Welcome to our latest newsletter
Welcome to another edition of the weekly newsletter for adult social care providers, issued on behalf of Devon County Council's Director of Adult Social Care Services and Director of Public Health and NHS Devon’s Chief Nursing Officer.
In the run-up to Christmas national guidance continues to be issued at a fast pace, including announcements about mass vaccinations. We will continue to give you the key local and national messages every week and will do our best to update our central source of information, the Provider Engagement Network website.
Christmas care homes advice
We have published local advice for care homes on our website addressing a range of issues including decorations, festivities and gifts.
Festive season in care home settings 2020-21. Infection control recommendations.
Roll out of COVID-19 vaccination programme
The COVID-19 vaccination programme has commenced this week, initially in Plymouth at Derriford hospital. The initial focus is on people over 80 and care home staff.
The vaccine is being delivered in doses of 975 and once a batch is opened it has to be utilised within five days. We are concerned about wasting vaccine so any potential left over vaccine will be administered to available staff.
As the vaccine programme rolls out, other hospital and GP sites will be delivering the vaccine to those who are most vulnerable in the first instance.
The vaccination sites will be responsible for contacting individuals and care homes so:
- don’t contact the NHS to seek a vaccine, they will contact you
- when you are contacted, please act immediately and attend your booked appointments
- please continue to follow all the guidance (hand hygiene and social distancing in particular) to control the virus and save lives.
COVID-19 vaccination: consent forms and letters for care home residents
Helen Whatley, Minister for Social Care, letter advising care homes to take the necessary steps.
We will do our best to keep up with the rapid publication of national guidance and other information by updating the vaccination section on our PEN website. Remember to look out for communication on vaccination sent directly to you by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Mass vaccination webinar on YouTube.
View the local webinar on mass vaccination, which was held on Tuesday 8 December. It has been seen by over 800 staff.
Important changes to Capacity Tracker from Friday 11 December
Please note that new questions are being added to the Capacity Tracker for Care Homes. Please contact this helpdesk if you have any questions or queries regarding how to answer the questions and for any technical issues please email Capacity Tracker.
Free Digital Skills training programme for new and existing care staff
New and existing health and social care staff in Devon and Somerset are now able to register for a free 12-week training programme, starting in January. Boost your career, enhance your employability, gain new confidence and motivation. This is an opportunity for care staff to invest in their digital skills. The programme has been designed to help you to become fluent with digital tools, enhancing the amazing work that you do. Find out more and register.
|
Care homes and visitor testing
In order to support care home visiting, rapid testing kits are being delivered to all care homes in England.
To prepare for visitor testing you should:
- decide where your designated entrance or outside dry space will be, for donning personal protective equipment (PPE)
- decide where your testing and results waiting area will be, away from your main area, so visitors can social distance while waiting
- find storage space for your test kits
- take part in a webinar (care homes will receive links by email)
- complete the online training (care homes will receive links by email)
Free PPE for care homes continues until March 2021. To make sure there is enough for the new visiting arrangements, there will be a one-off additional delivery for every Care Quality Commission registered home.
To prepare for visitor PPE you should:
- register on the PPE portal if you've not already done so
- make space inside or outside for donning PPE
- find extra storage space
Remember to follow the national guidance
DNACPR adult social care information request
In October, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) asked CQC to review how 'Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation' (DNACPR) was used during the COVID-19 pandemic, building on concerns that we reported earlier in the year. You can find out more information through our recent news story.
From our engagement so far with adult social care providers, they said they’d like to share their experiences.
This week we're starting to roll out a voluntary information request for adult social care providers to help us to understand the scale of inappropriate do not resuscitate orders put in place across the country – what made them inappropriate and whether they remain on people’s records or have been removed.
You'll receive a voluntary information request with a unique link for each of your locations over the next couple of weeks with two weeks to submit your information.
Thank you for taking the time to complete this. Your feedback is important to us and to the work of this review.
Delivering safe, face-to-face adult day care - new SCIE guidance
As the restrictions of lockdown are eased, this guide aims to support you, day care managers, social workers, commissioners and providers, to restart or continue activities. It is focused on community-based day services, day centres (with and without personal care), including specialised day centre environments and those with outdoor spaces.
Please sign up to receive updates from SCIE.
|
Adult oral health in care homes toolkit
Public Health England and stakeholders have produced the toolkit to support care homes and commissioners to implement the NICE guideline (NG48): Oral health for adults in care homes. The toolkit also contains useful links for care home staff, residents, their families and friends to support good oral health and reduce oral health inequalities.
|
Skills for Care
Workforce Wellbeing offer Support for managers, registered managers, individual employers, personal assistants, various resources.
Celebrating success
Testing in care homes and safe visiting
Summercourt care home was thrilled to be part of the national pilot for Lateral Flow Testing and it is now using it successfully.
"We have been keen to support safe visiting during the pandemic and had a combination of remote virtual regular contact for families and our residents from the start of the pandemic as well as garden visits and some restricted indoor visits adhering to safe visiting guidance however everyone knew these arrangements still caused feelings of upset and dissatisfaction...."
Please read a personal reflection from Summercourt care home in Teignmouth.
One of the first visits; Marilyn reunited with her mum Betty after both of them tested negative.
Sefton Hall Nursing Home
They also took part in the pilot and here is what the care home manager said:
"We were worried about having the visitors in the home, but we had to look at the risks and the benefits for all residents, staff and relatives. We decided to go for the pilot so we could make a difference to residents and their loved ones lives. It changed the morale of the staff as well, by starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel".
Remember to share your good news stories in this newsletter!
Revisit previous good news stories
|
