COVID-19 - News updates for all West Sussex Care and Support Providers
18 May 2020
Welcome to today's newsletter, which includes the following:
Please continue to let us know if there is anything else you would find helpful to include in the newsletters and we'll do our best to add them. Contact us at contracts@westsussex.gov.uk.
A dedicated app for the adult social care workforce in England has been launched to support staff through the coronavirus pandemic.
The Care Workforce app, developed by NHSX and the NHS Business Services Authority, has been introduced under the new CARE brand.
This new digital hub allows social care workers to access relevant updates, guidance, support and discounts from their phone.
Download by searching ‘Care Workforce’ on the Apple App Store or Google Play or access by browsers on any device, by visiting: workforce.adultsocialcare.uk/join.
The information that care homes submit to CQC about the deaths of people in their care is published on a weekly basis as part of the Office for National Statistics’s (ONS) reporting on deaths.
CQC are now doing further work on this data so they can better understand the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on specific groups of people, including those who have mental health conditions, are autistic or those with a learning disability.
Read more about this in CQC’s news article.
A range of free to access online training resources, designed with the care home sector in mind, is available to access via the links below:
- For care homes situated within areas covered by Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups, please click this link to the Alliance for Better Care website.
- For care homes situated within areas covered by Coastal West Sussex CCG, please see this document, which has been created to link training hubs expertise and contacts with CCGs in support of Care Homes during COVID-19.
The e-learning modules and short videos include preventing the spread of infection; soft signs of deterioration; structured communications and escalation; and much more.
Health colleagues have shared the COVID-19 ‘Grab and Go’ NHS forms and guidance to use for people for people with a learning disability or who are autistic and are being admitted to hospital. Many people with a learning disability will already have a Hospital Passport which they can continue to use but these COVID-19 forms can be used when there is no hospital passport available.
We also recommend the Super Six exercises that people can follow with more information on our website here. Here you can also find a useful home environment checklist which includes useful services and their contact details in the ‘resources’ section.
Health colleagues report that more people, not just in the older population, are having falls and this is probably a result of ‘deconditioning’ following lockdown so they have shared a poster for quick reference following a fall and an easy read ‘Falls Prevention’ booklet.
We also recommend the Super Six exercises that people can follow with more information on our website here. Here you can also find a useful home environment checklist which includes useful services and their contact details in the ‘resources’ section.
Understanding what the rules are can be difficult for everyone. Here are some easy read posters which might help:
With thanks again,
Contracts and Performance Team
| 
