Welcome to your weekly Wednesday digest of social care news diligently 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 Home Care network - for registered home care providers

Oxfordshire Registered Manager Network - for Registered Managers and Deputies

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

OACP Daytime support network - for non-CQC registered daytime support and day centre services

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

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.

We now have a calendar to make the launch of our regional international recruitment support.

The regional hub is scheduled to go live at the end of June. The hub will provide a comprehensive overview of the international recruitment process, as well as signposting to support services, helping our providers to overcome the challenges whilst upholding an ethical approach.

Seminars and webinars delivered by legal and immigration advisors.

Compliance Masterclass

You can find more details of the progress made here in the first regional IR newsletter

OxLEP has published latest figures for Oxfordshire's labour market.

And find the national global outlook report here courtesy of Berkshire LEP.

OCF has opened a new round of grant funding totalling £240,000 with a particular focus on building resilience. These grants are funded by OCF donors and £100,000 from Oxfordshire County Council. Applications are now open and will close on Tuesday 27 June at midday.

Grants will be available from £500 to £10,000 and will allow applications for core costs in addition to project, capital and promotional costs. Full details of the criteria and application process can be found on our website.

Please contact ocf@oxfordshire.org or 01865 798666 with any questions. The team is available to provide support with your application.

Care Choices has published the latest edition of the Live Well: Support and Care Guide for Oxfordshire 2022-23. The guide to care services contains sections on:

You'll find OACP on page 53.

Community Dental Services provides training and support for dental care in care homes and the community.

If you would like to follow in the footsteps of Sanctuary Care's Watlington & District NH please contact CDS here

Open this PDF to click the link.

Level Chingalembe has been offered the post of Service Manager for Provider Services and Social Care Financial Operations. He has been supporting Financial Operations on an interim basis for some months now so a smooth transition into the Service Manager role will commence over the coming days.

Lorraine Henry will be joining OCC on 19 June as the substantive Service Manager for Safeguarding, Mental Health and DoLS. She brings with her a wealth of safeguarding and multi-agency working expertise. Nigel Uttley will be leaving his interim post on 16 June.

Joana Adjei will be leaving the Hospital Service on 16 June. 

Sitabile Pswarayi will be taking over as Interim Service Manager for Hospitals from 19 June.

Robyn Noonan’s ADASS secondment will be extended until October 2024. Robyn has been supporting the regional international recruitment strategy. An advert for an internal opportunity to cover her post and act as strategic Learning Disability Lead for Operations until October 2024 is now live with interviews to be held mid June. 

Please send responses or comments to Ruby Sweetman by 5pm Friday 23 June.

When people with learning disabilities or autism come to hospital, hospital staff need to be able to understand their usual baseline and their support needs. A document called a Healthcare/Hospital Passport is designed to help hospital or healthcare staff understand the persons needs and they can be completed at any time in preparation for potential admissions. The passports are electronic and can be stored for updating, and printed if needed.

OUH ask that healthcare passports be completed for all people in your care who have a learning disability or autism, and be brought to hospital with them. They can also be used in other healthcare settings.

Completed healthcare passports can be emailed to the Learning Disability Liaison nurse team at the John Radcliffe hospital for adding to patient notes. Contact details for the Hospital Learning Disability Team

Please also contact the learning disability team if there are any issues or questions, and in the event that someone is admitted to hospital.

From the start of the initiative with Care Friends until January 2023, 9 new-to-care starters have been achieved through the use of the app.

Since January, and effectively since March, a further 18 new starters have been achieved - people previously not working in the care sector.

Backed by the increases in performance across the board this is potentially really significant – and successful. The evidence suggests that this isn’t a blip, but that there will be a significant growth in recruitment.

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.

This initiative is 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

Expression of interest from 30/11/2022 12:00 to 03/07/2023 23:30

Activate Learning are keen to work alongside the Health & Social Care sector to ensure they create the right talent for your business.

Feedback from within the industry says that when businesses play a part in the development stage - helping to shape students early on - students can go into their employment when they leave college and hit the ground running.

To find how you can get involved see this flyer.

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

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_

Community Impact Bucks are leading this survey and require 50 responses to be able to compare the results fairly to the previous survey. They have 37 so far.

If you have not shared your views, please could we ask you to submit the form at your earliest convenience.

Every response helps shape our work for the next 12 months.

This poster has more information and their presentation can be viewed on the recording of the meeting via this link and starts 35 minutes in for 20 minutes. https://tinyurl.com/2p8bjc4m.

The team can be contacted at bobicb-bw.placements@nhs.net

Please see attached flyer for Level2 certificate in Awareness in Mental Health.

This course is fully funded and is available to anybody in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties.

It might be a good opportunity for staff to have some CPD in this area to enable them to underpin their knowledge and be able to support others.

For those of you who are employer/ providers of apprenticeships it might help you support apprentices as well.

If you have any questions contact Abingdon and Witney college: enquiry@abingdon-witney.ac.uk

The Care Workers’ Charity and The National Activity Providers Association (NAPA) are joining forces during this year`s Care Home Open Week, organised by Championing Social Care, where they are challenging care homes to put the FUN into FUNdraising by holding events and activities for residents and families. They ask each participating care home to think about their two charities from 26 June to 2 July and raise funds for them through activities organised during the week.

If all the different care homes involved in Care Home Open Week raised at least £100 for CWC and NAPA, we could collectively raise tens of thousands of pounds to support Care Workers and Activity Providers with financial grants when they need a helping hand or give them access to free therapy when they need someone to talk to or support older people in fulfilling their dreams.

We can’t think of a better way of celebrating our sector than through supporting our teams.

There will also be a special prize for the care home that raises the most money!

For more information and to sign-up and ideas for activities and resources, please visit the links below.

On Monday, DHSC published a joint review with the Home Office called the Safe Care at Home Review. The review looks into the protections and support available to people who are abused, or at risk of abuse, by people providing their care in their own homes. This followed the concerning evidence presented during the House of Lords debates from the Deaf and disability sector about abuse perpetrated by people who provide care during the passage of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

The review heard from frontline professionals, representatives from the Deaf community, disability and older people’s organisations, care providers and people with personal experience. Having taken this evidence into account, the review set out a set of actions to address the following three key themes:

The full publication can be found here Safe Care at Home Review, along with accessible versions of the review.

Last week, the Fabian Society published its report, commissioned by Unison, outlining a roadmap to develop a National Care Service over the course of a decade. The report focuses on choice and control for people, better pay, terms and conditions for the workforce and a new deal for care providers. It also appears to welcome not-for-profit care and the recommendation to expand this type of provision. Although comprehensive, it remains to be seen if Labour will adopt it as part of their manifesto, and importantly find the funding to make change happen, whether in line with this report or generally.

At the launch of the report, the Labour Shadow Secretary of State, Wes Streeting, appeared to distance Labour and the policies outlined in the Fabian’s report. He reiterated Labour’s previous commitments to a new deal for care workers, with better terms and conditions, and the removal of 'extractive', profit-making, from the sector. However, he stopped short of committing to the measures and roadmap outlined by the Fabians. He maintained that Labour will only include measures in their manifesto that they can fully cost and fund – the implication being that no commitments will be made this far from a general election.

Last week Labour MP, Dan Carden, introduced the Care Supporters Bill, which would provide NHS patients and care home residents with the “right to maintain contact” with at least one “essential care supporter”. This comes off the back of the campaigns by a number of organisations, such as John’s Campaign and Care Rights UK (formerly Rights for Residents and Relatives and Residents Association).

The legislation appears to have cross-party support (it is something the Minister for Care has previously spoken out about), but it is unclear whether Government currently supports it, or will bring forward its own measures. Its second reading is scheduled for November 2023.

The latest data shows that, 'in the week ending 15 May 2023, 99.0% of care homes in England were able to accommodate residents receiving visitors. This figure has been stable since September 2022.'

There has been a small update to this guidance to clarify information about the admission of people to care homes. Specifically:

As the stock on gloves decreases from the Government PPE portal, Care Shop have worked with Spectrum to provide a special deal for Members.

If you do not have a Spectrum buyer account and would like one then please contact Jackie Spooner and state you are an OACP Member.

In 2022, the Government mandated a cost of care exercise. Unfortunately, this exercise has bought about little change and has simply proven that the sector is under-funded. This looks set to continue as the Government announced in April 2023 that it was going to halve its commitment to social funding, reducing its pledge from £500 million to £250 million.

Care England research has found that, as of April 2022, the average difference between a) what a local authority pays for residential care fees; and b) the fair cost of care, is £218 per week. The gap in nursing care fees is £231 per week. This is a discrepancy of £2,616 for residential care fees and £2,772 for nursing care fees.

Workforce wellbeing and enablement is one of the quality statements, in our new single assessment framework, sitting under our caring key question.

Government has published voluntary guiding principles to support the delegation of healthcare activities. Government describes 'delegated activity' as a delegated healthcare activity is an activity that a regulated healthcare professional, such as a nurse, nursing associate, occupational therapist or speech and language therapist, delegates to a care worker or personal assistant.

Skills for Care has built in a feedback mechanism across the principles and products to support an iterative process and will be seeking sector feedback throughout 23/24, so if you have any feedback please email delegatedhealthcare@yorkconsulting.co.uk.

Find out more at www.skillsforcare.org.uk/DelegatedHealthcareActivity

This factsheet provides the most recent data available to support the planning of palliative and end of life care (PEoLC) service provision in care homes. Trends in people who died in a care home are shown and compared with the pattern seen in 2019 as a baseline. The most recently published care home bed rates by care home type and care home resident group are also presented.

This factsheet describes people who were in care homes at or near the end of their life, split into three “cared for” groups:

Other areas and previous data can be found here

Nuffield Trust reports that, currently, there are:

Staff costs make up around two-thirds of NHS expenditure, and have – across NHS and foundation trusts – doubled in cash terms to £67 billion in 2020/21 relative to 2008/09 (1.6 times higher in real terms).

Following the success of the NHS Volunteer Responders Programme scheme over the pandemic, Government has announced it will expand it into social care to form a joint NHS and care volunteering programme and allow care providers to recruit volunteers to help people in their local areas.

Backed by £3 million, the scheme will use the same GoodSAM app that NHS volunteers currently use, to bring providers and volunteers together. The roles available for care volunteers are:

DHSC | Estimated stock-out dates by PPE category with current estimates

CQC has announced the first three LA sites where they will pilot their new approach to LA assessments:

This follows last year's test and learn activities in Manchester City Council and Hampshire County Council. The single assessment framework will be used when assessing the three LA sites during the pilots, following the draft local authority assessment framework.

In the past year, DHSC published A plan for digital health and social care, setting out its vision for a digitally-enabled health and social care system, emphasising the importance and need for both NHS and social care tech buyers to purchase products that meet the needs of the people they support, as well as standards for: 

This new framework for care providers and local authorities sets out what good digital working looks like for care providers and local authorities with responsibility for adult social care in England. It provides a series of common goals for these organisations to work towards that will help achieve the vision set out in People at the Heart of Care. It is an aspirational framework designed to be used by local authorities and care providers of all sizes and types of service, including both Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered and non-registered providers.

Those wishing to take part can register here: EXPRESSION OF INTEREST LINK.

To find out about the tender and how it works, review the MORE INFORMATION LINK and read feedback from those who benefitted already here: FEEDBACK.

Government introduced energy bills support for non-domestic customers over the winter period following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting increase in wholesale energy prices. The standard Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) was introduced to support customers with standard energy supply arrangements. This was followed by the EBRS for Non-Standard Cases (NSC), launched in January for non-domestic customers supplied by licence-exempt providers via the grid where prices paid are pegged to wholesale energy prices.

Applications are now reopening for an expanded cohort to apply retrospectively for support under EBRS NSC, covering eligible energy consumed between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023. This cohort now also includes care providers on licence-exempt supply that provided via private wire or pipe not through the grid, where prices paid are pegged to wholesale energy prices.

The expanded cohort are also now eligible for support under the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) for Non-Standard Cases, covering eligible energy consumed between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. The EBDS was introduced following a HM Treasury review of the energy schemes and reflects the fact that wholesale prices are lower than they were.

Eligibility: care providers that receive gas and/or electricity via wire or pipe from a licence-exempt provider where prices paid are pegged to wholesale energy prices. Support is only available when wholesale prices exceed a certain threshold and is subject to a maximum rate. We are encouraging Qualified Energy Providers to apply on behalf of their customers where possible.

You can now watch the whole series on YouTube.

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

This webinar focused on the approach to assessing local authorities.

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

Our online session will help care staff in our area to keep residents safer by quickly spotting the signs of deterioration.

Free RESTORE2 Train the trainer sessions

It is a requirement for you to have attended a RESTORE2 training session in order to join this training.

This is unless you have prior training in the RESTORE2 tool. If you do not, please book onto a training session here: RESTORE2 Training sessions

These sessions are aimed at care homes in the Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Frimley ICS region. If you are from outside of the area please contact your local AHSN to access local training.

Delivered by the DBS Outreach Team, of the Home Office, this webinar aims to address:

There will also be ample opportunity for you to bring your own questions to the event to get the answers you need. If you register for the event, you can email any questions you may have in advance to Adam Purnell.

You can also bring along people from your team who may need to know more about the DBS process. Don’t forget, membership to the IHSCM is FREE to all Members of OACP in your organisation currently in, or working towards, a leadership or management role.

The aims of each course are set out in this flyer.

To book a place please go to https://events.skillsforcare.org.uk/skillsforcare/1587/home

Hear about arrangements for hospital discharge from Royal Berkshire and Wexham Park Hospitals.

This is the first event back since 2019 due to the covid pandemic. It’s always a great event, really positive and fun. All are invited to come along and have a go at activities including Cycling, Athletics, Bowls, Football, Cricket, Tennis, Dance, Boccia and Archery.

All welcome.

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.

Series three features Good Oaks Home Care as the first UK carbon neutral home care company. Ben Ashton, the co-founder and director talks about what you have to do to become carbon neutral, why it is so important and how it fits so well with values-based recruitment and retention. Ben also talks about his positive experiences and shares his learnings of recruiting internationally

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

9 am – 4 pm, Mon to Fri (except bank hols)

The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT)

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

Contact us

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

With annually rising charges and continual changes in government legislation, we believe there’s a better, brighter way of managing your utilities over and above the habit of annual renewal.

We can help cut through the confusion; free you from the stresses of managing bills, chasing payments and validating invoices.

We can help you establish low-carbon, energy-efficient plans, delivering profound cost savings and helping to safeguard the environment for future generations.

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

Remember to update us if you're moving on.