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Scottish Government: Stay at Home Campaign – Stakeholder Toolkit

The Scottish Government has launched the Stay at Home Stakeholder Toolkit.

The Stay at Home campaign is a new public information campaign to communicate the new, tighter national restrictions which took effect from Tuesday 5th Jan. This campaign reinforces the message that the new strain of the virus is spreading quickly and communicates how we must stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. The campaign includes TV, radio and digital and will run until the 31st January.

View the Stay at Home TV Ad here

Campaign Assets

The Stay at Home Stakeholder Toolkit includes all the assets we have created to communicate the new restrictions and reinforce the importance of staying at home to stop the spread of the virus:

  • 30 second TV Ad
  • 30 second radio
  • Digital asset – videos in 3 format
  • Static assets

Download All Campaign Assets via WeTransfer Here

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Social Care Data Forum 3 – notes & resources

We held the 3rd session of the Social Care Data Forum on 3 December 2020, thank you to everyone who attended.

We have developed a paper which follows on from the notes of the previous two meetings, thus concluding this phase of the data forum. The information contained within the papers from the three forum meetings will be developed into a position statement on data for social care.

These notes, along with the session recording and presentation slides are available below.

We also developed a social media template for #datachangeslives, the instructions and template can also be accessed below.

Paper from Social Care Data Forum 3
Session Recording
Presentation Slides: Karen Hedge (Scottish Care)
Presentation Slides: Taffy Gatawa (everydayLIFE)
Social Media Template - #datachangeslives
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Video consultation guidance – Helping people you care for to have video calls

Scottish Care, CCPS, Care Inspectorate and COSLA has issued updated guidance on video consultation.

This guidance outlines key points to think about and get right when you are supporting someone with a video call. The video call might be for personal, social, recreational, clinical, or caring purposes. As a care provider, your role is to ensure that the person has the best interaction possible.

Assisting video calls with people who are experiencing care guidance
Download guidance
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Fever Free Zone Webinar – 14 January

We are hosting a webinar in partnership with Fever Free Zone on Thursday 14th January at 2PM.

Challenges and Opportunites and Risks for the care sector in an era of Public Health Risk:  Protecting  the vulnerable as we emerge into a new normal. Public Health Consultant and Clinical Epidemiologist Dr Paul Nelson presents a perspective on the challenges of the next 6 to 12 months and the likely new normal and offers a forum for discussion. Dr Paul Nelson is a Clinical Epidemiologist and Public Health Consultant leading on the health protection of the Care Home Response for Herefordshire Council and is founder of Fever Free Zone.

Details to join this webinar session will be available shortly on the Members Area.

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East Ayrshire Care Home Celebration Event

On Thursday 17 December, staff, managers and residents from East Ayrshire care homes took part in two virtual celebratory events organised by Val Allen (Independent Sector Lead East Ayrshire, Scottish Care), East Ayrshire HSCP and East Ayrshire Council Vibrant Communities. They also organised wellbeing gift bags to be sent to all care home staff in the area. This pack included a thank you poem, some mindful quotes, information on wellbeing support and hand-painted pebbles that were painted by local groups and schools.

The celebratory events started with an Intelligence Kindness zoom session for care home managers and staff. This session was led by Tommy Whitelaw (Carers Voice, Alliance Scotland) who thanked everyone in the care homes for all the amazing work that they do. During this session, Tommy spoke beautiful words, reminding staff of the importance of kindness and the need to be kind and take care of themselves. It was an emotional half-hour, with tears flowing amongst the audience and ended with a huge round of applause to everyone on the call.

East Ayrshire Council Vibrant Communities then hosted a live Facebook virtual Christmas Tea Dance in collaboration with Dumfries House, Cumnock. Tea dances have been a popular event at Dumfries House before the Covid-19 pandemic, to combat isolation and reduce loneliness in the community. The move to a virtual Christmas tea dance allowed care home residents to tune in from East Ayrshire and further afield.

Residents and staff from Torrance Lodge and Crossgate enjoyed cream teas from the Dumfries House Cook School. These care homes also took part in the festivities and were live-streamed during the event. Residents gathered, singing, dancing and clapping their hands to the entertainment. We were able to listen to residents reminisce about their times at previous Dumfries House’s tea dances as well.

This event was hosted by John Reid (Elvis Impersonator and East Ayrshire Council’s Wellbeing Development Officer – Older People) and Jim McMahon (Councillor for Cumnock & New Cumnock) who both performed a few songs.

Musical entertainers from across the nation were also featured, including Meredith McCrindle, Edward Reid, Christy Mac & Steve Bishop, Lee Aaron King, Marie King, Daddy Cool, John George, Jai McDowall, and Sarah Laing.

The audience also heard from some speakers such as Prince Charles, the First Minister and Shiona Johnston and Meghan Miller from Dumfries House.

These events were a much-needed festive cheer at a difficult time for our care homes. What a great way to lift spirits and express gratitude to all the care home staff during the festive period. Well done to everyone involved for making it such a successful day and huge thanks again to all the care home staff out there!

On the day, Val Allen, Independent Sector Lead for East Ayrshire, said:

“I’ve been immensely proud to support both the care homes and care at home in East Ayrshire as Independent Sector Lead.  It’s been an exceptionally difficult year for everyone in the care sector.  Providing support to services for me, has always been about supporting those who support others.  Each and every one of our staff have worked difficult and very long hours supporting the most vulnerable people in our communities and they need to be reminded to look after themselves.  Self-care is so important if they are to continue to do so. They need to know how much respect we all have for them and how much we value what they do, every single day.

When the rest of us are in bed having a long lie on a Sunday morning or enjoying opening our Christmas gifts – if Santa manages to get PPE to pay us a visit –  our social care staff will have already started their shift and ensuring others have a happy and well cared for day.  The team who put together the bags and hampers have worked long hours putting together the bags but they all did this to extend the beautiful hand of kindness to our care homes.  In difficult times, such as a pandemic we appreciate the wonderful relationships which we have in East Ayrshire and with partners such as Tommy Whitelaw.  As you heard me say earlier, I spent Christmas eve last year in a care home in East Ayrshire singing and dancing with Tommy, staff and residents.  Sadly we can’t do that this year but I can tell you I cant wait to do it again very soon.  For me, its been way too long since I was in care homes.  Today was the next best thing for me.”

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Edge Protect -providing infection & hygiene control in care homes

We would like to share some information from Edge Protect, which may be useful to our care home members.

Please see below to find out what Edge Protect do.

At Edge Protect we specialise in providing care homes throughout the UK all of the equipment and solution to manage infection and hygiene control in-house without the requirement to rely on hiring expensive external cleaners. Councils around the country are advising care homes to invest in their own fogging decontamination equipment during recent CQC inspections, with the cost of such equipment being claimed back by the relevant funding available. Owning your own fogging equipment allows you to maintain the highest sanitising standards with a quick and simple daily process whilst at the same time ensuring you have the necessary tools to eradicate an outbreak quickly in the event of a positive test. Using a fogging machine along with our unique TriGuard solution ensures maximum lasting protection within the home without the use of any harmful or hazardous chemicals making it safe on all fixtures, surfaces and soft furnishings.

Current offer codes for Scottish Care Members:

  1. SCOTCARE20 – £20 off a small fogging bundle
  2. SCOTCARE30 – £30 of a medium fogging bundle

Website: https://www.edge-protect.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

Call: 0117 2141109

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LexLeyton – Covid-19 vaccine blog

Scottish Care Preferred Supplier  – LexLeyton –  has published some information that may be useful to members.

They have a recent blog on the Covid-19 vaccine and how that impacts employers. Please give it a read using this link:

https://lexleyton.co.uk/covid-19-vaccine-what-impacts-for-employers/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=vaccine

If your staff refuse to take the vaccine, LexLeyton would be happy to answer questions you may have. They have also created some FAQs relating to vaccine queries. Alternatively, if you would like a call to discuss any queries you have, please contact:

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 0141 483 5694

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Lateral Flow Tests (LFT) Guidance Pack & Workshops

As you will be aware, Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs) are being distributed to adult care homes in Scotland to support visitor testing.  We are pleased to share the letter below from Donna Bell, Director of Mental Health and Social Care, which outlines arrangements for testing care home visitors.  It also explains how to access training materials, back-up PCR testing where visitors are unable to have LFT tests for any reason, and wider information/financial support.

Click here for letter

Testing Training

A range of training materials and resources for care homes (both testing and visitor information) are now available online at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): adult care home visitor testing guidance – gov.scot (www.gov.scot). These will continue to be updated in the early weeks of rollout.  Please continue to check the page for updates and additions.

Online workshops – feedback and updates

There will be online workshops through December and January to walk through the testing process, as well as to share updates and hear feedback from you. These will be held across several weeks, and then move to focus increasingly on updates and feedback after the Christmas and New Year period.  All are welcome to attend one or more session although please note that MS Teams can only accommodate around 300-350 people in any one meeting. Places are on a first come, first served basis and meetings will be opened a few minutes before the start time. Some people have so far not been able to join the workshops because they are full, so please join a couple of minutes before the start times to maximise your chances of joining.

Workshops will be held on:

Thursday 17th December 3.30-4:30pm  Click here to join the meeting

Friday 18th December 1-2pm  Click here to join the meeting

Monday 21st December 11.30-12.30 Click here to join the meeting

Tuesday 22nd December 10.30-11.30 Click here to join the meeting

Tuesday 5th January 2-3pm Click here to join the meeting

Wednesday 6th January 3-4pm Click here to join the meeting

Tuesday January 12th January 2.30-3.30 pm Click here to join the meeting

Wednesday January 13th January 12-1pm Click here to join the meeting

Tuesday 19th January 10.30-11.30am Click here to join the meeting

Wednesday 20th January 1.30-230pm Click here to join the meeting

Tuesday 26th January 3-4pm Click here to join the meeting

Wednesday 27th January 12-1pm Click here to join the meeting