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Save the date – Care Home Conference & Awards extension

We have made the decision to postpone our annual Care Home Conference until the beginning of next year. The conference was due to take place between 25-27 November, but will now take place between 19-21 January 2021.

This is likely to be a virtual event similar to the Homecare Festival that we held in early October. More information on the Care Home Conference to follow.

As the dates for the Care Home Conference has been pushed back, we also decided to extend award entries for the Care Home Awards, the new nomination deadline is Monday 16 November, 9AM . The awards ceremony itself will be a virtual event on the evening of Friday 22 January. 

Find out more about the awards and submit your entries here.

 

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Individual Training Account funding – Oct update

The number of applications to be accepted has increased from 14,000 to 28,000 and the Individual Training Account (ITA) scheme will now remain open until 28 February 2021.

Up to 28,000 ITA applications will be accepted, including those already received since the scheme re-opened on 1 July. The scheme will be placed on hold when this target is met or on 28 February 2021, whichever comes first.

Individuals who are unemployed or earn £22,000 or under, including furloughed workers, can access training to build their confidence in gaining employment.

Existing social service workers can also apply for funding, for example there may be a course you want to go on to help you progress in your current role.

ITAs are available to help you develop skills for work. If you meet the eligibility criteria you can get up to £200 towards a single training course or training episode per year. And because it’s not a loan, the money doesn’t need to be paid back.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) administer ITAs.

Find out more on https://news.sssc.uk.com/news/ila-funding

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Social Care Review Webinar

We are organising two further consultation sessions for members to meet Derek Feeley and to share their thoughts and views on the Social Care Review. These sessions will be hosted by our CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill.

The webinar sessions are organised for:

Care at Home & Housing Support Members 
Wednesday 28th October 2020: 2pm–3pm

Care Home Members 
Monday 2nd November 2020: 1.15pm-2.15pm

These webinar sessions will take place in a meeting format so that members can interact with Mr Feeley.

We encourage members to join these sessions to offer their thoughts to help shape the Social Care Review.

Details to join will be available on the Members Area of our website. 

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Turas – Digital Safety Huddle Management Tool Webinar -29 October

Scottish Care is organising a follow-up webinar on Turas – the Digital Safety Huddle Tool. 

This will take place on Thursday 29th October at 1:00 PM. This session will have more focus on the purpose of the safety huddle tool as well as the clinical content and technical aspect.

This webinar is open to all care home providers, including those who aren’t currently members of Scottish Care.

Please register via this link to access the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YGuTihKdQ66zo1YEIpd-8Q

If your registration gets approved, you will receive an email from Zoom with details to join this session.

Care home providers should have received an email from NES with an invite to use the Safety Huddle Tool, if you haven’t received this email, please contact:

[email protected]

Please email with your name, role, email and the name of care home/group you are in or responsible for.

For online help and guidance please follow this link:https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/34427/turas-care-management-user-guides

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Communications for Social Care Workers – Travel

There have been a number of queries from social care workers regarding travel, since the new restrictions were announced. The communication below has been put together to provide some clarity on the issue:

Travel at work

For travel in the course of social care work for example if two members of staff need to travel together to visit a client, the relevant workplace guidance applies. Please see links below to the Health Protection Scotland guidance documents for Domiciliary Care, Social, Community and Residential Care Settings and for Care Home Settings.

COVID-19: Guidance for Domiciliary Care :  Publication date: 20 August 2020 is for those working in domiciliary care settings to give advice to their staff and users of their services about COVID-19. This includes registered providers, social care staff, local authorities and care staff who support and deliver care to people in their own homes (including supported living settings). It contains a section on : Personal or work travel and physical distancing : https://hpspubsrepo.blob.core.windows.net/hps-website/nss/3046/documents/1_COVID-19-guidance-domiciliary-care.pdf

COVID-19: Information and Guidance for Social, Community and Residential Care Settings. (excluding Care Home settings) Publication date: 21 August 2020, contains a section on : Personal or work travel and physical distancing : https://hpspubsrepo.blob.core.windows.net/hps-website/nss/3045/documents/1_covid-19-guidance-social-community-residential-care.pdf

COVID-19: Information and Guidance for Care Home Settings: Publication date: 17 September 2020, contains a section on: Personal or work travel and physical (social) distancing:

https://hpspubsrepo.blob.core.windows.net/hps-website/nss/2980/documents/1_covid-19-information-and-guidance-for-care-homes.pdf

All pieces of guidance state : “If you can adhere to physical distancing whilst travelling, then do so. Where this is not possible and you are travelling with non-household members, limit the number of passengers and space out as much as possible. In enclosed spaces, where physical distancing is more difficult and where there is a risk of close contact with multiple people who are not members of your household, you should wear a face covering”.

Travel outside work

For sharing transport outwith work duties, such as giving a colleague a lift home from work, you should only do so if absolutely necessary as per the national travel guidance (see below).

National travel guidance Car/vehicle sharing and giving lifts

You should only travel with members of your own, or extended, household.

We recognise that there may be occasions when there is no alternative but to travel with people from out with your household. This should be limited as much as possible.

On such occasions, you should:

  • keep to small groups of people, up to 6 at any one time (assume this is on public transport)
  • keep your distance and take care entering and exiting the vehicle
  • sit as far apart as possible in the vehicle, avoiding face-to-face
  • maintain good ventilation by keeping the car windows open
  • wear a face-covering, unless you are exempt
  • clean your hands before and after your journey
  • if the vehicle is your responsibility, clean the door handles and other areas that people touch.
  • If you regularly share transport whether it is a car or minibus or other private vehicle, try and share with the same people each time.

 

 

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Survey: Co-designing end of life provision in Residential and Domiciliary Care

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges for all care providers. We want to acknowledge the great work that leaders in all settings have undertaken during coronavirus, to support residents, families and staff. We know from direct work with several providers and through our online services just how demanding this period has been.

During the pandemic Marie Curie has seen an increase in enquiries from families and patients seeking support and advice on death, dying and bereavement, especially gaining access to care and support during the pandemic. As a direct result, there has been an increased ask for direct care and information support from the wider care sector to manage this demand. However, at Marie Curie we believe that there will be longer-term support needs for staff, residents, and families related to general care, emotional support, clinical oversight, regulatory compliance, learning and knowledge exchange and strategic policy and partnership development.

This survey is designed to help us to understand how we can use our palliative and end of life care experience to co-design support for you and your services, both within the context of COVID-19 and beyond. The deadline for the survey is 25 October 2020

Over the coming weeks, we plan to engage with key networks and representative bodies through virtual workshops to explore the co-design of short, medium and long-term assistance that’s both relevant and appropriate. The results of this survey will be used to help us inform these workshops and identify what support we could be developing for care providers preparing for the future.

This short survey will only take 10 minutes of your time; your responses will be anonymous and your answers will not be presented in a way in which you could be identified. Please do not include any information in this survey that could identify you or anyone else (e.g. residents).

Marie Curie’s privacy statement can be found here

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ABI Insurance Webinar – 22 October

There has been a number of concerns regarding insurance, primarly surrounding the reduction in the number of companies willing to provide public and employee liability insurance for the care home sector.

We appreciate that the insurance sector has been affected by Covid-19 and has suffered a negative financial impact, but we hope that this will not result in exorbitant price rises for the social care sector in Scotland.

We have become aware that there are a number of insurers who are not willing to take on new clients which is making it very challenging for our members to shop around and get the best deal for their organisations.

Our CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill will be hosting a webinar on Thursday 22nd October at 3:00 PM to discuss insurance issues. He will be joined by Alastair Ross, Assistant Director and Head of Public Policy (Scotland, Wales & NI) and Mark Shepherd, Head of General Insurance Policy of the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Webinar link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87465257245

Webinar ID: 874 6525 7245

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Cohort 2 open for Graduate Diploma in Integrated Community Nursing

We are delighted to advise that cohort 2 for the New Graduate Diploma in Integrated Community Nursing is due to open and we would welcome applications from care home nurses. There are currently no limitations on places therefore hope we can get a level of interest to ensure this funding continues. Please use the link to navigate the information and process for applicants: https://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/our-work/community-nursing-graduate-diploma/

Please send the completed nomination sheet to [email protected] by Wednesday 4th November.

Care Home funding letter GDICN_Oct20
Download letter
Nomination Spreadsheet
Nomination Application Process Graphic
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Draft Care Homes Digital Action Plan – Engagement Process

The Digital Response Care Homes Group has produced a draft Care Homes Digital Action Plan which captures the current and planned digital activity in care homes and proposes immediate areas of priority in response to COVID19: https://tec.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DigitalApproachesCareHomes.-ActionPlan.061020.pdf

A process of wider engagement is now underway to invite members of the care home community across Scotland to shape the action plan by sharing their expertise and perspectives and to identify further areas of priority and future opportunity.

There are 2 ways you can engage in the review of the action plan:

By survey via the tec.scot website https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RYCL6BY

By participating in an online engagement session hosted by Scottish Care in collaboration with the Care Inspectorate. These sessions will be open to all care providers, managers and staff.

The survey will be open until the 6th November 2020.

If you would like to take part in the online engagement session please select your preferred date by signing up here: https://scottishcare.org/care-homes-digital-action-plan/

The session will take place on Zoom and there are two options to join either Tuesday 27th October or Friday 6th November.

For more information on the draft action plan and the engagement process please visit the TEC Programme website: https://tec.scot/digital-approaches-in-care-homes/.

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ABI Insurance Webinar – 22 October

There has been a number of concerns regarding insurance, primarly surrounding the reduction in the number of companies willing to provide public and employee liability insurance for the care home sector.

We appreciate that the insurance sector has been affected by Covid-19 and has suffered a negative financial impact, but we hope that this will not result in exorbitant price rises for the social care sector in Scotland.

We have become aware that there are a number of insurers who are not willing to take on new clients which is making it very challenging for our members to shop around and get the best deal for their organisations.

Our CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill will be hosting a webinar on Thursday 22nd October at 3:00 PM to discuss insurance issues. He will be joined by Alastair Ross, Assistant Director and Head of Public Policy (Scotland, Wales & NI) and Mark Shepherd, Head of General Insurance Policy of the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Details to join this webinar session is now available on the Members Area of this website. If you have any problems accessing either the Members Area or the webinar, please contact [email protected].