The most up-to-date information from these bulletins can be found on our website.

For general advice about COVID-19 please go to: nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

This bulletin covers:

Recent COVID-19 guidance and updates: winter plan 2021 to 2022; protecting extremely vulnerable people

Workforce: recruitment and retention fund; workforce capacity fund; care at home project; ‘Made with Care’; PA webinar

Cold weather: preparing for winter

Get involved: Healthwatch webinar – ‘Staying Connected’

Keeping safe: fire safety and emollient creams

Recent COVID-19 guidance and updates

COVID-19 winter plan 2021 to 2022

The Government has issued its COVID-19 winter plan 2021 to 2022 for the adult social care sector (3 November 2021).

This sets out the Government's ambitions for the sector and the challenges facing adult social care. It outlines key elements of national support along with the main actions that social care providers should take this winter.

The plan applies to all settings and contexts in which people receive adult social care. This includes people’s own homes, residential care homes and nursing homes, and other community settings.

Meanwhile, the social care sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce’s independent review of the adult social care COVID-19 winter plan 2020 to 2021 was published (3 November 2021). This resulted in 33 recommendations, which the government responded to as part of the 21/22 plan.

Protecting extremely vulnerable people from COVID-19

Guidance on protecting extremely vulnerable people from COVID-19 was updated on 3 November 2021. This added large print, translated and BSL versions, plus a link to the COVID-19: letter to patients about the end of the shielding programme

Workforce

Recruitment and retention fund

Guidance for the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund for adult social care was updated on 3 November 2021. This gives information about the £162.5 million fund, sets out allocations for 2021 to 2022 and the conditions that will apply to the grant.

We will update you when we have more detail on the local process for applications and allocations.

Workforce Capacity Fund

The Government has also updated (3 November 2021) guidance on the £120 million Workforce Capacity Fund, adding three attachments:

• workforce capacity fund: outcomes and findings, October 2021
• local authority spending data
• feedback survey results

Care at home project

Following workforce planning workshops over the summer, with which some East Sussex home care providers were involved, a project to maximise the potential of the care at home workforce is about to begin.

The summer workshops prioritised:

• reviewing issues around recruitment and retention
• undertaking a training needs analysis
• developing a Sussex system-wide plan for future supply of care at home workers 

Karen Stevens, Skills for Care Locality Manager (London and South East) said: “We aim to develop a plan which will cover what might aid recruitment, reduce turnover, and enhance education and development  - including career and role development opportunities.”

For more information, contact Karen: karen.stevens@skillsforcare.org.uk

National social care recruitment campaign  

The latest phase of the national adult social care recruitment campaign, 'Made with Care', has started and runs until March 2022.

Radio, digital and television advertising will direct people to the website Work in Adult Social Care: explore roles and find a job  

Adult social care employers can run local recruitment activity in parallel with the national campaign by creating an account, signing in to the employer section and uploading jobs to the Department of Work and Pensions 'find a job' platform

Developing the personal assistant workforce

Skills for Care is offering a free online event to hear about sources of support and guidance, latest good practice, and to have your say about how employers and personal assistants (PAs) are included in conversations about sector development and reform.

Topics for discussion include:

• building the capacity of the PA workforce
• resources and support
• ensuring PAs are treated equally, feel included and valued, and are supported to stay well
• how to influence changes to the social care system to ensure people have full choice and control over their lives.

The event is on Zoom on Wednesday 10 November 2021 and runs from 10am to 1pm

Book your place

Cold weather

Preparing for winter

Level 1 of the annual cold weather plan for England came into effect on 01 November 2021.  It is accompanied by the cold weather alert service. These alerts are aimed at health and social care organisations and other professionals that work with individuals or communities who may be affected by cold weather.

Cold weather action cards go with the plan and explain how organisations should respond to cold weather alerts. The plan remains unchanged, but the action cards have been updated (18 October 2021): Provider organisations: health and social care action cards

Consultant in public health medicine at the UK Health Security Agency, Agostinho Moreira de Sousa, has written about the cold weather plan in his blog (28 October 2021), exploring how it meets the challenge of cold weather and winter

Get involved

Healthwatch webinar: staying connected

Healthwatch in Sussex is inviting relatives, friends and carers of care home residents, local carers’ organisations and health and care professionals to a webinar: ‘One Year On – Staying Connected’, following a similar event a year ago. 

There will be opportunities to:

• take part in an online poll
• hear from relatives and health and care professionals 
• ask questions 

It’s on 9 November 2021 and runs from 4.30pm to 6pm

Book your place on Eventbrite

Keeping safe

Fire safety and emollient creams

Care Quality Commission (CQC) is keen to ensure that everyone is aware of the fire risk associated with the use of emollient creams. Emollients are not flammable in or of themselves.

But they can act as an accelerant, increasing the speed of ignition and intensity of the fire when fabric with residue dried on it is ignited. Government has also issued guidance on the safe use of emollient skin creams.

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