COVID-19 Update

11 June 2020

A weekly update for providers and professionals working in adult social care, sharing the latest guidance on COVID-19 and CQC's approach during this period.

DHSC rolls out testing in all adult social care settings

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that every care home in England will now be offered coronavirus testing for all residents and staff, even if they have no symptoms. This includes services delivering care to people of working age with a learning disability. 

In a statement, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Kate Terroni, welcomed this announcement, saying: "Organisations including the Care Provider Alliance and Mencap have been calling for testing of people with a learning disability, and last week CQC released data showing not only a significant increase in deaths of people with a learning disability, but that the impact of COVID-19 on this group is being felt at a younger age range than in the wider population. We were clear that this data should influence decisions on prioritisation of testing of people of working age with a learning disability".

We look forward to further detail on the timetable for testing of people who use community based services, particularly extra care housing and supported living services. Visit our website to read the full statement. More information on 'whole home' testing is available on the GOV.UK website.

Blog: Our Emergency Support Framework Conversation

In a new blog, one of our adult social care inspectors reflects on a recent Emergency Support Framework (ESF) conversation. 

They talk about how the ESF provided a framework to support a new care home manager as they navigated difficult circumstances, and sparked a chain of events which resulted in more joined up, collaborative working. Read the blog post.

Whole care home testing - register for kits

Testing in care homes is vitally important to help prevent and control outbreaks of COVID-19. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is encouraging all care homes to register to receive test kits to help reduce the spread of the virus and protect the most vulnerable. This also helps identify staff and residents who may not display symptoms. To ensure staff and managers feel confident with the testing process, support is available through guidance and tutorial videos, an assigned NHS clinical lead, and webinars.

The way PPE is delivered to care homes has been overhauled through direct dispatches via Royal Mail, a 24/7 hotline and a new website. DHSC has also released 132 million items of PPE to designated wholesalers for onward sale to social care providers and over 130 million items of PPE to Local Resilience Forums to help them respond to urgent local needs.

More information is available in this letter and fact sheet, and you can register for testing kits online. When registering to receive a test kit, please ensure you use your CQC location ID.

NHS Capacity Tracker - updated questions

A number of questions have been added to the NHS Capacity Tracker to help identify recovery from outbreaks of coronavirus (COVID-19) in care homes.

The new questions will be available in the Capacity Tracker from Thursday 11 June, with explanations alongside each one. The information gathered will help local and national partners understand what further help and support may be needed and will inform policy initiatives to support care homes in preventing and managing outbreaks now and over the coming months.

Read the full update, which includes the new questions.

We want to hear from you - share your views! 

Our online participation platform is a space where we ask for your views to help inform our work. We'd like to hear your views on whether we should play a role in looking at quality across systems.

We'd also like to hear your feedback on the Emergency Support Framework and the issues impacting you. We're also looking to resume our podcast series, and would love to hear from you about the topics you'd like us to explore.

You'll need to log in to take part in the activities, and if you're not a member you can sign up here.

Volunteer help now also available to support frontline staff

Frontline health and social care staff can now get help from NHS Volunteer Responders with their own essential tasks such as shopping and collecting medication, as well as continuing to refer clients who need support while self-isolating.

Self-referrals for staff and clients can be made anytime 8am-8pm by calling 0808 196 3646

NHS Volunteer Responders can provide any of the following services to individuals and/or health and care services:

• ‘Check-in and chat’ phone calls.
• Collection service for food, medication and essentials.
• Transport to medical appointments, via referral from health and care services.
• Delivery of supplies between health and care sites by car, via referral from health and care services.

NHS England and the Royal Voluntary Service will be holding a webinar on the NHS Volunteer Responders programme for local authorities and social care providers on Tuesday 23 June at 1pm. To join on the day, please click on the following link: Join Microsoft Teams Meeting (Dial in (audio only): +44 20 3855 4234; Conference ID: 590 921 567#)

Direct referrals can be made through the NHS Volunteer Responders referrers’ portal or by calling 0808 196 3382 (8am - 8pm).

More information is available at www.nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk.

All CQC offices are closed - please do not send post

Useful guidance

• Visit CQC's website for guidance on the Emergency Support Framework including a webinar, updated FAQs and provider guidance.
• Updated guidance on the provision of home care has been published on GOV.UK
• We have updated our equality and human rights impact assessments
• We have published guidance on working within the Mental Capacity Act during the coronavirus pandemic
• The British Psychological Society has issued guidance on meeting the psychological needs of people with learning disabilities and their carers
• The Central Alerting System (CAS) is an online cascading system for issuing patient safety alerts, important public health messages and other safety critical information and guidance to the NHS and others, including independent providers of health and social care. Providers can register to receive these alerts through the MHRA website
• Guidance on exemption from health charges for care and treatment of COVID-19
• Updated interim guidance on DBS and other recruitment checks 
• Visit the GOV.UK website to apply for coronavirus tests for your service
• Skills for Care: advice and support for frontline managers
• Managing a fall that may require an ambulance during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Guidance clarifying existing practice for verifying deaths outside of hospitals and providing a framework for safe verification of death
• CQC guidance for providers delivering antibody tests or blood tests
• DHSC guidance for care staff supporting adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults during COVID-19
• DHSC guidance on running a medicines re-use scheme in a care home or hospice setting 
• The Nursing and Midwifery Council has an area on their website dedicated to information about COVID-19
• The Health and Safety Executive has published guidance on RIDDOR reporting of COVID-19
• COVID-19: our action plan for adult social care from the Department of Health and Social Care
• Community health services standard operating procedure (SOP)

• The British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)  have jointly produced a protocol that can be used by various groups of professionals to verify death remotely with a clinician

• Public Health England has issued guidance on how to work safely in care homes and a short video guide to putting on and removing PPE
• Guidance on admission and care of people in care homes
• The Enhanced health in care homes framework has been expanded to include oral health; falls, strength and balance; mental health; wound care; continence promotion and management; and flu prevention and management. The framework can be used to support your engagement with your aligned primary care network
• NICE COVID-19 rapid guidelines 
• Advice and information on looking after your mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus outbreak from NHS England and the Mental Health Foundation
• Investigation and initial clinical management of possible cases
• Ethical framework for adult social care 
• Guidance for residential care, supported living and home care
• Infection prevention and control 

Accessibility resources to help you communicate about COVID-19

• NEW: Imperial College London, in partnership with the BME Health Forum and the North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups have produced a series of videos aimed at encouraging people to continue to use health services if they are unwell. They are available in English, Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish and Sylheti. 
• Resources from Learning Disability England
• Signhealth has made their InterpreterNow remote BSL interpretation service available for free across all healthcare services
• Signhealth is providing a videos of summaries of key coronavirus guidance in BSL
• Public Health England stay at home guidance, translated and in easy read
• Public Health England guidance on social distancing, translated
• NHS guidelines translated into up to 50 languages by Doctors of the World and find video advice here
• Easy read information on COVID-19 from Mencap
• Public Health England resources in accessible formats
• COVID-19 guidance for providers of services for people experiencing rough sleeping
• The handwashing rap, produced to help people who have a learning disability

Further information

• Public Health Matters blog from Public Health England
• Number of COVID-19 cases in the UK

Follow us on Twitter!  Keep up with our work with professionals and provider organisations in England by following us on Twitter @CQCProf.