Welcome to your weekly Wednesday digest of social care news curated by OACP.

In this week's edition:

As always, please let us know if you are looking for something and can't find it.

We're here to help.

OACP bio - all we do is here

OACP Learning Disability network - for supported living services for people with learning disability/ autism/ ABI

OACP Home Care network - for registered home care providers

OACP-OCA Care Home network - for registered residential and nursing homes

Oxfordshire Registered Manager Network - for Registered Managers and Deputies

Safeguarding Quarterly Network with Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire Safeguarding Adults Board

Daytime Support Network has been paused pending review - see survey to have your say

OACP Meeting Survey

We're reviewing our support to you and would welcome your thoughts on how we meet with you and what we talk about. Please complete this very short survey to let us know.

Following on from the hugely successful series of IDDSI webinars in February 2021, The Close Care Home will be hosting a texture modified food training for staff at on 14 September at 10 am.

Due to the success of the texture modified food in the home and the training around this, The Close are kindly throwing the doors open and inviting all care homes in the area to join them for their next FREE training and information session.

Please contact Richard Edwards if you wish to join the event as spaces are limited.

This is open to all levels and departments; Managers, Care, Catering, anyone.

They will cover topics such as:

The Close Care Home has won multiple awards for their food and dining experience along with Outstanding in all five areas of CQC inspection, so this is a fantastic opportunity to pick their brains.

A Carers Journey is a series of workshops and courses created for carers in partnership with Action for Carers Oxfordshire and Abingdon & Witney College, designed to help improve your well-being and gain confidence in caring for someone at home.

The workshops and courses are designed for carers to support both the practical and emotional challenges of caring, with a balance between learning practical skills, relaxation and creative sessions.

If you are interested in the workshops and courses and would like to fill in a survey please click on the link below. Responses will enable AfC and the College to design relevant programmes and support systems to meet carers needs.

Book here - you need to be registered on OSAB and logged in

Oxfordshire County Council has released a draft of the Workforce Strategy. The intention is to collate views and discuss further at the next Workforce Roundtable in mid-September as below.

In the meantime you can register your comments on the Draft Strategy here.

The consultation is open until 26 September.

The Skills for Care Workforce Development Fund is now live, meaning you may be able to claim up to £2000 per learner per funding year. With this in mind, Grey Matter Learning has released dates for 3 of the Learning Programmes they provide.

Oxfordshire County Council has published its Carers Strategy available from the Carers Oxfordshire website.

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped to shape the strategy.

Action plans are in progress to meet the strategy and will be released by mid-September.

Thank you if you have already submitted your grant application.

The first tranche of payments will be made on 31 August.

International recruitment is a complex process. Don't be caught out. Make sure you are clear what the legal process is and where you can improve support to migrant workers.

And if you are aware of potential concerns about modern slavery, you have several options for reporting:

Wheels to Work provides a fully serviced and insured 50cc or 125cc moped with maintenance plan, roadside assistance, secure lock, delivery and tracker on a lease arrangement for:

Applicants can either pay for the package themselves, or apply for a grant from the Care Workers’ Charity (in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council).

More details here and a short video testimonial here.

See also this Skills for Care case study.

Find out what we are doing to support you and your workforce in our Oxfordshire People Plan.

Number of OACP Members taking advantage of this free Membership offer.

OACP has partnered with the Institute of Health and Social Care Management to provide development and networking opportunities for managers.

If you would like to take advantage of your OACP Membership offer with IHSCM, please contact us for your password to access their services.

IHSCM have put together a quick promo video for you just giving a bit of an introduction to your free membership with IHSCM.

ALL managers who work for you will be able to access these opportunities for free.

If you're not sure if your organisation is eligible as an OACP Member, please contact us.

Useful local contacts can be found further down, below _Webinars | Podcasts | Events_

Please find here the most recent UKHSA report. In the context of the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire West area, at the end of July, there had been several care homes that have reported a Norovirus outbreak.

For additional IP&C guidance required from the ICB, please contact bobicb.ipc@nhs.net

Focused meetings on care homes have started in each place-based locality. It's too early to tell how these ICS-led meetings will make a difference, but in theory it should provide a connection between care homes and NHS commissioners. We will keep you updated on subject matter and actions.

However, there are no domiciliary care focused meetings and we are following this up, as supporting people at home is the major drive by both NHS and local authorities.

Government has launched the first major national survey of all care workers in all care roles in adult social care in England.

The national survey of care workers, conducted by Skills for Care, Ipsos and the University of Kent on behalf of DHSC, is gathering information about working conditions, organisational characteristics, and workplace culture, to understand how work-related quality of life and wellbeing is affected.

The survey will take no more than 20 minutes to complete.

Choosing Roles less involved in care e.g. receptionist, cook, cleaner, caretaker, administrative assistant, senior manager or I do not work in adult social care category will close the survey

Growing media coverage of a rise in Covid-19 infections are based on a number of things:

The UK dashboard shows that the number of people testing positive in England has risen by 3.6% over the last 7 days, although the actual number is still very low in comparison to previous spikes. However, as we have experienced in the past we know that a rise in the infection rate can have a marked impact on hospital admissions, staff sickness and system efficiency.

Eris or E.G. 5.1 is a strain of Omicron and is now the major variant in the USA and second most common in the UK. Health reports that this variant causes more reaction in the upper respiratory tract (runny nose and sore throat) than previous variants and has increased transmissibility.

Also on the rise is the price of petrol at the pump currently at its highest on average since early January this year.

The decrease in acceptances on to nursing courses in each of the UK nations varies. In England, acceptances are down 13% from last year; in Northern Ireland they are down 6%; Scotland has seen a 17% decline; and in Wales acceptances are down by 11%.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the figures call into question the credibility of the NHS workforce plan in England released last month. According to the Health Foundation, the plan, which made commitments to increasing the nursing workforce in England, requires nursing and midwifery training intakes to increase by about 32,000 by 2031-32.

For further details on the above changes, please click here.

Provider Training Sessions are available - see here - and remember to share these with colleagues who are also welcome to join our sessions!

If you need additional support, please contact the NESCU Support Centre, Monday - Friday (excluding Public Holidays) 8am - 5pm by phoning 0191 691 3729 or emailing necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net.

The provision of free PPE for all health, social care and public sector workers for COVID-19 infection control, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2024.

Estimated stock-out dates by PPE category - updated 29 August 2023

The Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement has been updated to include updated information on accessing COVID-19 treatment and on availability of vaccination for those eligible:

In June, NHS England published its long-term workforce plan, which estimates the NHS in England will need around 60% more staff by 2036–37. If such an increase is delivered, that could mean that in England, almost half of public sector workers, and around one in eleven workers overall, would be employed by the NHS.

Returning to the NHS’s long-run average funding growth rate could be enough to fund the workforce plan. By the NHS’s own estimates, though, this will only be enough to meet NHS demand if productivity can be increased by between 1.5% and 2% per year: an extremely ambitious target well above what the NHS is estimated to have achieved in the past.

Reported on 23 August that a scam involving a third party left a Nigerian woman destitute after she paid someone she calls an "agent" in Nigeria £10,000 to arrange a job as a carer in the UK.

Nigeria remains on the red list of countries with which Government guidance warns against recruitment activity.

This follows on from the recent File on 4 documentary about Modern slavery gangmasters.

International recruitment can be fraught with difficulties and dangers. Please make use of our resources as outlined above in the International Recruitment section.

In addition to the summary sheet, more Information on laundry practices is available here: Prevention and control of infection in care homes - an information resource (publishing.service.gov.uk). 

HMRC has issued a letter describing work underway to alert people who may be drawn into tax avoidance schemes.

Tax avoidance is described as, bending the rules of the tax system to try to gain a tax advantage that was never intended by Parliament. It deprives the Exchequer of vital funds, and it can also result in large tax bills for taxpayers who have used tax avoidance schemes that failed to deliver the tax savings they promised.

The letter goes on to say that, the most common form of mass marketed tax avoidance schemes is disguised remuneration (DR). DR avoidance schemes often involve paying some or all of a worker’s pay in the form of a loan, or other payment claimed to be non-taxable, that is unlikely to ever be repaid.

Companies in the nursing home/care home sectors are being targeted by agents or third parties, who encourage them to make Research & Development (R&D) tax relief claims.

These claims are often ineligible. So, company directors need to review all R&D claims submitted on behalf of their company to make sure they're correct.

R&D is a Corporation Tax relief. Companies can claim it on the costs of activities that seek scientific or technological advances in their field as a whole, not just for their own business. R&D can reduce a company's tax bill, or they may get a tax credit instead.

If an agent suggests your company may qualify for R&D tax relief, you need to ask yourself these questions:

And see here for HMRC's latest Employers Bulletin for August

NHS winter planning will include an additional 900 beds across England to help cut waiting lists, one of Government's top 5 priorities. Under the plans, within our local area, it looks like only Buckingham Healthcare NHS Trust will receive funding of £10,580, although the number of beds that will buy is not specified.

The Nuffield Trust focuses on 5 key areas that will take centre stage as we roll towards the next UK General Election:

AI could reduce the literacy and numeracy barriers to self-care, but to do so requires collective action by NHS leaders working with patients, staff and innovators to set a vision and direction in using AI to improve patient empowerment.

This recently published report, The State of Integrated Care Systems 2022/23, examines the progress that local systems have made, and opportunities for further development.

As many of you may have seen recently in the CQC bulletin, the Regulator is progressing with plans to implement in November, the new assessment framework. This will be rolled out regionally, starting with providers in the South of England.

The key timescales are:

Any assessments from November onwards for providers in the South will be carried out using the new assessment framework. CQC will still schedule assessments by considering the level of risk, so not all providers will need to have an immediate assessment.

In other regions, CQC will continue to use the current assessment framework for now. CQC will provide further updates as each region moves over to using the new framework.

CQC recommend two actions for providers in the south of England:

You can now watch the whole series on YouTube.

This webinar CQC updated the timeline for implementing the new regulatory approach.

NEW: The first webinar in CQC's transformation series, this episode focuses on how we'll roll out our new regulatory approach and provider portal to all health and social care providers

This webinar focused on the approach to assessing local authorities.

This webinar updated on the approach to assessing integrated care systems.

Dates for all future sessions are available in the Resource Centre

RWK Goodman and Juice Recruitment invite you to an interactive HR Hub to discuss the upcoming changes to flexible working and the use of Artificial Intelligence in the workplace.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been substantial changes in the attitude of towards flexible working, and it is often a key requirement for employees when deciding whether to accept job offers. The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 20 July 2023, is likely to come into force in 2024. The Act brings in a number of significant changes to the current process that all employers will need to be aware of when thinking about flexible working requests, which we will look at and talk through on the day.

Artificial Intelligence has become a hot topic of discussion in the workplace with a lot of debate over the advantages and disadvantages of it being used by staff to do their jobs. Although AI is still very much in its infancy in many industries, employers will need to start thinking about its use now. We will look at some of the issues to start considering if you are going to allow staff to use AI in their roles; if staff will be banned from using it in their roles; or if, like many employers, you are as yet undecided.

HMRC | Salaried hours work and the National Minimum Wage

Due to popular demand, MS-UK has added a second date for its MS Awareness training specifically for care providers.

For more information, click here to visit our web page.

In this 5-minute briefing, Martin Wall, Customer Experience Manager for ATLAS eMAR, explains what medication accuracy is, why it's so important, how ATLAS eMAR can ensure it, and much more in this new vidcast.

Free dementia training videos shared courtesy of Norfolk Care Association:

SESCA (including the Care Association Alliance south east) has published a report on the impact of Trusted Assessor Services.

The Oxfordshire Trusted Assessor service has restarted.

The Trusted Assessor Service for Berkshire east, funded by Frimley ICS, has launched.

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

Contact: Michelle Yusuf -

Community dental services are available in a variety of places to ensure everyone can have access to dental health. Some Oxfordshire residents may be registered with Berkshire community dental services.

If you wish to register a new client/ resident, please use this referral form.

If you would like the Word version of the form, please reply to this newsletter.

To facilitate assessment or repatriation, the Royal Berkshire the hospital is running a dedicated Care Home help-line for 2022. Download the flyer here.

Please remember the ward should be your first contact.

Oxfordshire Safeguarding Adults Board consultation line for professionals

The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT)

Free DSPT support for Berks, Bucks, and Oxon

DSPT contact details for Berks, Bucks and Oxon

Please raise these through the relevant Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). All matters that go through PALS get raised at clinical governance in their particular area of expertise e.g. orthopaedics / LD etc, so it is imperative that any matters that need raising go through this route.

We are part of the largest national care association, the Care Association Alliance, with over 6,000 members across England.

This informs us of current concerns, we can source potential solutions on behalf of you and it helps inform our local communications.

We mail 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.

Or contact enquiries@spectrumcareltd.co.uk

OACP is pleased to partner with the Institute of Health and Social Care Management.

For FREE access for all managers with OACP Members please contact us.

Log My Care is accredited by NHSX as an Assured Supplier for Digital Social Care Records.

Fancy a chat? We’re just a click away

PCS is an Assured Supplier for Digital Social Care Records

Or contact us with colleague details who would like to be on the mailing list.

Remember to update us if you're moving on.