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Monday 5 September 2022

In this edition:

• MFT to launch Hive
• Better Outcomes, Better Lives
• Road closures and parking restrictions

• LCO Stars

• LCO Team brief and other key dates

• Helping Hand

MFT set to go live with Hive

On Thursday (8 September), Manchester University Hospitals (MFT) will be going live with their new electronic patient record system, Hive.

Hive is being implemented across the ten MFT hospital sites in Manchester and Trafford. That means whichever hospital a patient is at, staff will have the latest information at their fingertips about their care. It's the start of a digital transformation that will also see an app called My MFT for patients to manage their hospital care.

Hive is a little bit different for our community health colleagues in the LCO (who are also part of MFT). The vast majority of LCO health staff will continue to use their current system called EMIS as their main electronic patient record in the community. However, they will also have access to Hive so they can see any hospital records easily and know exactly what care their patients have had at the hospitals. 

Our LCO health colleagues have been busy training for the new system in advance of Go Live on Thursday and ensuring as seamless as possible a transition. Please be mindful that there may be a delay to any enquiries you make with them due to this work this week.

For more information on Hive and how it will work, see this MFT extranet page. You can also email any questions to the LCO communications team.

Be among the first to sign up to MyMFT

Are you a patient at an MFT hospital? If so, be among the first to sign up for the new MyMFT patient portal by following this simple sign up guide.  

Adult Social Care Careers and Hiring Event

The LCO is hosting an Adult Social Care Recruitment & Hiring event on Friday 30 September at the Etihad Stadium. It’s the first event of its kind for several years and the ideal opportunity for anyone thinking about a career in care.

A range of employers from care homes, home care and assisted care will be recruiting at the event and there will also be training and career guidance for anyone looking for employment or advice.

Help us promote the event which is open to everyone - there's information and advance booking via the MLCO website - people can also just come along on the day from 9:00am to 1:00pm.

Updates from Better outcomes, Better Lives

You said, together we're doing: action from MyViews and Communities of Practice

Better Outcomes, Better Lives is a practice led programme of change. This means your views about what's working well, and what could be improved upon are the key to improving outcomes for the people we support. Following your recent feedback via My VIEWS and at Communities of Practice, today we're sharing the latest You said, we’re doing together updates [PDF, 339KB]. These include information about autism only provision in the city and how we’re responding to pharmacies not accepting new patients for blister packs.

New community early help prototype to be piloted with Cornerstones INT

The key aim of the Early Help workstream in the Better Outcomes, Better Lives Programme is to maximise the independence of the residents of Manchester by supporting people to live well for longer and empowering them to achieve better life outcomes and reduce their dependency on formal care, which is at the heart of all our practice.     

To achieve this, we’re going to test out the impact of professional capacity, such as Social Workers and Occupational Therapists, supporting the Contact Centre by providing knowledge and timely and effective decision-making within the newly formed Early Help and Targeted Support Team.

The first prototype to test this approach is with the Cornerstones INT (Ancoats, Bradford, Beswick, Clayton and Openshaw) from today. 

Read the full update [PDF, 170KB] to find out more including details of the prototype process.

Know Your Numbers Week

Know Your Numbers Week by Blood Pressure UK is held during the first week of September to highlight the importance of regular blood pressure checks. Around one third of adults live with high blood pressure in the UK, but there are thought to be many more people as its symptoms are barely noticeable. As a result of regular testing, risk of stroke and other heart-related illnesses can be detected and prevented early. Help us to promote Know Your Numbers Week on your social media and with friends by using the supporting materials available on the Blood Pressure UK website. In addition, information and resources can also be found on the NHS and the British Heart Foundation website.

Help Greater Manchester become smoke free

Greater Manchester has a vision to make smoking history and exciting plans are underway to make more of our outdoor spaces in our amazing city-region smokefree. Now is your chance though to have your say on the plans and where you’d like to see smokefree spaces introduced!

To share your views, complete the online survey by Sunday 11 September. By entering, you’ll also be entered into a free prize draw to win a £100 Amazon voucher (T&Cs apply).

For more information, see the Making Smoking History website.

Share your news and stories!

Let us know what’s happening within your teams and localities so we can help share news that is relevant and informative to the wider LCO family. We know there’s lots of great events and celebrations happening over the next couple of months, so please make sure you let us know by emailing the LCO communications team.

What's on or coming up

• World Suicide Prevention Day - Saturday 10 September 2022. Every year the Samaritans charity and other organisations come together to raise awareness of how we can create a world where fewer people die by suicide. Learn more from the Samaritans website.
• Macmillan Coffee Morning - Friday 30 September 2022. A variety of events (see pages 2 and 3) for staff at our Manchester hospitals taking place, but if you want to organise your own within your team area, then see the Macmillan website for details and resources.
• Cycle September. The popular Cycle September month has returned to encourage you and your teams to compete against others across Greater Manchester in their cycling challenge. For more details, see the Love to Ride website.
• Black History Month - October 2022. The popular month will be returning with this year’s theme of ‘Sharing Journeys’. If you’ve a journey you’d like to share and feature during BHM then please get in touch by email. Please also share to us any events you may be organising, and we can help promote these to others for you.

Round up of recent nominations

Over the last fortnight, the below staff members have been nominated by fellow colleagues as LCO STARs. Afreen Asam, community nurse for MLCO, nominated by Amie Preston Maggie Wan, Community Orthoptist for MLCO nominated by Maggs Hancock To read their lovely messages, just click on the image of the star. Please do keep your STARs nominations coming to us! You can do so by either dropping us an email or by posting your thank you to our LCO STARs forum. We’ll then give them a shout out in a future bulletin.

Liquid Logic - Safeguarding Adults go live

As a reminder, the updated version of Liquid Logic - Safeguarding Adults is now live from today, Monday 5 September. This will bring an improved and more effective approach to engaging with individuals and which will assist from the first Contact to the Teams Safeguarding Adults activity.

If you require any support following the launch, then please contact the Help Desk by completing this request form.

Advanced notice of road closures and parking restrictions

On Sunday 9 October, the Manchester Half Marathon is to take place, which means there’ll be several road closures and parking restrictions in place across parts of Manchester and Trafford. For those of you who are scheduled to be on duty or working on this day, please use this information [PDF, 170KB] and the Manchester Half Marathon website to help you plan ahead.

Please also discuss in advance with your line manager any concerns this may cause you.  

LCO Team brief and other key dates for your diaries

LCO Team Brief with chief Executive Katy Calvin-Thomas will be taking place on Wednesday 21 September from 2:30pm to 3:00pm. Please join us for this session by registering in advance using this Microsoft Teams form. You’re also welcome to submit questions for Katy ahead of the day by emailing the LCO communications team.

Other dates key dates this September are:

• Adult Social Care Forum - Wednesday 5 October 2022 at 10:00am. Further details will be shared closer to the time, but you can book a place now by using this form. A meeting invite will then be sent to you.  
• Communities of Practice (CoP) Spotlight Sessions - various themes and dates throughout September and sessions are open to both ASC and community health colleagues.

Infection prevention and control updated guidance

As a reminder, the infection prevention and control in adult social care guidance on the government website has been updated. It sets out how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in adult social care settings in England.

Please make every effort to read the guidance and familiarise yourself with latest measures.

The Race Equality Network

The Race Equality Network is a staff group within Manchester City Council that work together to create change and work towards equality within their organisations The network meets on a regular basis and is open to new staff members to join. This includes colleagues LCO colleagues.  

For further information, please see their LCO extranet page for details.

Upcoming training offers

• An introduction to Autism Spectrum by Autizma - Tuesday 20 September or Thursday 6 October. Open to both professionals and parents and carers
• Advocacy Awareness Training with Gaddum - various dates in September

Helping Hand - the new website for cost of living support

In a previous copy of the Fortnightly Bulletin, we shared with you details of the Helping Hands Manchester website for access to cost-of-living advice and support. Since then, a further resource has been made available by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. It’s called Helping Hand.

Just as Manchester’s does, it contains a guide and information for individuals on what food bill, energy, and childcare cost help there is and much more. But what’s different is that this website is not specific to Manchester and signposts people to what support there is in their local area, no matter where they live. Therefore, it’s another valuable tool to be aware of, especially if you support individuals as part of your role.

Other cost of living support that’s been introduced over recent weeks in Greater Manchester includes:

Capped bus fares - £2 per adult per single journey and £1 for a child

The Big Splash weekend at Victoria Baths

From Friday 9 to Sunday 11 September, Victoria Baths in Manchester are reopening for one weekend only. This unique opportunity will provide you with the chance to swim in its historic pool, take a tour, buy some delicious food and much more. For more information and to make a booking, see the information added to the Loads to Do website.