|
Feedback on the usefulness of this bulletin is very much appreciated, such as whether you find the content useful, if anything is missing, or whether more (or less) detail is needed. Please email any feedback to SocialCareCommissioning@coventry.gov.uk
In this issue:
Our Market Sustainability Session is taking place online via Microsoft Teams from 10am-11:30am. This session will cover a number of items including:
- Overview of our final Market Sustainability Plan
- Overseas Recruitment
- Recruitment support and Provider Support Pack
- Mental Capacity Act website refresh
- Public Health overview
- Business support
This will be a really informative and interactive session and we encourage everyone who can make it to log on and take part.
You will already have received an invite however if you have not or would like this resent please email chloe.elliott@coventry.gov.uk
On Thursday 4 May 2023, the city will vote for councillors to represent them on the City Council. 18 out of the 54 seats on the City Council will be up for election.
All electors who are currently registered and are eligible to vote will receive a poll card between 22 - 28 March 2023. We want to ensure that anyone who is eligible to vote can do so, therefore please look to support individuals in obtaining appropriate ID as below.
Voter ID
The first big change to elections this year is around Voter ID.
Anybody going to a polling station this May will need to provide a form of photographic ID before they can receive a ballot paper. The full list of accepted forms of ID can be found on the Electoral Commission website. Anyone who does not have one of these accepted forms of ID can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate on the Government website.
Groups who are least likely to have one of the accepted forms of ID so will need to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate. These groups are the over 85s, trans and non-binary people, people with disabilities, ethnicities with low ID ownership, including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and homeless people and those in refuges.
If you have a postal vote, you do not need photographic ID. If you have a proxy vote, then please be aware that your proxy will need to show photo ID at the polling station.
Accessibility
The second big change this year is around accessibility. The Electoral Commission has introduced a requirement to provide greater assistance and equipment for those with disabilities and has issued guidance on how to do this.
As a result, we will raise awareness of these changes and will be increasing the training provided to polling station staff.
Should you have any questions, please contact electoral.services@coventry.gov.uk
A recruitment event for adult social care took place at St Francis Church in Radford on Thursday 9 February. Three providers in addition to job coaches and additional organisations took part in the event that recorded over 70 attendees! The event was a great success including on-site job applications, English and numeracy tests completed, and some great discussions had. Many attendees presented their CVs to providers with many set to receive a call back; two of the providers that attended received 30 enquiries each and another had 24 attendees express an interest in applying!
The event took place as part of an ongoing partnership between the Migration Team and the Adult Social Care Strategic Commissioning team aimed at introducing potential recruits to providers in the Adult Social Care sector. The event reflects the objectives of the One Coventry Together plan to support Coventry’s newly arrived citizens to find suitable recruitment that provides opportunities and to enhance their skills. This partnership has also aimed to catalyse recruitment into Adult Social Care.
A big thank you to the providers, organisations and the wonderful team at St Francis for taking part and helping to make this event a success.
If you would like to be involved in future events, please email Simon.Veasey@coventry.gov.uk
Please also remember the Job Shop holds an in person recruitment event on the first Wednesday of every month! Please get in touch via SocialCareCommissioning@coventry.gov.uk for more information on this.
|
Are you having challenges recruiting staff? Like to reduce your reliance on agency staff? If so can we help!
The adult commissioning team have been working closely with local employment advisors, Job Centre Plus and City College to raise the awareness of working in care and particularly the diverse support roles that exist across the industry. If you send us information on ALL of your vacant posts by 15 March we will ensure they are circulated directly to employment advisors who are in direct contact with candidates.
If you currently have no vacancies but want to take part in the future then please send us an email requesting that and we will contact you each month to see if your situation has changed.
Please send an email to Simon.Veasey@coventry.gov.uk with the job titles, hours, salary and location and we will do the rest. It can also be useful to let people know whether the post requires a driving licence.
The Department of Health and Social Care has launched new free resources to support recruitment activity for adult social care. The resources are part of the national recruitment campaign ‘Made with Care’ and are designed to help councils advertise job opportunities locally.
The resources include flexible branding to enable councils to add their respective organisation’s logo.
This is in addition to the recently developed guide ‘top tips for adult social care workforce retention’ developed in conjunction with councils and providers of social care and aimed at senior officers, employers or councillors with an interest in the adult social care workforce or commissioning. It provides top tips, suggestions, and links to resources to help implement staff retention measures.
Resources: www.adultsocialcare.co.uk/recruit
Toolkit: www.adultsocialcare.co.uk
Guidance: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Recruitment-support
More information: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Home
www.local.gov.uk/our-support
Health and local authority care services are working together for Coventry and Warwickshire to address waiting times for a neurodevelopmental diagnostic assessment (Autism, and/or ADHD). This includes finding ways to reduce waiting times for an assessment and improve the support available to people who are waiting for an assessment.
We are seeking the views of people awaiting a neurodevelopmental diagnostic assessment, as well as those of their families and carers to help us understand what works well and what needs to be improved in relation to the assessment process and support received whilst on the waiting list.
The purpose of the survey is to understand more about:
- the reasons why you or your family member are seeking a diagnosis;
- what support would help you or your family member now while you are awaiting an assessment; and
- your experience of support and services you have accessed and whether these have been person centred and effective.
They survey will take around 10 minutes to complete and closes on Sunday 12th March. Professionals can access the survey here.
NHS England, in association with the Stroke Association relaunched the Act F.A.S.T. stroke campaign this week. The campaign highlights that a stroke is a medical emergency and urges the public to call 999 immediately if they notice any single one of the signs of a stroke in themselves or others.
The primary audience for the campaign is people aged 50+, as this age group are more likely to experience a stroke, but the campaign also targets a wider all adult audience of ‘stroke savers’ who may witness somebody showing one of the stroke signs, be it a loved one or a friend.
The Act F.A.S.T. (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) acronym provides a memorable way of identifying the most common signs of a stroke and emphasises the importance of acting quickly by calling 999.
A selection of the resources available to support the campaign are below:
Campaign adverts will be running on TV, catch up TV services, radio and paid social media in February and March. The campaign will also include bespoke multicultural adverts and is supported by PR and partnership activity.
Campaign materials are available on the Campaign Resource Centre, including multicultural assets, and further assets will be available in the coming weeks.
We take this opportunity to welcome our new Care Home Liaison Officer, Andrea Hillyer, to the team. Andrea has a wealth of experience previously working in the social work team at UHCW and has recently taken over from our previous officer (Reggie Pearson) to support providers in facilitating discharges, accessing information and providing a crucial link between the hospital and social care.
Please do contact Andrea via email at Andrea.Hillyer@coventry.gov.uk or telephone 024 7697 1812 to introduce yourselves and access any support or information you may need.
Have you ever considered taking on a young apprentice? There has never been a better time as HM Government are incentivising the recruitment of young people in care or leaving care. All eligible apprentices starting their apprenticeship on or after 1 August 2023 will attract a bursary of £3000 paid in instalments over the first year of their training.
- To be eligible for this care leaver's bursary young people must:
- Be aged under 25 at the time they start their apprenticeship
- Not have received the care leaver's bursary before
- Be an eligible child, a relevant child or a former relevant child
Full information is available via the gov.uk website
Do you support and value individuals with disabilities? Sign up to Gov UK’s ‘Disability Confident’ scheme. This scheme celebrates employees with disabilities whether they have became disabled whilst employed or if you are looking for new recruits whom may have existing disabilities. This scheme is voluntary and completely free. Join the growing list of organisations who proudly demonstrate their commitment to this large and invaluable demographic.
The Disability Confident scheme is a badge of pride for Adult Social Care provisions and tells the world that you support and respect those with disabilities and long term conditions. There are three different levels to progress to; Committed, Employer and Leader. The benefits of joining this scheme are extensive; you will obtain and retain invaluable members of staff with unbeatable contributions to your team, you will evidence your fair treatment of employees and you will save money on recruitment as introducing disabled employees to your workforce will enhance staff retention. This scheme tackles barriers and promotes successful team outcomes. For more information, please visit the gov.uk website.
Please let us know if you sign up to take part, we would love to hear about your experience!
Microsoft has approached Digital Social Care about running more virtual training sessions on how to use Microsoft products.
We would like to know if this is of interest to the sector and how you would want this to work. If this is of interest, we would be grateful if you could let us know by completing a 3 minute survey.
|
The Digitising Social Care Team in the NHS Transformation Directorate are making a total of £25 million available to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) in 2022/23 to support CQC registered adult social care providers to adopt technologies that can transform care. The fund will support the adult social care sector to;
- adopt digital social care records (DSCR), also known as digital care plans, to ensure care teams have the most accurate, timely information at their fingertips to provide outstanding care;
- Roll-out sensor-based falls prevention and detection technologies to support those at risk of falls, reducing the frequency and severity of falls-related injuries and preventing hospital admissions; and
- Test other care technologies based on local needs to further develop our understanding of what works.
Coventry and Warwickshire ICS has been successful in securing some of this funding from the NHS Transformation Directorate which was approved in October 2023.
Coventry City Council are currently taking expressions of interest from providers in the City who are interested in going digital and who may be eligible for some funding to support the transformation to digital care planning or falls prevention. In the first instance please send an email registering your interest to Simon Veasey, Commissioning Officer simon.veasey@coventry.gov.uk
 |
|
audIT On Cloud by InvictIQ, is an one-stop solution for managing all audit, inspection and complaints, making Care businesses compliance ready always!
They are inviting Care business to join their Early Adopters Circle and to participate in case studies. For more details contact schakravarty@invictiq.com
|
Home support is a key feature in the delivery of good Health and Social Care Services. These services support adults to remain living independently in their own homes, provide assistance to people and their family members / carers. When delivered effectively they allow for flexibility through a personalised approach to respond to changing care needs over time.
Well-designed home support is crucial to meeting the needs of an ageing population with growing care needs and for supporting working age adults with disabilities or mental ill health to live their lives.
Did you know that there are three main types of Home Support (Domiciliary Care) in Coventry?
Long Term Home Support
Care and Support in people’s own homes to enable them to live independently and well. Services are often provided with input from other health and care professionals including District Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers and many others. This is to enable a whole health and social care system approach to keeping people healthy and independent at home. We support approximately 1100 people through council commissioned long term home support. This is approximately 14,000 hours per week in total.
Short Term Home Support
A time limited service of up to six weeks to prevent hospital admission or support hospital discharge through supporting people to acquire or reacquire skills to live independently at home. People who are discharged from hospital are supported to ‘get them back on their feet’ following injury or illness. Most People finish the service without the need for ongoing long term home support. We support approximately 100 people on the service at any one time. This adds up to approximately 2500 hours per week.
Mobile Night Carers
A mobile home support service for people in their own homes who need some night time support, that would have previously been discharged into a care home. The Mobile Night Carers service enables people to go home and still receive the support as part of their hospital discharge requirements.
Your views
Coventry City Council Adult Social Care would like your help in obtaining feedback on its Home Support Services.
The feedback will support our intention to recommission the services and it is important to us that the new services are informed with service user and carer feedback as much as possible. Your feedback will be part of the process to improve and redesign home support services so that they are up to date with people’s changing needs and any legislative changes since the current contracts were issued in 2016 and 2017.
Message from Skills for Care, Grey Matter Learning Team
We are helping care providers to inspire their next generation of the carers through impactful leadership and management training.
This is your last chance to access the 2022 Workforce Development Fund for leadership training following the deadline extension.
Carers who are supported with on-going, impactful learning provide higher quality care, feel happier, more confident, and valued – as demonstrated in Skills for Care's ‘State of the workforce report’.
For Aspiring Leaders - Have you made the most of your training funding allowance this year?
Improve your leadership skills and take control of your career pathway in the care sector by upskilling - this is your last chance to access your £2,000 per learner WDF funding. Ask your Manager to register you now.
For Managers - Do you have leftover L&D Budget?
By making development pathways accessible to your carers, you can inspire the next generation to aspire to go further in care. Ultimately reducing staff turnover and improving attraction rates. Use your leftover learning & development budget and reclaim the cost in time for a new year of training.
Register now and reclaim the cost of the course:
Coventry Climate Change Strategy 2023 -2030
We want to hear from people who live, work or study in Coventry, we need your views on the city’s draft climate change strategy
The draft strategy sets out the foundations for creating a sustainable zero carbon city.
The strategy supports the delivery of the city’s One Coventry Plan, which includes tackling the causes and consequences of climate change as one of its three key priorities.
Read the draft climate change strategy, give us your views by filling in our survey and find out more about opportunities to get involved in an engagement session on Let’s Talk Coventry.
This is a real chance for you to get involved and have your say on the draft Coventry Climate Change Strategy.
If you’d like any more information or you have any questions, please contact us at climatechange@coventry.gov.uk
If you would like to request a paper copy of the survey or need this information in another format or language then please contact us on 08085 834333.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
We understand that a lot of people across Coventry are struggling with the ever-increasing cost of living, with energy bills, the cost of food and other essentials increasing dramatically. As a local authority, Coventry City Council have consolidated information in one place, to help the city’s residents. This will provide advice and signpost people to relevant services if they need support.
You can refer to the council's website where you will find extensive information about cost of living and wellbeing support. Please highlight this information to any individual who may benefit from this support.
If you would prefer to speak to someone please call 08085 834 333.
You may already be aware of our Adult Social Care Real Time Survey, designed to allow service users to give feedback on the support they have received from the Council, for example, at contact, reviews and assessments. This feedback is reviewed regularly and used to improve our service moving forward.
This is a rolling survey with no cut-off date; individuals can respond whenever they have ASC involvement. We would be grateful for your support in promoting the survey and assist individuals who may require support to complete this.
You can assist in promoting the survey in the following ways:
- Pop a link and information on the purpose of the survey into any newsletters or literature at your scheme
- Download a link to the survey on the home's iPad / tablet, or shared technology devices so this is in an easy-to-access place for individuals to complete
- Email the link out to residents
- Encourage conversations on giving feedback to CCC and how this is a method to do so
- Reinforce our message that feedback, positive or negative, will be reviewed and actioned appropriately
- Support individuals to identify their Care Director ID (this can be located on any assessment paperwork)
- Promote in residents' meetings
Should you have any questions please email getinvolvedasc@coventry.gov.uk
We greatly appreciate your support with this.
|
