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Bringing Home Care: Transforming Support in the Community

On May 12 Scottish Care hosted the Care at Home and Housing Support Conference and Exhibition 2017, returning to the Marriott Hotel in Glasgow.

The theme was #bringhomecare and this resonated throughout some extremely thought provoking presentations and carefully curated insight sessions for our 250 delegates.

There were numerous highlights thoughout the day, including opening remarks from our CEO Dr Donald Macaskill, an insightful interview with Joanne Bilsland from Bluebird Care, an update on the work being co-ordinated by Maggie Dowe and an address from Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Shona Robison.

Please see below for a full list of speakers from the conference, with links to supporting materials (where available).

 

 

 

A number of people attending the conference have indicated that they found an interview with Joanne Bilsland from Bluebird Care of particular interest. She spoke with Katharine Ross, National Project Lead for Workforce Matters at Scottish Care, as part of the session on Supporting Solace: palliative care at home. 

To view the interview from conference in full, please click below:

Supporting Solace: palliative care at home, Joanne Bilsland interview

Twenty five exhibitors attended, and were available in the main hall to liaise with delegates.  Additionally, our conference-goers were able to choose from two different insight sessions to participate in over the course of the day. Scottish Care was delighted the following sessions were hosted both morning and afternoon. Please click on the links to access presentation materials from the day that may be of interest:

The conference also saw the launch of a short film, commissioned by Scottish Care to highlight positive stories of care in Scotland. Titled What a Difference Good Care Makes, the film was directed by Michael Rea and features a number of contributions from across the sector, including care recipients and their family members, care givers and management. The film received fantastic praise at the conference and is available to view below.

Feedback from the Conference and Exhibition has been overwhelmingly positive with 96% of delegates rating the day as good or excellent. If you were there on 12 May and wish to get in touch with any feedback from the event to help with planning for future Scottish Care conferences, please feel free to get in touch via email with [email protected]

We look forward to hosting the next Care at Home & Housing Support Conference in May 2018 - details on this event and the associated Exhibition and Awards will be published on the Scottish Care website in due course. 

A report on the Care at Home and Housing Support Awards 2017 will follow shortly.

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Guest post from Local Integration Lead, Nanette Paterson

My name is Nanette Paterson and I am the recently appointed Local Integration Lead for South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership. I previously held this post in East Renfrewshire and Glasgow (2.5 days in each area).

As the crow flies it is but a hop, skip and a jump from Glasgow to South Lanarkshire and in fact there is an area whose community align themselves with Glasgow when in actuality they are part of South Lanarkshire, which can make things very interesting.

Having now held this post in three different geographical areas, I feel that I am in a strong position to share the related strengths and challenges associated with such a large geographical area, which encompasses large rural areas as well as urban conurbations.

In the landscape of Health and Social care it had become increasingly clear that change was necessary for NHS Scotland to effectively respond to future care needs for people living with long term conditions. There was recognition that pro active approaches such as anticipatory care planning were required and this should incorporate joint working with service users and providers in all care settings to address the above implications, whilst being mutually beneficial to all.

Anticipatory care planning is about empowering, enabling and enhancing care and leading the way to better healthcare. Anticipatory Care planning demonstrates shared decision making through collaborative process to support a self management approach to personal health. Encouraging individuals with long term health needs to be cognisant of potential changes in their own health and wellbeing and to prioritise what is important to them. This process also allows effective communication of personal choice, practical need and sharing of key information with all those who deliver care.

In South Lanarkshire it was very refreshing to see that they have appointed an ACP Project Manager who has been in post since October 2016. She is currently raising awareness to the general public, wider community and carers, as well as updating health professionals throughout Lanarkshire in both acute and community settings. She has also been working with the emergency services to raise the importance of the Anticipatory Care Plan. Awareness sessions have been held across Lanarkshire in Leisure centres etc. giving active people the opportunity to find out more about the anticipatory care plan, and the importance of Power of Attorney is also being highlighted at this time.

All care homes have been given training and guidance on the use of these plans and it is now evident that, if residents do not have an anticipatory care plan in place when they arrive in a care home then these are being routinely completed after admission to care homes.

Local information has indicated that there have been incidents where care home residents have been admitted to hospital at the end of their lives despite anticipatory care wishes to the contrary.  Our cross-party working group continues to work to resolve these issues.

The timeous launch of the new National Anticipatory Care Plan on 7th June should be a positive vehicle for  improvement and standardisation.

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Open University: Information Update

The Open University have circulated the information below, which may be of interest to Scottish Care members:

 

  • The place of adult learning in widening access to Higher Education – you may have already received an invitation to this OU in Scotland event, which takes place in Glasgow on 25 May. There are still places available if you or a colleague are interested Register here.

 

  • How music and technology can help people with dementia  is another OU event coming up on 30 May in Glasgow for those interested in mental health, dementia and caring for older people. OU Honorary Graduate, Sally Magnusson, will be the keynote speaker. Dr Caroline Holland from the OU will share research on how GPS technology can be used to help people with dementia. Full details and tickets are on the OU Facebook page or you can register direct through Eventbrite.

 

 

  • State of Caring 2017 – Every year Carers Scotland and Carers UK produce a survey of carers called State of Caring and they are asking carers to participate before it closes. The results will be published during Carers Week in June. Complete the survey »

 

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Job opportunity: Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care is recruiting for a Development Manager – Good Life Good Death Good Grief. The purpose of the post is to support the expansion of work across Scotland to promote more open and supportive attitudes and behaviours around death, dying and loss.

Full details and an application pack are available here https://www.palliativecarescotland.org.uk/content/job-vacancy/

Closing date is Monday 29th May.

 

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Survey: Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland

Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland are seeking assistance to shape the RESPe project, via this short survey which takes less than 10 minutes to complete. If you can help please complete by 30th May.

Project leaders are looking for help to guide the content of their latest e-learning project for staff in hospital or the community who have respiratory patients/clients on their case load but who are non respiratory specialists.

The project is funded by the Scottish Government.

To participate, please click the link below:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/G7DRPCN 

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Latest blog from our CEO: Care about food?

This is National Vegetarian Week. Although I am not a vegetarian, I spend a lot of my life eating vegetarian food and can understand why so many millions are now becoming vegetarians. Therefore it comes as no surprise that there is now a full week for people to explore and understand what it means to be vegetarian. It’s made me reflect on the role of food in good care – dare I say it’s given me food for thought!

For those working in social care we recognise and acknowledge that nutrition and healthy eating are essential ingredients for good effective care and support. We know that physical nutrition is often the first thing to diminish as we get older. Sadly we have evidence that 1 in 10 older people in the United Kingdom are suffering from or are at risk of malnutrition.

Positively there are an increasing number of resources available to ensure whether in residential care or in someone’s own home individuals are supported to be enriched by what they eat and consume. Resources such as those provided on the Care Inspectorate Hub support staff and organisations to get better at nutritional support.

But of course the benefits of eating are not just to do with our physiology, they impact upon our psychological health and well-being also. Hospitality is a critical element in effective care and support.

Last week the Guardian newspaper published research from Age Concern highlighting the millions of older citizens who are affected by loneliness and the mental health challenges that that brings. It’s not by accident that the word ‘companion’ which describes an essential element of being with someone, comes from a word which literally means ‘to break bread’

We all know that eating and drinking with others isn’t just a physical need but addresses a deeply felt desire to be with, to socialise, to communicate and commune. Sadly for many older Scots that social dimension has been lost to them and removed from them.

In our latest report published last Friday ‘Bringing Home Care’, Scottish Care is calling for a return to the social dimension of care. Time flexible, relationship based care, care with a social dimension – offers us not just physical fulfilment but also attends to psychological and emotional well-being.

We have got to the stage that convenience foods placed in front of someone on a TV tray who are then required to eat alone has become equated with adequate care. That cannot be right.

A cup of tea (with or without the biscuit!) and the time spent talking and gossiping, reconnecting and renewing, is as much a critical part of good care as the filling in of an assessment form or care plan to detail nutritional intake.

So whether vegetarian or carnivore – let’s put food and time at the heart of our care, let’s rediscover the social in social care

Donald Macaskill

@DrDMacaskill

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Non-Executive Chair Opportunity: Caledonia Social Care

Caledonia Social Care is looking for a Non-Executive Chairperson who can lead the Board and support the development of employee ownership, ensure high quality care is delivered, and support the Managing Director to continue to develop and grow the business.

Further questions or requests for information about the role should be directed to  Margaret Paterson, Managing Director of Caledonia Social Care, at [email protected].

[gview file=”https://www.scottishcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Chairperson-advert.doc”]

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Bringing Home Care: new report launched by Scottish Care

Scottish Care has today launched a new report, entitled ‘Bringing Home Care’, at the Care at Home & Housing Support Conference in Glasgow.

The report focuses on home care’s role in the preventative care agenda, how the sector has developed in recent years (including the impact of Free Personal Care), and a sets out a vision for the future of home care services.

The report seeks to demonstrate that for the care at home and housing support sector to become a sustainable, high quality form of care provision which is self-evidentially an intrinsic part of the whole, we must do a lot more to focus upon and develop some of the major contributory elements of its work.

The following areas of home care delivery are explored in the report, in relation to how they have changed over time to the present day, and what the future focus of care at home provision is likely to be:

  • The role of care at home workers and services
  • The development and sustainability of care at home services
  • Partnerships, relationships and status
  • The value placed on home care provision, and the people they support.

The report locates the tracking of these changes in a context of:

  • Highlighting the loss of relational elements of the care offer and the impact this has had;
  • Describing the increase in eligibility criteria and the consequential decline in overall use of care at home services;
  • Focusing on the potential of the ‘preventative role’ of homecare, and
  • Relating this to the ADL LifeCurve™ work of Professor Peter Gore from Newcastle University.

In doing so, it hopes to show that the future of care at home services must be developed and commissioned in a way that prioritises time-flexible, relationship-based, preventative approaches to care delivery.

You can read the report here.

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Scottish Care emphasises the need for reform in statement issued before Care at Home & Housing Support Conference

Radical action is needed to reform home care services to ensure that elderly people are not being denied access to services they would previously have received.

New research by Scottish Care, the representative body for the country’s independent social care services, has found that:

  • Tightened eligibility criteria means the number of people assessed as requiring Free Personal and Nursing Care has reduced, and that those who do receive it generally have higher support needs
  • This means older people who would previously have received support at an earlier stage for tasks such as housework, shopping and cooking now receive either much less support or none at all
  • The commissioning of home care services on a ‘time and task’ basis compromises staff’s ability to deliver personalised, high quality care and support and puts this workforce under a huge amount of pressure.

The findings come from ‘Bringing Home Care’: a new report by Scottish Care which outlines the development of home care services over the past century, the impact of Free Personal Care and other policies, and the role of home care in providing preventative care.  It also sets out a vision for the future of home care services

Speaking ahead of Scottish Care’s conference for Care at Home and Housing Support Services today, where the report will be launched, CEO Dr Donald Macaskill said:

“Whilst we fully support the existence of Free Personal and Nursing Care and value its role in supporting people with social care costs, what we have seen since its introduction in 2002 is a move towards less people receiving more care.  Whilst this reflects the reality of constrained budgets, it means that many older people are being denied the support they need to enable them to live for as long as possible in their own homes. 

“What’s more, delaying or denying someone’s access to care and support is counterproductive from a financial perspective anyway, never mind the negative impact this has on an older person’s health and wellbeing.  A lack of appropriate and timely support being provided in someone’s own home or in a care home is likely to lead to more presentations at A&E departments and hospital admissions that may have been preventable.

“That’s why, in this report and at our conference, we will be calling for a reformed approach to homecare which is preventative in nature and values relationships and spending time with people, in whatever way suits an individual’s needs.  It is only through this sort of care that individuals can be supported effectively to live at home and the strain on acute services can be relieved.”

The report also highlights that a failure to reform home care will be extremely costly, not only in financial terms but in human terms.  It found that:

  • Over one third of publicly funded care packages are commissioned for visits lasting under half an hour.
  • Even a 30 minute visit means that in reality, an average of only 24 minutes of care can be provided in that time.
  • 90% of organisations have difficulty filling support worker vacancies
  • One third of total staff leave every year
  • Of the support workers who leave organisations, 41% leave within the first 12 months.

Dr Macaskill added:

“The negative consequences of limited funding and time-restrictive commissioning are already impacting extremely negatively on the existing home care workforce.

“Not only are individuals in receipt of support services being denied the holistic care they deserve, which is not rushed or time-pressured, but the workforce who deliver this are being faced with impossible decisions about what care to deliver within such restrictive time and task commissioning.  It is no wonder that this is leading to so many individuals leaving the sector or not coming into it in the first place.

 “We as a society need to better value the work that these extremely skilled and dedicated care workers undertake, and support them to deliver the high quality, relationship-based and flexible care that Scotland’s older citizens deserve.

“If urgent action isn’t taken, the reality is that there simply won’t be the workforce or services to deliver home care in the future.”

You can follow conference updates at @scottishcare and by following #bringhomecare