Today's mailing is brought to you with Ronan Keating's Life is a Rollercoaster as the soundtrack.

What a difference a week makes! So now the unpicking of VCOD.

Care Homes will be required to carry as per 11 November 2021 onwards with ensuring all visitors and care staff adhere to the Regulations regarding vaccination as a condition of deployment.

For domiciliary care services, we understand that you can pause HR processes put in place to drill your organisation through the 3 February dose 1 deadline.

All this hangs on an imminent consultation, likely to run for two weeks and subsequent repeal of the Statutory Instrument - engagement with the consultation will be welcomed!

Disappointing that after the announcement, DHSC does not have something ready, especially as the rumours were circulating last week, but it seems even CQC was taken unawares. Opposition parties in the House of Commons are likely to support the revocation, but we recommend seeking legal advice prior to making any HR decisions, particularly if you choose to continue with a fully-vaccinated workforce.

NHS providers have received a letter stating that they should not dismiss staff this week. This is not a formal stand-down, but is described by UKHSA as 'a pause'. Until they say differently, CQC will still be inspecting on the basis of VCOD. The IPC Code of Practice will be strengthened, but we are awaiting what this means.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council are maintaining their 'must be vaccinated' stance for new recruits at present. And we believe that adult social care will remain under pressure to encourage booster jabs.

As ever our legal partners Royds Withy King are quick off the mark with all you need to know.

Our HR partners Citation can also help with HR advice (available to Members).

We're expecting more details imminently.

In the meantime, whilst it's tempting to accept at face value the reasons Government put forward about changes in clinical need - and there will be some truth in this as Omicron has provided a different risk. UKHSA rightly maintains that Covid-19 vaccination reduces the risk of severe illness and possible death and therefore remains a key tool for the adult social care workforce. Even recovery can leave lasting lung damage and possibly long Covid.

However, it feels like the potential loss of 77,000 NHS staff and overt lobbying by NHS providers have persuaded Government that a u-turn was needed. It would have been helpful for the Royal College of Nursing to be as vocal in their protection of their social care nursing colleagues then, as they have been of their NHS nursing colleagues since.

Disappointingly, Government failed to heed the warnings adult social care gave in the autumn and plowed on causing between 30-40,000 care home staff to lose their jobs; Sajid Javid's number of 12,500 felt like a significant underestimate. Chaos and serious understaffing were predicted and it's a shame it's come to the eleventh hour.

In the meantime, vaccination remains the best protection. Please keep encouraging uptake. For those care homes which went the extra mile in consulting and implementing 100% vaccination across staff, residents and visitors including families, we applaud your energy, commitment and foresight. Your work is not undone as we cannot see round the bend of what lies ahead.

Local vaccination systems are planning the autumn 2022 annual jabbing season - flu and covid-19.

Let's see where we are then.

Moving on to the next bone to chew on - changes to testing guidance. All regulated adult social care workforce now have to test daily with LFDs prior to their shift. You can find the slides from the DHSC webinars here. Care homes can stop PCRs except in outbreak situations.

We believe this is more stringent testing than takes place in NHS settings (community nurses for example test twice a week). We are checking this and are joining our national colleagues in lobbying DHSC for parity.

From last Friday 28 January, you have been able to place an order for LFDs for your staff. When you place an order, NHS Test & Trace will send you enough LFDs for all your staff to undertake pre-shift LFDs for every day they are working (based on the number of staff you have registered on Capacity Tracker). These can be used at home by staff members. To do this, you should navigate to the usual organisational testing portal and use the same Unique Organisation Number that you currently use to order PCRs, and you will see the option to place an order for staff LFDs. Please input the number of staff you have and then confirm your contact details to place an order. Once you have ordered tests, you'll receive a confirmatory email from: organisation.coronavirus.testing@notifications.service.gov.uk

You can find more details of all the changes detailed above in this letter from Claire Armstrong - Director of Adult Social Care Delivery and Covid-19 Response, DHSC.

In addition, a full guidance document should be published this week on the testing page on gov.uk. 

The updated visiting guidance was published on Monday night, nearly 24 hours after the policy went live. The key changes are set out below, but the guidance refers to the ability to end resident isolation early by using testing. The problem is that this guidance only outlines the scenario of someone returning from a high-risk visit, but doesn't outline what happens if they actually test positive for COVID. That piece of guidance sits in the admission to care homes guidance which has not been updated yet - it's coming.

The update largely brings the guidance back to the version that was published before the emergence of Omicron in November, but with additional easings of self-isolation rules, by reducing the isolation period to 10 days and introducing test to release. Please note 'there are no nationally-set restrictions on visiting in care homes’.

In overview:

The visiting out section of the guidance has been substantially rewritten to reflect changes in isolation requirements. All residents (regardless of vaccination status) do not need to self-isolate following a normal visit out, but a risk assessment should be carried out.

Residents should isolate for 10 days from other residents following an emergency stay in hospital or other high-risk visits (I anticpate that this will also be the process for those residents are contacts of positive cases when the admissions guidance is published):

"Residents who are able to take lateral flow tests should be able to end isolation as follows. Residents who are:

As mentioned above, the guidance doesn't say what happens if a resident tests positive for COVID-19, but we expect there to be a test to release mechanism along the lines of the one outlined above.

The variant of investigation (a sub-variant of Omicron - Omicron BA.2) has the potential, like all others before it, of derailing plans to return to normality.

You may be aware that in early 2021 CHIP commissioned an organisation called ARCC-HR Ltd to develop a Home Care Cost of Care Toolkit. This Toolkit was demonstrated and tested with council and provider colleagues and these sessions gave valuable insight that led to improvements and informed the content of the Guidance document.

The Tool and Guidance documents have just been circulated to all councils in England. These documents will soon be hosted on the LGA website where they will be freely available to councils and providers, but we have been asked to share them with you from tomorrow here so you receive them directly from CHIP and without delay.

Our view is that this is a useful tool that will prove invaluable for all home care providers struggling to evidence their cost of care.

This page will be live from 7 am Thursday 3 February with:

We would welcome working with any local home care provider to test the tool and collate feedback for ARCC-HR, LGA and ADASS.

CQC updated its regulatory approach as of yesterday (1 February). We have written to our Lead Inspector asking for clarification around VCOD, but they are not in a position to answer that question yet. Specifically, care homes may need additional workforce to maintain safe staffing, but if the only option is unvaccinated staff, will CQC agree to this? We hope to get more details soon.

CQC's Insight Report 15 describes the ongoing shortage of staffing in care homes. Workforce pressures were reflected in information submitted to CQC by providers of residential care (care homes), which showed an increase in vacancy rates between April to September 2021.

Tesco is planning to shed significant numbers of night staff - up to 1600 across 80 stores and 40 petrol stations according to various media outlets.

Care home residents remain eligible for COVID oximetry @home and COVID virtual ward. We continue to recommend care homes have one oximeter for every ten residents with a minimum of 2 oximeters per care home. These can be provided through the national supply of oximeters available to CCGs including where it is necessary to replace oximeters. PCN clinical leads or CC.Gs may wish to check with care homes in their area to ensure care homes retain sufficient oximeters. Additional oximeters may be provided through the existing stock of pulse oximeters held locally.

Requests for further oximeters from the national supply should be placed by CCGs.

Following the DHSC and NHS letter on actions for accelerating the number of people discharged home further resources to support systems in developing care units in care homes are now available on FutureNHS and also attached here for your reference.

A toolkit, developed with clinicians, care home providers, local government, primary care and others, provides more information to support systems, working with local partners to set up rehabilitation units in care homes. You will need to register with FutureNHS, alternatively please contact england.communityrehab@nhs.net  

In order to prioritise the ability to update the system, the decision has been made to temporarily withdraw the changes that were applied out of business hours on Monday 24 January 2022 – select here to be directed to details of the changes which have now been removed. 

The campaign will point people towards the Every Mind Matters loneliness webpage, where there is advice for ways to help yourself or others who may be feeling lonely, and suggested support routes. 

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport digital marketing campaign will run in England between 31 January and 13 March. A range of social media assets will be made available for download from the Campaign Resource Centre including: 

For further information, please contact campaigns@dcms.gov.uk

The Health on the Move bus will be in these locations this week in Buckinghamshire to support increased vaccination and booster rollout.

If you are eligible for a booster vaccination but have not yet had one, now is the time – the Health on the Move van makes getting your jab as convenient as possible. And if you have not yet had your first or second vaccination dose, this evergreen offer remains open and you are welcome to visit the van.

The van is run by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

In order to improve Care Home access to RBH wards to facilitate assessment or repatriation, the hospital is offering a dedicated Care Home help-line for January 2022.

Any Care home needing to discuss new client assessment or return of existing clients.

Standard processes should be followed initially (first contact the ward) but in the case that a Care Home cannot get through to the desired ward the help-line can be used.

A senior nurse experienced in Care Home discharge. The nurse will have access to EPR.

The nurse will help you with:

Remember the ward should be your first contact.

Tel: 07385406925

These are updated and included every week.

Private and Voluntary Sector Training from January through to March delivered through Buckinghamshire Council covering safeguarding, moving and positioning, stress management and many more.

So many courses we have put them in a pdf for you to download.

Chaired by Sir David Pearson and is to promote and share best practice in the sector.

The webinar will be a discussion about what successful local delivery of boosters in adult social care looks like.

Following the government’s announcement on 24 December that care workers will be added to the Health and Care Visa and Shortage Occupation List, Home Office, DHSC and Skills for Care hosted two webinars and now added two extra.

These 90-minute webinars will provide an overview of the points-based immigration system for the social care sector, what the recent announcement means for international recruitment, how to ensure ethical international recruitment and examples of best practice from the social care sector.

If anyone is in any doubt about the power of life story work please watch this video, it speaks volumes and you will absolutely love Joe! Joe is sadly no longer with us but his legacy lives on in his life storybook. When Joe passed away he had no living family members. His life storybook was used to deliver his eulogy. What a life he lived! Tissues at the ready!

Skills for Care is looking to organise some short virtual events with Job Centre Plus and the National Careers Service and are looking for some volunteers to help with recruitment into the care sector open across Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire

The request is could you speak for 10 minutes about working in your part of the sector (care home, home care, supported living or PA) on any of the following dates:

Please reply to Rachel.Reid@skillsforcare.org.uk

If a place is booked before 31 March 2022 you can get 22% off each place you book using the code 2022. 

If you are registered on ASWDC (Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set) and compliant by 31 March you can claim back up to £500 per person that completes a programme before the end of May.

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

The Better Security, Better Care programme will continue throughout 2022/23. We are reviewing current activities, and the availability and format of support will change after March 2022. We strongly encourage you to contact the DSPT team now to access this free support.

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.

DSPT Thames Valley Delivery and Performance Statistics - March 2021 to November 2021

Digital solutions are here to stay! Now is the time to take full advantage of our range of DSPT support and guidance! Contact us via the helpline - 01235 248085 / dspt@oacp.org.uk

COVID-19 infection rates dashboards usually updated weekly:

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.

Please tell colleagues and pass on this newsletter.

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