We hope you received everything you were hoping for and you gave everything you meant to.

In our time spent away from work, we tried to avoid mention of Covid-19, but we were drawn to the annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (one of Grandmother's favourites alongside the Queen's Christmas message). This year the RI focused on viruses and vaccinations with a specific reference to Covid-19. If you wanted a straightforward explanation of why we are here (regarding Covid-19) and what the science says to inform policy decisions, this is an entertaining and informative watch with Prof Jonathan Van Tam and many other top scientists (who only mentions football once).

On Christmas Eve, Government announced that from early next year, front line Care Workers will be included on the Shortage Occupation List for a period of at least 12 months.

All roles in SOC Code 6145 will be brought into scope of this visa change. According to ONS this includes the job titles: Care Assistant, Care Worker, Carer, Home Care Assistant, Home Carer and Support Worker (Nursing Home).

Whilst welcome news to support the challenging recruitment and retention facing the sector, this is only half of the solution as affordable accommodation remains scarce in our area. And smaller providers may find the system challenging to navigate.

Many of you may be unfamiliar with the process, so this handy 6-page briefing from National Care Forum may come in useful.

At time of writing, the date for going live, and the information on the SOL website has not been updated.

Before Christmas, the testing guidance for care homes was updated to reflect the move from 2 LFTs a week to 3 LFTs per week + a weekly PCR test.

The testing guidance for high-risk extra care and supported living settings, and adult day care centres has now also been updated to reflect the same move from 2 LFTs a week to 3 LFTs per week + a weekly PCR test, but not home care (which is not deemed as a high-risk setting - home care infection rates tend to track general community rates).

DHSC has clarified what the new UKHSA self-isolation guidance means for social care staff:

We know that staff shortage is a key issue for you at the moment with absence rates growing from the beginning of December in line with the spread of Omicron. The Guardian reported between Christmas and New Year bank holidays that community care services may need to be rationed. The nearest we have had to an official line is standard advice to triage your delivery to ensure care delivery to those most in need. When we have updates we'll let you know.

In the meantime, please remember that in the absence of tests, your staff are still able to work - the new testing regime is asking staff to continue to test regularly if possible, and if this is not possible, to refrain from arriving at work if any of the following apply:

We continue to get reports of the difficulty in obtaining a regular and robust supply of LFD tests for community-based services, which is increasingly alarming bearing in mind that today Government announced a pause in the use of PCRs from 11 January. Adult social care doesn't seem to be an exception to this temporary new guidance. Only three exceptions are mentioned:

Nationally, care home residents testing positive more than doubled in the last week of December with staff absence at 7.4% up from 2.8% the previous week. However, following the pattern prior to Omicron, the direct link between testing positive and death rates appears to have been broken with seasonal deaths not above the normal rate expected at this time of year.

There are higher levels of general absence (10%) amongst the working population and these rates mirror those seen in community-based care including domiciliary care.

Along with PCR and LFD shortage, there are some issues with testing – one lab has had staff shortages due to Omicron.

As you will have read in national and local media despite Omicron being less pathogenic than Delta, admissions to hospitals are rising, although people are spending less time in hospital. Often people are admitted for something else, but have Covid-19 as well. The weekly UKHSA National Syndromic Surveillance Summary shows this well.

NHSE/I has issued a bundle of documents, frameworks, guidance and advice for local systems to support and improve safe and timely discharge from hospitals. Please note the focus on rehabilitation units in care homes to aid hospital discharge as well as the preventative measures across social care to reduce hospital admission.

Sir David Pearson, Chair of the Social Care Task Force, has written to all registered care providers, and directors of adult social services.

The letter reminds all providers that there is money available to support your staff to get vaccinations and provides links to access resources to support this with digital resources or with printed materials.

Booster take-up is increasing slowly amongst all adult social care staff reaching the mid to high 40s% for staff and high 80s - low 90s% for residents in care homes. This now appears to be lower than the general uptake of booster/ 3rd dose as this interactive chart shows. Booster rates for agency staff are particularly low at 13-16% across England.

It seems that the rush to book covid-19 jabs, including boosters, before Christmas has eased off and your staff should be able to book their booster at a convenient time and place.

Anyone who is providing or receiving care, whether paid or unpaid, is eligible for priority access at vaccine sites, giving them access to queue management and priority lanes. This makes it as easy as possible for care workers, unpaid carers and recipients of care to get their booster vaccine this winter. Staff may be asked to show valid ID for priority access while unpaid carers can use a letter issued to the care sector as proof of ID. 

If you are still receiving certificates of medical exemption mandatory vaccination as a condition of deployment (VCOD) from Workers of England, Scotland and Wales Unions - examples can be downloaded here along with more about the ESWU campaign against VCOD - CQC has confirmed that these letters are acceptable for temporary exemption. Full or formal exemption needs to be confirmed through 119.

No more news as yet on VCOD extension to wider social care workforce.

One of the new anti-viral treatments approved is a COVID-19 treatment called Paxlovid (PF-07321332 and ritonavir) developed by Pfizer. This new combination treatment is for people with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19.

This follows a rigorous review of its safety, quality and effectiveness by MHRA and expert advice from Government’s independent scientific advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines.

Please see the Decision page, which has more details about the Paxlovid antiviral treatment for COVID-19.

As schools re-open after Christmas, early years and children care settings, schools and colleges continue to be open for all children and young people in England and attendance of school-age children remains compulsory.

These settings may however need to change how they are delivering education and childcare for a short period of time in line with the Contingency Framework. In all circumstances, and in all settings, priority should continue to be given to vulnerable children and young people and children of critical workers to attend full time. Priority workers include ALL workers in the adult and children's social care workforce.

REMINDER | Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme 

If you’re an employer with fewer than 250 employees, and you’ve paid Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to your employees for absences linked to coronavirus-related sickness or self-isolation, you could be eligible for support.

You will receive repayments at the relevant standard rate of SSP that you paid to your current or former employees for any eligible periods of sickness starting on or after 21 December 2021.

You will be able to reclaim the costs for up to two weeks of SSP for an employee who takes time off because of coronavirus, regardless of whether you claimed for that employee under the previous scheme.

You will be able to make claims retrospectively from mid-January, or your payroll agent can make claims on your behalf.

Your Workforce Development Funding claims this month will need to be sent to TVWDP by 20 January.

If you have any questions or need any assistance with preparing your funding claim please contact

An extra £60 million for adult social care over January 2022 is going to local authorities to support the adult social care response to COVID-19 in January, specifically with the rise in Omicron.

Local authorities can use the funding to support the sector and protect people from COVID-19 infection. This includes investing in improved ventilation, increasing the use of direct payments – which are offered to people with eligible social care needs so they have choice and control over their care and support arrangements – or paying for COVID-19 sickness and self-isolation pay for staff.

The funding details are outlined in the press release and in a letter sent out to all local authorities. In essence the funding adds to the ICF core priorities, but is in recognition of the fact that when the ICF funding was first made available, it did not take in the impact of Omicron. 

The grant conditions for this additional funding have not yet been provided for local authorities, and therefore there is likely to be a delay in terms of the funding coming through to providers.

CQC has launched a new online registration service for small providers to register.

You can use this service if you’re one of the following:

For organisations and partnerships the Registered Manager must be able to sign the application.

Many of you attended the South East webinar in November on overseas recruitment. Skills for Care have the recording available - email rachel.reid@skillsforcare.org.uk - and there is another event being run by Skills for Care.

In this session, Lauren Chiren, Royds Withy King will discuss:

There will be a presentation, followed by an engagement section and Q&A. You are welcome to share your experiences with fellow HR professionals in a safe and confidential environment ('Chatham House' rules apply).

Hear how you can claim Workforce Development funding (WDF) to contribute towards the cost of vocational learning such as social care qualifications, learning programmes and digital learning modules.

Public Health England's free Online Physical Activity in Clinical Care Training for registered healthcare professionals (Nurses, OTs, Physios)

or

More than 500 people have already attended across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

This training is delivered by a PHE Physical Activity Clinical Champion. CPD certificates are provided after the session.

You'll learn:

Plus hear from your local Active Partnerships about local physical activity opportunities.

If you have any questions or would like more support around physical activity in your role/ team please get in touch with your local Active Partnership lead:

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.

From recruitment and retention, staff training, mental health and wellbeing, professional bereavement and tricky HR issues, to infection control, risk assessments and visiting arrangements, Citation can help you operate both safely and compliantly in the coming weeks and months.

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.