|
Please ensure all colleagues are receiving this and if not, ask them to sign-up here.
 Key messages from Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health, Jennie Stephens and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Services, Cllr Andrew Leadbetter.
Dear all,
Many of us will have been working over the Bank Holiday Easter weekend, and we'd like to put on record our continued gratitude for everything that everyone is doing during these intense and testing times. We hope though that everyone was able to take the opportunity, at some point over the long weekend to enjoy the sunshine and to get somewhere close to normality. It's important that we do look after our own wellbeing too. There's a reminder in this newsletter of some of the ways we can support each other.
You may have seen the government press briefing yesterday and the announcement of the COVID-19 adult social care action plan and the new national policy that all care home residents with COVID-19 symptoms will be tested as will those in hospital waiting to be discharged to a care home. This is a welcome announce and will to support the vital work of care homes.
No doubt by how you will have heard the announcement that Exeter will be one of the locations for an NHS Nightingale Hospital , at Westpoint, providing 200 beds for people across the region to recover from COVID-19. This additional capacity will support the health and care system in Devon alongside the incredible efforts by social care to enable the four acute hospitals across Devon to be currently at between 40-50% bed occupancy ahead of the anticipate surge demand.
Last week we mentioned the plans being developed in the South West for staff testing. The new drive through testing facility in Plymouth is up and running and is aiming to test up to 250 health and care staff across the region daily. We will keep you up to date with any national plans for any further local facilities given the government announcement that all symptomatic care home residents and staff will be tested.
Thank you again for all your continued hard work.
Please remember to report all absences linked to COVID19 in iTrent; this should happen immediately when a person is absent. As a Council we need to understand the impact on our workforce and information will be taken from iTrent. If you are not sure how to report the absence please refer to the quick guide. There are new COVID-19 categories in sickness absence reporting and paid special leave.
The guidance on certifying for COVID-19 sickness is that the employee should get an ‘isolation note’ by visiting the following NHS 111 online page .This is in place of the normal requirement to provide a ‘fit note’ after seven days of sickness absence. Further HR guidance can be found on inside Devon.
|
Helpful summary of recent HR policies and guidance
In order to better support you, HR has produced a helpful summary of the recent policies and guidance documents and when to use them.
Please refer to the policies and guides that have been published to help answer your questions. You can find them via our dedicated page HR advice for employees and managers.
They are also included within the Business Continuity COVID-19 guide.
Last week we agreed that we would immediately invest in our contracted providers of personal care so they can increase the pay of their staff delivering personal care in peoples' homes to a minimum of £10 per hour.
We are now looking at care markets beyond personal care, working with providers to see what approaches and opportunities would have the most impact. We hope to be in a position to provide an update on this in next week newsletter.
Also this week we have been working alongside the CCG to develop a care homes webinar on Thursday 16 April. This will be the first in a series of care home webinars giving care home providers the opportunity to ask questions and hear collectively from primary care and DCC. The aim is to ensure that there is a collective understand of each others pressures, what each part of the health and care system can do to support each other and the most vulnerable people across Devon. You can find more details of the webinar on the PEN website.
|
You may have seen the DCC news centre story on requests for community equipment to be returned if and when people no-longer require them item they have been provided with.
This is as a pro-active action to ensure that we can continue to keep good supply levels of our stock equipment items throughout the COVID-19 period. Millbrook our provider of community equipment currently has stock of every item within its catalogue, so please continue to follow the usual guidance when assessing people’s needs for community equipment, but look out for daily Newsflashes on Millflow, and the FAQS for equipment on the COVID-19 reSOURCE page which provides regular updates for staff.
Please keep up to date with the latest COVID19 guidance as it's published, both national and local. There are a number of updates recently to be aware of. These include the:
The latest information from the COVID-19 Practice and Working Arrangements Update for Adult Care and Health bulletin - 17 April edition and 9 April edition.
Local PPE guidance has been refreshed and published on reSOURCE on the back of amendments to the national guidance. Please make sure that you are familiar with this guidance and how to access PPE.
Advice and guidance on Claiming enhancements and overtime.
We’ve also provided some clarity in terms of the relevant mailboxes that you should be using to ensure that responses to questions and queries can be given as quickly as possible. You can also signpost to these mailboxes:
-
Adult Care and Health COVID19 mailbox adultsc.adultcarehealthcovid19-mailbox@devon.gov.uk: This is the mailbox that you should be directing any adult social care queries or questions. This is also the mailbox that providers should be using to alert us to suspect or actual cases of COVID-19
-
The CCG COVID19 mailbox d-ccg.incident@nhs.net:This is the mailbox that you should be directing any health related queries or questions
-
The DCC workforce mailbox workforce.testing@devon.gov.uk, This is the mailbox to use for all staff testing related queries or question and for managers to identify staff to be tested
If you require information on testing for service users or patients, please speak to your Community Services Manager or Community Health Provider for local guidance on how to refer.
|
Wellbeing Wednesday last week focussed on mindfulness with Aimery Martin leading a session called “A Time to Ground Yourself Amidst the Crisis”. The session involved observing feelings with the aim of being able to look after ourselves before others.
Please do take the time to join the Wellbeing Wednesday session. There are no expectations and it doesn’t matter what your role is within the organisation; we are all being affected by what is happening and this group is open to all. You can join the Wellbeing Wednesday this week via Teams.
You can also make use of Yammer and join the group 'Stay Positive during Coronavirus Crisis'. With over 140 group member it's a place to help each other keep calm, stay wise & be kind. Inspired by the Action for Happiness Campaign.
Also, don't forget the Employee Assistance Programme that is open to all DCC staff offering confidential, impartial advice and support online and over the phone, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can contact the Employment Assistant Programme on 0808 168 2143
|
NHS Volunteer Responders are now available to help us support vulnerable Devon residents who are self-isolating.
Thousands of people in Devon with certain medical conditions have been told by the government to ‘shield’ from coronavirus (COVID-19) for at least 12 weeks because they are at high risk of severe illness if they caught it.
There are many more who are not on the government ‘shielding’ list but are vulnerable and self-isolating for other reasons, including other underlying health conditions, frailty, disability or pregnancy. More detail on how this is working can be found on inside Devon
Last week we updated you on the Proud to Care campaign 'do your bit for Devon' that is encouraging people to join the caring workforce during these challenging times. The latest campaign has been very successful with now over 1000 people registered as expressing interest in joining the caring workforce as Healthcare Assistants in residential homes, people’s own homes and hospitals.
And with the Care Academy now up and running it wont be long before many of these 1000 people are entering the caring workforce to support the response effort across Devon.
Please do follow Proud to Care on Twitter and share across your personal networks the work and opportunities that exist with the caring workforce.
|
Jennie Stephens, Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health
Cllr Andrew Leadbetter, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Services
|
