Posted on

Congratulations to Ranald Mair on receiving OBE

Ranald Mair, former CEO of Scottish Care, has this week received an OBE for his services to Social Work and Social Care.

Ranald stepped down in March 2016 after almost a decade in post and after a career in social work and social care spanning more than 40 years.

Upon finding out about being awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours List, Ranald said:

“This is a marvelous surprise and a great honour. It is not just personal recognition, but recognition of all those who work in the care sector and demonstrates the importance attached to the work being carried out by those who care for others.

“The sector has progressed enormously in recent years and standards have improved dramatically, but the future presents massive challenges as Scotland faces growing demand and the need to provide the highest quality care for an increasingly ageing population.”

Scottish Care CEO Dr Donald Macaskill said: 

“This is a well deserved honour for Ranald who has dedicated his working life to the care of others. He has made an outstanding contribution to the wider sector and to the quality of care for older people in Scotland. In doing so, he has raised the profile of social care and helped drive key agendas forward.”

Scottish Care staff and members wish to extended our warm congratulations and thanks to Ranald.

Posted on

Faith in Older People: newsletter published

The charity Faith in Older People publishes a regular newsletter, which may be of interest to our members. 

It is a small voluntary organisation aiming to enhance the quality of life and well-being of older people by working with those providing practical, pastoral or spiritual care. 

The newsletter details opportunities through training, events, research, projects and consultation and can be accessed by subscribing via the relevant area of Faith in Older People's website. 

 

 

Posted on

Scottish Government: National Approach to Advanced Practice

The Scottish Government has been working towards the development of a national approach to advanced practice, a key strand of the Transforming Nursing Roles programme. In addition, The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government includes the commitment to train 500 additional Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) by 2021. ANPs will be a crucial part of the Scottish Government’s aim to transform Primary Care and shift the balance of care from acute settings to the community. It is envisaged that many of these posts will be developed in community settings, including within the care sector.

National Approach to Advanced Practice

To reduce unwarranted variation in practice, a national approach to the ANP role has been agreed by the Transforming Nursing Roles Group and Scottish Executive Nurse Directors as outlined in the paper Transforming Nursing Roles: Developing Advanced Practice in NHS Scotland. NHS Boards are being asked to implement the recommendations within this report which apply to them. A key recommendation is that Boards undertake Service Needs Analyses (SNA) to help inform sustainable development of ANPs to meet the needs of patients. 

Members of the independent care sector are being asked to participate in this SNA in order to ultimately have access to Scottish Government funding to train ANPs. A sum of £500,000 has been set aside for 2017/18 for this purpose. Care homes will be able to access the funding for additional training if there is an identified need, so if you perceive this would be helpful to your organisation, please complete the following needs assessment form by July 31: 

https://response.questback.com/nhseducationforscotland/educationneedsanalysis2017

Any requests for an extension to this deadline, should be made to [email protected] 

Posted on

News release: Your Choice? Your Right? In Control on Self-Directed Support in Scotland

In Control Scotland, supported by Scottish Care and Alzheimer Scotland, has published a call to action for everyone involved in the delivery of Self-Directed Support (SDS).

Self-Directed Support: Your Choice, Your Right highlights the unacceptable gulf that exists between the human rights-based approach of Scotland’s landmark SDS legislation of 2013 and the experience of individuals across Scotland who access social care. Irrespective of the potential for radical change this legislation offers, the reality is deeply flawed; this vital new approach to social care delivery is being systematically undermined by poor understanding (by both public and professionals), inconsistent delivery, significant difficulty of access and no discernible shift in power towards the individual.  Self-Directed Support: Your Choice, Your Right has been authored by John Dalrymple (Chief Executive, In Control Scotland), Donald Macaskill (Chief Executive, Scottish Care) and Henry Simmons (Chief Executive, Alzheimer Scotland).

Self-Directed Support: Your Choice, Your Right also outlines the importance of recognising the rights of Scotland’s increasingly marginalised social care workforce in supporting the choice, power and control that underpins the individual’s right to SDS.

John Dalrymple said:

“In 2013, Scotland adopted ground-breaking self-directed support legislation, providing those who rely on the social care system with a major opportunity to take charge of our lives and to be involved to the maximum extent in all the decisions that affect us.  Many people across the country have taken advantage of the flexibility and freedom afforded by this new approach and have radically improved the quality of their everyday lives.   And yet, the full potential of self-directed support is far from being realised.   This new paper seeks to identify the barriers preventing the best outcomes being achieved - for individuals and for society as a whole – and discusses some of the human rights and workforce strategies that might assist the more effective implementation of self-directed support.”

Donald Macaskill said:

“For the SDS legislation to make the change it is designed to, we need robust implementation that respects the human rights of all who use and work in care and support.  Our report shows we are a long way from achieving that ambition.”

Henry Simmons said:

“This paper seeks to put SDS where it should be; right at the heart of a transformation in our health and social care system. Using a human rights-based approach alongside the Fair Work Framework ensures that we can deliver both truly person-centred support and much needed fair work for the social care workforce.”

Self-Directed Support: Your Choice, Your Right makes seven key recommendations:

  1. That the Scottish Government ensures that all partners develop a human rights-based approach to the implementation of SDS and a human rights-based monitoring of the implementation of SDS and that the Scottish Human Rights Commission be resourced and supported to undertake an assessment of this human-rights based implementation.
  2. The accountability of local and national government for implementing SDS must be enforced.
  3. Local authorities must move away from the time-allocation method of care assessment and delivery, which will always be at odds with any effective or meaningful implementation of SDS.
  4. The use of electronic and other contract monitoring systems need to be examined in relation not only to fiscal savings but the negative impacts these have upon the well-being of the workforce and the dignity and rights of those receiving support. A rights-based approach to SDS has to be based on reciprocal trust and mutual respect rather than suspicion and distrust.
  5. Access to information, and to all four SDS options, must be made available consistently across local authorities and in an independent, non-discriminatory way.
  6. The Fair Work Framework should be used as a method of ensuring that individual workers’ rights are reciprocated and protected. This framework should be implemented and used by commissioning bodies, organisations and individual employers.
  7. Greater focus needs to be placed on developing models of care and support that give autonomy, control, choice and decision-making to frontline workers and those whom they support rather than commissioners and contract managers.

 

Self-Directed Support: Your Choice, Your Right has been published by the Centre for Welfare Reform and includes a foreword from Simon Duffy, Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform.

 

-ENDS-

For further information, please contact: June Dunlop, In Control Scotland, T: 0141 440 5250    E: [email protected]

Pictured below: (L-R) Henry Simmons, Donald Macaskill, John Dalrymple, Simon Duffy

Posted on

Scottish Care holding a Self-directed Support Day

Scottish Care is delighted to invite you to our Self Directed Support Day at which we will be launching two new publications.

Date: 3rd August 2017.

Venue: Central Glasgow (to be confirmed)

The day comprises two workshops. You can attend just the one or come to both. Both are free of charge. If you attend both we will provide a light lunch. However although the events are free for operational reasons we will charge those who have booked and do not attend a fee of £20.00. If after you have booked you are unable to attend please inform us as soon as possible. Places are limited.

Morning workshop:          

Getting It Right for Older People: Self-directed Support and Human Rights

10.00-12.30

Over the last fifteen months Scottish Care’s has been running a project called Getting It Right for/with Older People. The project has been delivered in North Ayrshire and in the Highlands. At this morning workshop we will launch the Report of these projects which will explore how it is possible to embed a human-rights based approach to the support and care of older people through self-directed support. The author of the Report and project lead, Carlyn Miller will share her experiences, the insights of the report and together participants will be able to reflect on what works and what needs to change in order for older people to get the most out of self-directed support.

Afternoon workshop:          

Meaningful Days: Self-directed Support for older people during the day

1.00-3.30

Scottish Care delivered a project in Falkirk and most recently East Renfrewshire to explore the potential of self-directed support for older people and day opportunities. Following these short projects we commissioned Louise Close who has extensive experience with self-directed support across the United Kingdom to prepare a report on this subject. Louise’s paper launches the Scottish Care Care Cameos which is a series of thought-provoking papers which we will be publishing over the next few months.

This workshop will explore what Louise has discovered not only in Scotland but across the United Kingdom and her call for particular action to address this area of older people’s support. Louise will lead the session which will be participative and interactive in nature.

 

If you are interested in attending either of these free workshops or both then please email as soon as possible to [email protected]

 

 

Posted on

Latest blog from our CEO: Planning makes a real difference

It’s that time of the year when people start to think of books for the summer holidays. Every year I go through a ritual of picking three or four books, take them with me and return with most unread!

In recent weeks one of the books that has dominated the non-fiction bestsellers lists on both sides of the Atlantic has been ‘Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy.’

After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg became something of an internet celebrity with her heart-wrenching open letter to her late husband. Her voice had been previously prominent enough as Chief Operating Officer of Facebook but now she had a whole new audience as she spoke about the total overwhelming shock of sudden death.

She felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience.

Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Grant’s research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war.

It is a strangely life affirming book and surprisingly uplifting.

One of the constant themes in Sandberg’s writing is how important it is that we should be as prepared as possible for life-changing events. Had she and her husband talked and planned about things then she suggests life might have been so much easier.

It is often hard to talk about declining health and to have the discussions with family and friends that ensures that our wishes and feelings are taken into account when we might not be able to make our views known. But planning and letting others know what we want can make a real difference to those who love us.

A couple of weeks ago Scotland’s national ‘Anticipatory Care Plan’ was launched. Developed by a range of stakeholders through Health Improvement Scotland this resource includes an App, guidance notes and a pack to help individuals and those who support them be better prepared for palliative and end of life support.

Have a look at it, as it is a tremendously practical and useful resource. The hope is that as many people as possible have the conversations that matter.

Conversations and making plans of course involves people. We know at Scottish Care that care at home and care home staff are often the folks who people talk to and with whom conversations around care are being held every day. We equally know that in order for the ambitions of the Anticipatory Care Planning programme to be achieved we need as a society to give workers ‘time to talk.’ Put simply amongst other things that means changing the way we develop and monitor contracts to make them time flexible and sensitive. Proper planning around illness and palliative care has to become centre stage to the way we commission services and procure care. Unless that happens the conversations will not have the space to take place.

There are two events later in the year that will provide an opportunity to explore planning as well as other palliative and end of life issues. The first is the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference on 20th September. The second event is Scottish Care’s Palliative and End of Life Care event on the 12th October.

Dr Donald Macaskill

@DrDMacaskill

Posted on

Scottish Care warmly welcomes the publication of the Third National Dementia Strategy.

The Third National Dementia Strategy has been published by the Scottish Government.

It sets out commitments and priorities for dementia care and support for the next three-year period.

Building on the work of the previous strategies the particular focus of this Third Strategy is on advanced dementia and the provision of high quality palliative and end of life care.

Scottish Care has been pleased to have been one of the key partners involved in the consultation upon and development of the Strategy. We consider it essential that individuals living with dementia are enabled to live as high a quality of life as they can.

We acknowledge and welcome the 21 commitments which are given in the Strategy. They are ambitious and we look forward to working together with partners to ensure that they can be achieved.

The recent work undertaken by Scottish Care on the role and contribution of frontline care staff in palliative and end of life situations, the ‘Trees that bend in the wind’ publication, highlights how important it is that we resource and adequately train the staff who support the women and men who live with dementia at the end of their life. We are therefore particularly pleased to see that Commitment 6 : We will support improvements in palliative and end of life care for people with dementia, lies at the heart of this Strategy.

In particular, as the representative body of the majority of care home providers in Scotland, we will work to ensure the success of Commitment 8:

We will continue the National Group on Dementia in Care Homes, to help ensure that the on-going modernisation of the care home sector takes account of the needs of this major client group; and to consider and help respond to the findings of the Care Inspectorate’s themed inspections

Care home, care at home and housing support providers are all committed to ensuring that we are not only dementia friendly but dementia confident, delivering supports and services which enable the women and men who live with dementia achieve the fullest possible life to the very end.

Posted on

Bereavement: NES resource

NHS Education Scotland (NES) publish a quarterly Grief and Bereavement eNewsletter which may be of interest to our members. 

This is a document which is emailed to subscribers with updates from the Support Around Death website, which aims to support healthcare staff who are working with patients, carers and families before, at and after death. It provides information on the clinical, legislative and practical issues involved. 

To view the website click here. 

To subscribe to the eNewsletter click here.

 

 

 

Posted on

Training opportunities: Terrence Higgins Trust

The Terrence Higgins Trust have asked us to circulate the below details on training courses they are running this summer, which may be of interest to members. 

HIV diagnoses among the 50+ have almost doubled in the last decade and diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections among those 65 and older have increased by 38%. Older people now represent one in three of all people living with HIV, but the social care and healthcare systems aren’t ready for this new and fast-growing ageing generation.  Moreover, despite many advancements in HIV treatment and prevention, stigma and discrimination remains a critical challenge.

As the new report,  Uncharted Territory [PDF] concluded, “our health and social care systems are simply not ready for this and we could see a timebomb in the years to come. We must ensure our care homes and our communities are ready to support people with HIV to live well in later life, while facing the uncertainty of what lies ahead.”

To help address this challenge, the Learning Centre at Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland is offering specialised, accredited training.  All training courses will help workers to support people with HIV more effectively, recognise and mitigate risks, challenge stigma & discrimination, understand the legislation on HIV disclosure and confidentiality, and respond to the sexual health needs of residents, clients or patients.

Please see below for some examples of training currently on offer. With any questions, please contact  [email protected] or call 0141 332 3838. You can join our mailing list if you wish to be kept up-to-date with opportunities as they emerge.

To see all our courses on offer or for more information please see http://www.tht.org.uk/our-charity/Our-work/Scotland/Learning-Centre-Scotland

 

Examples of courses currently on offer:

HIV Awareness Training – CPD certified

This new course will help you learn how to prevent HIV transmissions, support people living with or at risk for HIV, manage risks, challenge stigma and increase your confidence in speaking to others about the issues.

Friday 28 July 10am-4pm

*This course runs bi-monthly – please inquire for other dates
Cost: £30 – £72 (includes VAT)

“I found the training day such a benefit. The information the trainer provided, in the manner she did, helped settle my mind and has allowed me address my own issues/prejudices with a clearer, more balanced mindset.” (Participant attending HIV Awareness)

“Interesting, well paced information by evidently knowledgeable instructor who knew exactly how to communicate with the group. The trainer was fantastic. Very good at making a comfortable environment to discuss the topics.” (Participant attending HIV Awareness)

 

SQA Accredited Courses

We are excited to be the first to offer two new accredited courses in HIV and Sexual Health Training. Both courses have been accredited by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and are Professional Development Awards (PDAs) at SCQF level 7.

 

Understanding HIV & AIDS

The PDA in HIV is ideal for anyone who works in care homes, healthcare, social care, sexual health, HIV or early childcare. The course is also relevant to anyone who supports at-risk populations or high prevalence communities.   It is comprised of two units:

Unit one: HIV - An Introduction (Tuesday 11 July)

Unit two: HIV – Treatment & Lifestyle Management (Tuesday 1 August)

Cost £187.50 - £195 per unit (includes VAT, SQA fees and a light lunch)

‘I learned lots and this will definitely improve my support for individuals living with HIV’ (Participant attending Understanding HIV & AIDS)

 

Delivering Sexual Health Training

The PDA in Sexual Health Training is ideal for anyone who delivers Sexual Health Training or would like teach or deliver training in sexual health. It is comprised of two units:

Unit 1:  Sexual Health Training – An Introduction (Thursday 20 July)

Unit 2: Sexual Health Training – Experiential Learning (Thursday 17 August)

Cost £187.50 - £195 per unit (includes VAT, SQA fees and a light lunch)

“The trainer was excellent – very knowledgeable, supportive, approachable and encouraging.” (Participant attending Sexual Health Training)