A reminder to let us know if you are experiencing ongoing or periodic challenges to VCOD. Last week we shared a few examples of visitors who hadn't quite understood their own obligations.

This week:

Operational guidance is coming soon for domiciliary care providers to implement VCOD. DHSC has accepted that the process of creating similar care home guidance was less than perfect, but with understandable mitigating circumstances of just three weeks to do it in.

The new guidance will rely on accepted HR law and it will be due out in the next 4 weeks to allow for clearance over Christmas and ready for the 12-week grace period leading up to the target date of early April.

In parallel NHSE/I is working on similar guidance for NHS services - this is likely to be out sooner.

Your editor had the pleasure of using one of our regional mass vaccination centres last week. A very slick process that had the hallmarks of a well-oiled machine staffed by brilliant clinicians and friendly volunteers. Flu jab booked for next week.

Vaccination rates for staff outside of care homes could be higher as we move towards VCOD for domiciliary care and NHS. Please encourage your staff to get doubled-jabbed and 'boostered'.

Latest vaccination update for BOB here: https://healthwatchoxfordshire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/BOB-vaccination-update-Oxfordshire.pdf

As you know there is a real push to get both boosters and flu jab uptake higher than it currently is.

As of 21 November, 97.32% of older people's care homes had been visited by the National Vaccination Deployment Plan assurance process receiving feedback on experiences. Have they been to you?

This process has now been extended to NOACH (working-age adult care homes) so all care homes will have received a visit by 1 December.

Remember, don't let them in unless they provide proof!!

Do you have residents or staff or visitors who cannot provide proof even though they have had the covid-19 vaccine?

The Vaccine Data Resolution Service helps with missing or incorrect vaccination records for people registered with a GP in England (and Wales & Scotland), although there is a three-week backlog of queries.

To get help on missing information the VDRS service needs to know the batch number and where possible the booking reference for the vaccination appointment.

VDRS cannot help with:

You can now book your booster jab from 5 months (152 days) after the second dose via the National Booking System. And from tomorrow the weekly stats published by NHS will include booster data.

And your booster jab now appears in your NHS App on your smartphone.

Some confusion about the funding which left Treasury on 20 October, but seems not to have arrived with local authorities until the beginning-middle of November. However, now received, the funding has 20 working days to be distributed by Councils and we understand grant agreements and the funding is on its way.

For those of you who told us about the jeopardy this late payment put you in regarding staff who are self-isolating, we have fed this back to DHSC as they look into the delay.

We're sure the funding was not delivered by a global online delivery service with branded vans - you know who we're talking about. We've been alerted to the eye-watering sign-on fees for new workers at a branded warehouse near you. With due respect to the Thames Valley's red-hot labour market, this company is offering a £3000 sign-on bonus across the Midlands and London and hourly rates up to £29.46.

And if that wasn't enough, you've probably noticed that getting your sponsored ad near the top of Indeed is harder due to the heavy promotion of the said delivery company. If this has impacted you:

we would love to talk to you in confidence, and so would a respected national media outlet.

Government has published further details about the introduction of a cap on care costs and adult social care charging reform, as outlined in their plans for a Health and Care Levy in September. The announcement contains a proposal to exclude means-tested support from counting towards the new capped cost model. This is a disappointing change. Sir Andrew Dilnot, the author of the original proposals in the Care Act, has been particularly critical about this proposed change. See Health and Care Bill update below for a link to the wording of this amendment.

A tongue-in-cheek look at Social Care Reform through the eyes of Repair Shop.

This updated guidance details the circumstances in which some movement of staff may be cautiously permitted. This enables providers and local authorities to plan proactively for specific service requirements or capacity concerns and to ensure continuity of care.

This guidance also sets out what’s expected of providers on the routine movement of staff, and how to manage the risks of deploying individuals between settings, and advice about how they can mitigate the risks associated.

IPC Good Practice Guidance was published on Thursday 18 November by Skills for Care

Guidance for Supported Living updated on Monday 22 November

Providing Unpaid Care guidance updated on Tuesday 23 November.

Core20PLUS5 is a national NHS England and NHS Improvement approach to support the reduction of health inequalities at both national and system level. The approach defines a target population cohort – the ‘Core20PLUS’ – and identifies ‘5’ focus clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement.

Inclusion health groups include: ethnic minority communities, coastal communities, people with multi-morbidities, protected characteristic groups, people experiencing homelessness, drug and alcohol dependence, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, sex workers, people in contact with the justice system, victims of modern slavery and other socially excluded groups.

Following on from the previous update, we are aware that some users are continuing to experience issues when making updates to the Capacity Tracker and/or some slowness when running reports. 

As part of the work to help improve the situation NECS has made some changes to the bulk update and have separated the update into 4 sections:

 

Users of the bulk upload function should select the appropriate template to update their data.

 

NECS technical teams continue to work on the current issues being experienced and thank all providers and wider stakeholder organisations for your patience. Updates will be provided on the 'home' page of the Capacity Tracker.

Those of you who use Capacity Tracker will know there is a workforce survey inside, but data and details are restricted from being released publicly. We are continuing to push for this data to be released so that we can discuss implications and actions.

National survey of care workers’ experiences during COVID19. This is the second wave of the survey (the first wave was April-June 2021) but everyone delivering frontline care in the social care sector is eligible to take part, even if you did not take part before. A presentation of the wave one findings can be found here. Wave one highlighted the significant impact of COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of the social care workforce, including raising issues of abuse and working conditions.

We have asked the National Centre for Diversity (NCD) to help us gather people’s thoughts and build a plan for the future. 

We would be very grateful if you felt able to complete the brief survey, please, and provide your perspective on the work, to ensure we build a plan that works for everyone. It should only take around 5 minutes.

Every voice matters and we want to make sure we have heard from as many people as possible. We are also asking people who use our services, staff and volunteers for their views. NCD will be analysing all the feedback and working with us as we develop an action plan.

The Participant Information Sheet provides full study details.  Your commitment should be about 25 minutes in total.  

Please follow this link to the survey: Take the Survey

Or copy and paste this URL into your internet browser: https://surreyfahs.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2hPcaOJYoJWu93o

The deadline for completion is Wednesday 15 of December. 

We hope you will agree to take part. If you have any questions, please contact the PALLUP research study team via email richard.green@surrey.ac.uk or phone 07815919559.

Webinar to discuss emerging evidence, innovation, and best practice for a sustainable social care workforce.

Sidesets and publication here: https://www.pssru.ac.uk/resscw/frontpage/

REACTMH® wellbeing conversation training is an amazing initiative that will provide managers, supervisors and those with caring responsibilities, in clinical and non-clinical services, with the tools and confidence to have wellbeing conversations with people in their teams and community.

Click here to book a session or email the REACT training team on: react.admin@nhs.net

When making your booking please confirm the date you would like to attend, your full name and the Trust or Organisation you work for.

‘The regulation of social care: Improving the treatment of workers through regulatory law’

If you have trouble accessing the registration form, or have any other queries please email yoland.johnson@gtc.ox.ac.uk

HMRC online guide to Statutory Sick Pay is split into sections to make it easy to find what you’re looking for.

Finally, National Insurance contributions and statutory payments toolkit, designed to help agents and advisers, is helpful to those dealing with payroll too.

A new website for people looking to enter adult social care has been launched today. A partnership of OACP, Aspire Oxford, Activate Learning and OCC, the website builds on experiences in other local areas to attract people into the sector.

The website is open to all care providers operating in Oxfordshire across all settings. Over the next few months we will add information on what the sector offers; the different roles available and support available to enable a first step into social care.

If you would like to advertise on Proud to Care, please contact Jane Wood or Diana Olszewska at hello@proudtocareoxfordshire.org.uk. Proud to Care is managed by OACP.

With that in mind, the care experts of OACP partner, Citation, have created a free guide on recruitment and retention, specifically for care providers.

To find out more or arrange a free consultation, click here or call 0345 844 1111.

Quote ‘Oxford Association of Care Providers’ when enquiring to access your preferential rates as a member.

This very useful page brings together all testing guidance for adult social care, including non-regulated services.

Link and instructions on how to book: https://oacp.org.uk/events/. See also June webinars above.

If you are not sure which is the right webinar for you, please contact the DSPT team at dspt@oacp.org.uk. This is our dedicated team delivering the Better Security, Better Care roll-out across the Thames Valley.

If you are based in MK and have not yet been contacted by Bedfordshire Care Association who are leading on this for BLMK ICS area, please let us know and we will signpost you.

And Train your staff to be Cyber Aware

COVID-19 infection rates dashboards usually updated weekly:

Check vaccination levels across the country via this interactive map for first dose and second dose - whole population statistics.

The Oxfordshire Trusted Assessor service is now closed.

For Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, the Trusted Assessor Service is run for care homes only by Lincolnshire Care Association.

Contact: Michelle Yusuf -

The project runs also for Hinchingbrooke and Addenbrookes hospitals.

As well as a constant stream of questions and answers by email from around the country, we are also part of the CAA weekly teleconference - Wednesdays at 10am. This informs us of current concerns and potential solutions and helps inform our local communications.

We are mailing out once a week on a Wednesday, so you know when to look out for it. These updates will provide summary advice on emerging issues and signpost providers to government and other statutory agency advice as needed.

We are always keen to hear from providers, if you have anything you would like to share with provider colleagues, please send to the usual address.

We are adding new colleagues all the time.

Please let us know if there are other colleagues you would like this mailing sent to.

Now available for all Oxfordshire care providers.

Spectrum is a well-established buying consortium with an emphasis on the Care Sector including care homes, domiciliary care and supported living. They have been sourcing discounts with major suppliers for their members since 1992.