heat, to wear a hat / light scarf and apply sunscreen regularly.
• Advise vulnerable people to avoid physical exertion and if experiencing painful muscular spasms ensure immediate rest in a cool place and advise they drink fluids containing electrolytes. Medical attention is required if the cramping lasts more than one hour.

+ VIEW GUIDANCE

Feedback from National Care Leavers Adviser visit

In June we were visited Mark Liddel, National Implementation Advisor for Care Leavers at the DfE, who conducted a review of our work to support Care Leavers. Our passion and commitment was evident to him across all the people he met with (young people, personal advisors, managers, children’s rights officers, members and partners). He has also said he had never been to an authority where so many young people travelled or joined in with the discussions. 

His report presents an overall positive assessment of the work we are doing, but also highlights areas for further focus. An action plan is now being developed ahead of Mark's return visit in six months time.

+ READ THE REPORT

Sign up for Tri.x updates today

Colleagues across Adult Social Care provided positive feedback at training sessions following the launch of and adults tri.x system on 15^th July. Tri.x locates all national and local documents, policies, procedures and guidance in one place as a one stop shop.  

+ If you work in Adult Social Care and haven’t yet done so, please sign up for updates via the tri.x site

Abuse and harassment survey - last chance to have your say

The council is reviewing its approach to supporting social workers subjected to abuse or harassment by people they are working with.

To inform that review we would like to hear from you about your experiences. A project team led by Lesley Sanzcuk, Senior Manager Children & Young People, will consider all your feedback and develop initial proposals for further discussion with you.

Colleagues are invited to complete the anonymous online feedback from by 2 August.

>>>COMPLETE THE SURVEY<<<

New Collaboration Canvas pilot in Adult Social Care

Colleagues in Adults Social Care have started piloting a new strength based tool called the ‘Collaboration Canvas’. It supports practitioners to have a guided conversation with people. This includes discussion around what is important to them, what their strengths are and what community and other resources are available to support them to remain more independent. A pilot is taking place with the Penrith Adult Social Care team and initial feedback is very positive:

"The person and their family were very pleased with this process. They reported that this is the first time that the focus has been on their son’s views and his perspective about his own needs/welfare/friends/family and the role of the community in enhancing and improving his quality of life…the process was more about the person rather than what the council is able to provide."

+ DOWNLOAD THE TOOL

More sign up to healthy weight declaration

More organisations have signed up to the Food Active Healthy Weight Declaration, committing to promote healthy weight across Cumbria.

This follows Cumbria becoming the first two-tier area to introduce a joint Healthy Weight Declaration between Cumbria County Council and district level councils last year.

+ FIND OUR MORE

Positive feedback from young people for health and wellbeing team

As part of their work with young people the Health and Wellbeing Team routinely gather feedback about young people's experience of the services they provide.

Young people were overwhelmingly positive about the support from the team, with one commenting: 

“[There was] a sense of understanding and confidentiality. I felt as if I was able to speak freely about my issues.”

+ READ THE FULL FEEDBACK REPORT

Pamela nominated for national Occupational Therapy Award

Pamela Armstrong has been shortlisted for Occupational Therapist of the Year in the 2019 Foundations National Healthy Housing Awards. 

The award recognises those whose work has helped individuals overcome adversity by supporting them at home. The awards more generally celebrate innovative projects and the dedicated staff who support housing schemes and individuals across the country. 

Pamela has worked for the council's OT service since 2011 but is currently seconded to Allerdale Borough Council's Housing Team who nominated her for the award. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in September. Good luck Pamela!

Exciting new recruitment opportunities in Domiciliary Care

We have begun a countywide recruitment drive to a wide range of new posts in our Cumbria Care team. The roles include Domiciliary Support Worker, Reablement Support Worker, Supervisor and Reablement Co-ordinator. Some are available to apply for now, and more will follow in the weeks to come.

These roles provide a brilliant opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable adults in Cumbria. Successful candidates will we welcomed into Cumbria Care’s Reablement and Domiciliary Service and provided with development opportunities, training and support within their new role. If you are a dedicated and motivated individual who really wants to make a difference, follow the link below to find out more.

+ WORKING FOR CUMBRIA CARE

Thanks from NHS for hot weather support

Colleagues from Adult Social Care and Cumbria Care have been thanked by Mandy Nagra, Executive System Chief Operating Officer at CPFT, for the support with discharges they provided to the hospitals in Carlisle and Whitehaven on 25 July in the extremely hot weather, particularly Social Work and Reablement staff. Mandy said:

"We’d like to take this opportunity to say a tremendous ‘thanks’ to you all, for all your incredible hard work today. It has been overwhelming to see how despite the immense pressure, at both hospital sites, and the extremely hot temperatures, everyone ensured that our  values were demonstrated and everyone remained focused and absolutely ensured that patient safety was paramount, throughout. The team work and collaboration was commendable. The support from everyone, and commitment to do the best for our patients, was outstanding. Once again, many thanks. I am personally extremely proud to work with each and every one of you all."

New guidance on business expenses

We have recently launched a new travel expenses eLearning course.

The course is mandatory for all staff and the aim is to make it easier to understand the options available and better explain the council’s travel scheme/policy.

All employees with internet access are asked to complete this new course as soon as possible. It is available now and can be easily accessed through My Learning. 

+ COMPLETE THE NEW ELEARNING COURSE

Safety in the workplace events

The roll out of new Health and Safety events across the county started with Craven House, Barrow in June. Thank you to everyone who took part.

Following the great turnout and event success, more are now planned over next few months. These events provide council colleagues with an opportunity to learn how they can support safety in the workplace.

The events are hosted by the Health and Safety and Learning and Skills Teams, who are on-hand to answer any Health and Safety questions you may have. See schedule of future events below:

• West Cumbria House, Workington - 7th August 2019, 9am-12pm
• Blencathra House, Whitehaven - 7th August 2019, 1pm-4pm
• County Hall, Kendal - 12th September 2019, 9am-12pm
• Bridge Mills, Kendal - 12th September 2019, 1pm-4pm
• Cumbria House, Carlisle - 25th September 2019, 9am-12pm
• Parkhouse, Carlisle - 25th September 2019, 1pm-4pm 

Please come along to any of the above events to help us to improve Health and Safety in the workplace.

+ MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HEALTH AND SAFETY

Fiona Musgrave, Assistant Director Integration and Partnerships visits Sandra Craig, South Lakes Brokerage Team

Fiona Musgrave

Firstly, I would like to thank Sandra Craig for inviting me to shadow the Brokerage Team in the Kendal Office. Sandra, Julie (Gill) and Nina (Frearson) were all very generous with their time and knowledge and were very welcoming.

What really struck me was the number of “systems” that they had to use to navigate their way through brokering services for people. There was the main IAS (Adult Information System), web portals and websites as well as numerous spreadsheets. In addition, there were policies and procedures that have to be followed. By the end of the afternoon my head was absolutely spinning.

There was an overwhelming sense of professionalism and a real feeling that the team are key in ensuring that care provision is appropriate for people’s needs. Other teams were in and out asking for advice, which was always forthcoming, with everyone in the team keen to help their colleagues.

I got a real sense of the challenges facing the team which helps me understand the work that they do and the impact that has on the people they work with. I thank Sandra and the team for being so open and honest with me. As the team recently transferred to Integration and Partnerships, this shadowing opportunity gave me a good understanding of the difficulties they face, making me better placed to ensure that they receive the right support.

All in all, an excellent experience and one I am happy to repeat any time they want to invite me back.

Sandra Craig

The team were keen to meet Fiona and discuss the wide variety of tasks currently undertaken by the Brokers. It was good to demonstrate the positive side of brokerage, along with some of the challenging issues and hopefully this gave a good snapshot of the role. As the Brokerage role has evolved since we started over two years ago, we were keen to share what tasks we complete on a day to day basis to ensure our role compliments the wider Team. It was good to have the opportunity to question some of the current processes and to share our experiences with both in-house and external providers and the challenges we face.

It was lovely to meet Fiona and we would encourage other teams to take advantage of the opportunity to request shadowing by an AD.

Catherine Whalley, Assistant Director Adults visits Pamela Armstrong, Housing Occupational Therapist, Workington

Cath Whalley

Earlier this month I spent a great morning with Pamela Armstrong, Occupational Therapist with the Allerdale Housing Team. Pamela invited me along to learn more about the work that she does in this special role.

I first met with the Housing Team and was taken through a presentation showing what they do. It was fascinating to hear about their creative and innovative approach to ensuring the people they work with are well supported and have access to the information, advice, help and grants that they require in order to meet their housing needs. What came across very clearly was their commitment to the Allerdale community, and making best use of their resources to support vulnerable people.

They shared with me case studies that clearly demonstrate the difference that they are making through the provision of Disabled Facilities Grants for adaptations that will support people with disabilities to remain independent in their own homes for longer and supporting people to relocate to appropriate properties. We all know how important our homes are to us. The home is increasingly where health care gets delivered for people with long term conditions. Our homes can provide the foundation for stability, family and security.

I then went out with Pamela to do a home visit for a woman ‘Mrs X’ whose stair lift had broken down. The impact of this was that Mrs X was often sleeping in a chair and was needing to use a bucket under the stairs to go to the loo. It was fascinating observing Pamela undertake her assessment in a really friendly conversational way – in order to gather the information that she needed. The outcome – a replacement stair lift to enable Mrs X to safely access upstairs where her bedroom and bathroom, and a hand rail at the back door to enable Mrs X to get out to her garden, which was really important to her. Pamela also delivered a commode the same afternoon, for Mrs X to use whilst the stair lift is replaced.

It was a fantastic morning. The Allerdale Housing Team are clearly a very close team, who clearly value the dedicated Housing OT role, and particularly Pamela, so much so they have nominated her for the National Health Housing Awards and Pam is through to the finals.

I am sure you will all join me in wishing Pam good luck. Go Pam!

Pamela Armstrong

Cath spent the morning shadowing me in my current post on secondment with Allerdale Borough Council as a Housing Occupational Therapist. Firstly, I arranged a team meeting with my colleagues from the Housing Grants team to introduce us all and present some of the works that we have achieved to date. These cases included supporting people to remain at home, maintaining their independence, successfully rehousing to more suitable properties and avoiding care.

We also discussed the potential future of the Housing OT role. An assessment followed for a lady in crisis who had a broken stair lift which was not repairable. She had no access to essential facilities and was using a bucket for toileting. The outcome was to reinstate access to essential facilities which included a replacement stair lift and other adaptations and equipment to better meet her immediate assessed needs.

It was great that Cath spent the time to understand the role and the improved outcomes that can be achieved working in this way. She was very approachable and empathetic towards the lady.