Scottish Care Webinar – 6 September 2019

We are delighted to invite you to take part at our second webinar. This is scheduled to take place on Friday 6 September 2019 at 11:30am. This webinar will be an in-house surgery conducted by Scottish Care’s CEO – Donald Macaskill and/or National Director – Karen Hedge. During this session they will deliver a national update and will accept questions from participants.

Link to webinar: https://zoom.us/j/930198562

Webinar ID: 930-198-562

Partners for Integration National Event – 5 September 2019

The story so far – Insight Sessions & World Café

Scottish Care will be holding a Partners for Integration event on Thursday 5th September, 9:30am at Hanover Scotland, 95 McDonald Road, Edinburgh, EH7 4NS. The event is open to Scottish Care members and social care partners and is free of charge to attend.

This event consists of speakers from different organisations such as Edinburgh HSCP, Scottish Government, Scottish Care and Healthcare Improvement Scotland. There will also be a number of insight sessions which focuses on the work of Partners for Integration, including:

1. Improving care and support.

We will explore the quality of hospital discharge from the viewpoint of care services across Scotland. At a time when the number of agencies involved in discharge planning seems to be ever expanding there is a need for us all to work together and ensure that the discharge process is of the highest quality.

Covering issues of quality, process and communication the session will be based on experiences and examples of good practice. There will be opportunity for participants to come together to map out where change can be made nationally and locally.

2. Improvement through workforce development.

You will hear about 3 innovative projects that have had a role in developing the workforce using Improvement Methodology.

  1. Continence project – South and North Lanarkshire H&SC Partnership
  2. Care cooks course – working collaboratively across all sectors to create a practical solution to supporting people with dysphagia – Highland H&SC Partnership
  3. Pressure Ulcer Prevention awareness training programme across all care providers to reduce the incidence of pressure ulcers – Perth &Kinross H&SC Partnership

3. Engagement, representation, consultation, integration.

Independent Sector Leads (ISL’s) undertake a wide range of direct and indirect engagement within the Partnerships in which they work. In many areas the ISL holds a position on the Integration Joint Board and in all, undertakes considerable strategic planning and support of the Independent Sector. During this Insight Session several ISL’s from different Partnerships will draw upon their experiences and share the benefits, opportunities and successes that the role brings. It will give you an opportunity to experience the work taking place in your own and other Partnership areas and to take part in growing and strengthening this.

4.Using Data to Improve Information.

Good information is the cornerstone of good decision-making at every level.  Our priorities are changing: but are we really creating better, more integrated care and support?  The Accounts Commission (2014) stated that the length of time people live in good health has not increased in line with life expectancy, and that current arrangements for older people’s care are not sustainable.  As demand for services increases so do the high-level aspirations for quality care.

In this session we will look at how we can use good information to improve care.

World Café Tables

The Independent Sector Leads at their world café tables will describe a project or improvement plan they have been involved in .The Leads will take 5/10mins to describe the project ,why and how they set it up , what outcomes they achieved or were the outcomes achieved.

There are 10 tables and the sessions will allow for participation at 4 tables:

  • Sensory awareness – Hearing and sight loss.
  • Living and dying well collaborative.
  • Glasgow City Deal.
  • Care About Physical Activity.
  • Quality Improvement workshops.
  • Care Inspectorate Improvement checklist.
  • My Home Life.
  • Dementia – Johns Campaign, dementia training
  • Aberdeen City Integrated Provider Forum/Care Home consultation.
  • Improvement through focusing on diet and nutrition (IDDSI).

Places for this event are limited, if you would like to attend please email [email protected] to register.

News Release: Human Rights charter launched at Scottish Care’s tech event

NEWS RELEASE

At an event in central Glasgow today (Friday 23rd August), Scottish Care, with the support of the Clydesdale Bank, is hosting only the second dedicated event to be held in Scotland on technology and its use in older people’s care and support.

Care Tech 2 is being held in the Strathclyde University Technology and Innovation Centre.

Technology has an increasingly important role to play in all our lives. In social care, technology is being used to enable individuals to maintain their independence for as long as possible, to support staff more effectively in their work, and to ensure that individuals remain in control of their supports for as long as possible.

This unique event brings together over 150 people including designers and developers alongside those using and working in social care services. Through a set of interactive workshops participants will hear about cutting edge innovation, contribute their own ideas and have an opportunity to consider what technology might mean for them in their home or workplace. The event will explore some of the most creative technologies now available and some which are currently under development.

The event also sees the launch a new Human Rights Charter for Technology and Digital in Social Care. The Charter has been developed with a range of designers, providers and people who work and use social care services over the last year. It grew out of the report ‘Tech Rights’, which Scottish Care launched last year, and which addresses some of the challenges which the increased use of technology including ‘care-bots’, and ‘sensor devices’ are now posing for developers and older people.

The Charter for Technology presents a number of statements which seek to place the development and use of technology and digital within a human rights and ethical perspective. It is the first of its kind to be developed anywhere and Scottish Care hopes it will continue and contribute to the wider debate on critical issues such as privacy, individual choice and control, and the importance of human contact.

Dr Donald Macaskill, Scottish Care CEO, said:

“Care Tech 2 is an attempt to recognise that we live in a dynamic and fast changing world where technology has the potential to do so much which is good for the care of our older citizens. But the day will also reflect on some of the dangers and limitations of technology, and how we need to develop a human rights and ethical framework for the use of this amazing technology. We are delighted to be able to launch the new human rights Charter for Technology and Digital in Social Care. We hope that over the next few weeks and months designers and developers, policy makers and politicians, providers and frontline workers as well as those who use social care supports, will sign up to the Charter. The future of care in Scotland has to be one which is based on the rights, dignity, privacy and control of individual citizens. The Charter is a positive contribution to achieving the rights-based care and support our citizens deserve.”

“Scotland has been a proud defender and promotor of human rights within social care and health. I believe there is a real opportunity, faced with the challenges of Artificial Intelligence and wider technology, for Scotland to be at the forefront of the debate around the role of ethics and human rights of technology.”

Derek Breingan, National Head of Health & Social Care Sector, Clydesdale Bank said:

" We are pleased again to sponsor this event following its previous success.  Whilst technology advances continue, and there is more evidence of this in care settings, the conference also explores some of the very important and interesting elements of its use.  Thought provoking debate has been generated on the Human Rights aspects of technology in person centred care following the inaugural event last year.  At Clydesdale Bank we understand the importance of investing in the sector and of the potential benefits that technology can provide and so are looking forward to an interesting, informative and beneficial event.”

Nominations now open for the 2020 Queen’s Nurse programme

2020 Queen's Nurse programme

Since the Queen’s Nurse title was reintroduced to Scotland in 2017, there have been 61 community nurses from across the country who have taken part in the nine-month development programme.

Candidates are nominated by their employers to apply and during the programme each community nurse must develop an issue which will have a significant impact on those they care for – meaning the learning during the nine months is applied in practice.

QNIS is committed to supporting the development of care home nursing, and over the last three years, there have been four care home nurses take part.

The 2020 programme has connected with the Nursing Now Nightingale Challenge which is seeking to develop the next generation of influential nurse leaders, so the commitment is to offer development opportunities to those who are under 35.

QNIS is encouraging managers to look at the Queen’s Nurse excellence profile and consider putting forward an outstanding nurse to apply.

The funded programme requires employers to release staff for ten days over nine months to attend workshops and to support them in a development project where they co-produce a piece of work around a priority issue with residents, families and other staff

Information inviting applications for the 2020 Queen’s Nurse programme is now on the QNIS website.

Read more about Queen’s Nurse Lesley.

Workforce Event – 25 September 2019

Workforce Event - 25 September 2019

Keeping Well: Supporting the Care Workforce

Scottish Care are delighted to announce our latest Workforce Event - Keeping Well: Supporting the Care Workforce. This event is organised by Caroline Deane - Workforce Policy & Practice Lead at Scottish Care - and will be held on Wednesday 25th September 2019 at The Marriott Hotel in Glasgow.

This free event will focus on the palliative care journey - from diagnosis through to end of life care - and the impact on the social care workforce health and wellbeing. There will be a range of organisations including the Care Inspectorate and RMIT University, who will be delivering sessions on the day.

Places for this event are limited, if you would like to attend please email [email protected] to register.

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Workforce Matters eBulletin – July 2019

Workforce Matters eBulletin - July 2019

Workforce Matters is the workforce planning and development arm of Scottish Care.  As well as sharing relevant and up to date information about workforce and learning opportunities across the country, we also want to know more about your organisations learning and development needs, particularly those relating to regulatory, Care Inspectorate and SSSC requirements.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about your organisational workforce needs or would like further information about learning and development opportunities available to Scottish Care members.

Caroline Deane - Workforce Policy & Practice Lead

[email protected] 

News and Events

The Colin McNab Palliative and End of Life Care Prize: front line care worker fund 

The Colin McNab Palliative and End of Life Care Prize was formed following a generous gift from Border Caring Services. The Prize was announced by Scottish Care CEO Dr Donald Macaskill at the Annual Care at Home & Housing Support Conference in Glasgow. 

This Prize has been established to support and enhance the often unheralded and unrecognised work of palliative care in our care home, care at home and housing support services.

The deadline for applications has been extended to Saturday 31st August 2019.

Individual Training Account Funding

Applications are now open for Skills Development Scotland (SDS) Individual Training Accounts (ITA).

Individuals can get up to £200 towards the cost of a training course to build the skills you need for a job or get some training to take your career to the next level.  Whatever you want to do, there’s a wide range of ITA approved courses on offer. Because it’s not a loan you don’t have to pay it back.

Applying for your ITA

This year SDS will fund 18,500 Individual Training Accounts.  The scheme re-opened on 27 June to new applicants and will accept 15,000 applications between then and 30 September.

Essentials in Psychological Care - Dementia Care Home Programme - Training for Trainers 28th August 2019 Glasgow

This training programme has been developed by NES to improve the experience, care, treatment and outcomes for people with dementia, their families and carers.

The training is aimed at staff who have already completed the one-day Essentials training event or have completed the Psychological Interventions in Response to Stress and Distress in Dementia.  Staff must also be currently be working at the skilled level or above of the Promoting Excellence Framework.

Applications to be in by Friday 2nd August 2019.

New Cohort of online course in Compassionate Care

This course will give you the practical tools and insights that you can use to enhance compassionate health and social care. If you, or your team, would like to enrol in this exciting 3 week course launching in September 2019, please click on the link below.

NHS Education for Scotland Bereavement Education Conference 2019

This is a free opportunity for health and social care workers to attend a range of plenary and workshop sessions on bereavement-related topics.

The deadline for registering interest in attending is Friday 23rd August.

Modern Apprenticeship funding available through Skills Development Scotland

We are pleased to advise that Skills Development Scotland has announced that funding has been allocated to training providers for Modern Apprenticeships and this includes funding for staff who are aged over 25.

Workforce Groups

Our Workforce Groups each run quarterly throughout the year and, as ever, we are really keen to have the involvement of our frontline colleagues and more provider participation.  Details of the next dates are listed below:

Joint Scottish Care/SSSC Regulatory Forum

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 10th September 2019 between 10.00am and 12.30pm.  The venue of this meeting has still to be confirmed but will be held at a venue in Edinburgh.

The Regulatory Forum explores how regulation of our services impacts upon them and our workforce. SSSC, who co-chair, advise and guide on new initiatives with providers being able to highlight challenges and solutions on topics such as registration, SVQ, qualifications and training among many others.  More input from frontline colleagues and providers can only increase our effectiveness, so please come along.

Scottish Care/SSSC Promoting Excellence in Dementia Group

The next meeting will take place on 12th September between 10:30am and 12:30pm. This will be held at the Carewatch office in Greenock, 38 Union Street, PA16 8DJ.

This group allows anyone with an interest in the care of people living with dementia to explore the Promoting Excellence Framework, training opportunities, best practice and hear updates from several different types of services on how they are encouraging and implementing the Framework within their own organisations.  It is always great to have people involved in the direct delivery of dementia care and hear the challenges and successes experienced daily in their work.

Leadership Reference Group

The next meeting will take place on 27th August 10:30am-12:30pm at the C-Change office, Suite 3 Melissa House, Festival Court, Brand Place, Glasgow, G51 1DR .

This group’s focus is on leadership and how to positively promote and nurture it throughout all levels of teams and organisations across social care. We are always looking for more people to come along, particularly frontline colleagues so please do get in touch.

Scottish Care Palliative and End of Life Care Group - for care home & care at home organisations

The next meeting will take place on 28th August, 10am - 12.30pm at Renfield St Stephen's Centre, 260 Bath Street Glasgow G2 4JP.

We are always looking for more people to come along, particularly front line colleagues.

We greatly appreciate the support of those organisations who have previously hosted our Workforce Groups, with thanks to those hosting the upcoming meetings.

If you would like more information about any of these forums please contact [email protected]

Resources

Qualification guidance for supervisors in care at home, housing support and care home services for adults

The SSSC have guidance available on their website to explain the different ways supervisors in these services can meet the supervisory part of their qualification requirement.  The guidance includes lists of the units accepted by the SSSC along with information about the other ways supervisors can meet the requirement.

The SSSC Learning Zone

The SSSC Learning Zone is an extremely useful resource for keeping your practice up to date.  It includes free to use learning apps covering subject areas such as dementia, adult protection and medication. There is also a career development toolkit which may prove useful to members keen to develop career pathways within their organisations.

SSSC News

Keep Up to Date with all SSSC related news ,events and resources at SSSCNews “The online magazine for Scotland’s social services.”


 

Care Tech 2: Programme

We are delighted to confirm that the following organisations will be involved in the workshops available to delegates on the day:

Please click on the Programme button to the right for details on the schedule on the day of the event.

Take part in the first Scottish Care webinar

Scotland Excel is delighted to be the first organisation that has partnered with Scottish Care to bring you a webinar on their work to develop a national flexible framework for care and support services.

Scotland Excel is currently working with a wide range of partners (including Scottish Care) to develop a national ‘flexible’ framework for care and support services which incorporates both care at home and supported living services. This will give the flexibility for services to be purchased separately under the framework where required.

Our main aim is to develop a framework which will allow maximum choice for people using services to choose the care and service provider who best meets their needs. In addition, we hope that the framework will promote a holistic approach to delivering care and support and focus on the achievement of personal outcomes and facilitate the provision of innovative approaches to promoting choice and control. We recognise the importance of the Health and Social Care Standards and through our service specification we hope that they will be embedded into service delivery.

To date, 22 Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) in Scotland have confirmed a preference for Scotland Excel to develop a national framework for care and support and we anticipate that additional HSCPs will join the framework throughout its term.

We are making full use of the light touch regime to allow new providers to apply to be on the framework at set periods throughout its four-year duration. Providers on the framework will also be able to amend, change and add to the types of service they provide and the care groups that they support.

Scotland Excel has and will continue to engage with partners as we take this work forward. We anticipate that the development of the specification of requirements and approach to rates will be two important elements of this work. We have already run a number of events with providers and their representative groups to get their input, before, incorporating this information in to our work.

We are delighted to be taking part in this webinar which will allow us to discuss our work and answer any questions participants may have.

If you can’t attend the webinar, we would be happy to hear from you directly with any queries or input. We also have a provider distribution list where information will be disseminated. Please email us on [email protected] if additional members from your organisation should be added to this list.

Edmund McKay, Category Manager Adult Social Care at Scotland Excel

Those who wish to attend the webinars must be members of Scottish Care.

The first webinar is scheduled for Thursday 15th August at 10:00 am.

Link to webinar: https://zoom.us/j/248225386

Webinar ID: 248-225-386

‘Stay in Scotland’ Campaign: Support for EU citizens working in Scotland

As the UK prepares to leave the EU, the Scottish Government has created a package of support to help EU citizens stay in Scotland. This also offers support and guidance to those who employ staff from the EU.

Their package of support includes:

  • £250,000 of dedicated resource for community based support across Scotland
  • a support and advice service for EU citizens with more complex needs or particular challenges. This is currently being rolled out with more information available at: cas.org.uk/brexit
  • a ‘Stay in Scotland’ toolkit to support EU citizens and employers with EU staff which includes a poster, a factsheet, digital content and guides

 

For more information and guidance please visit:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/eu-citizens-staying-in-scotland-package-of-support/

2019 Care Home Awards now open for entries

We're delighted to announce that the 2019 Care Home Awards are now open for entries!

A perfect opportunity to recognise colleagues, services and residents

Scottish Care would like to invite you to enter your company, staff and service users for the Care Home Awards 2019. Last year’s event was a great success and recognised the work of fantastic staff and providers whilst also giving positive visibility to this often neglected sector.

The entry forms have been made shorter and easier to complete, with  online entry and guidance available on which awards are designated for individuals, teams and companies. As you can see there are 13 award categories for the 2019 Awards.

 

Award Categories

  1. Ancillary & Support Staff Award
  2. Nutrition & Eating Well Award
  3. Meaningful Activity Award
  4. Training, Learning & Staff Development Award
  5. Emerging Talent Award
  6. Outstanding Achievement Award
  7. Management & Leadership Award
  8. Palliative & End of Life Care Practise Award
  9. Nurse of the Year Award
  10. Carer of the Year Award
  11. Specialist Service/ Unit of the Year Award
  12. Care Home Service of the Year Award
  13. Positive Impact Award

Good luck everyone!