Unfortunately, we are unable to hold our annual Care at Home and Housing Support Conference/Awards that was originally scheduled for 25 September in Glasgow. We are now organising a ‘Homecare Festival’ which will take place virtually from Wednesday 7^th to Friday 9^th October. 

The Homecare Festival is an important opportunity to recognise the crucial role of care at home and housing support services in supporting our older and vulnerable citizens. 

There will be a series of online sessions over this three-day period, bringing together a range of speakers to highlight challenges faced by the care at home and housing support sector and to discuss the future of homecare. 

The Homecare Festival will end with an Awards Evening on Friday 9^th October to celebrate the dedicated workforce in the independent homecare sector and all the extraordinary work that they do.

More details will be available shortly.

The UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016 and this will have an effect on the immigration status of approximately 3.5 million EU citizens* that live in the UK. Since leaving the EU in January 2020 we have been in a transition period which runs until 31^st December 2020 and EU citizens and their non-EU family members must apply under the UK Government’s EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) before 30^th June 2021 if they wish to live and work in the UK.

From 1^st July 2021 all EU citizens must be able to show that they have either Settled Status or Pre-Settled Status to prove that they have a right to remain and continue working in the UK.

The care sector in Scotland employs large numbers of EU citizens and our service, which is free, confidential and impartial, recognises that some of the most vulnerable people on our communities rely on their carers, whether in the community or in care homes,  to provide them with the support that they need.

The Citizens Advice network in Scotland provides a national service called the EU Citizens Support Service (EUCSS) and we have a team of specialist advisers working across the country and taking calls on our national telephone helpline to provide information and support to people with their application to the EUSS.  We also have a solicitor-led service to support complex cases.  The national helpline number is 0800 916 9847.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact our national co-ordinator at [email protected]

* ‘EU citizens’ includes citizens of the EU member states, as well as citizens of the EEA states (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), and citizens of Switzerland

Nominations for funded places for the Graduate Diploma in Integrated Community Nursing programme has been extended until Friday 7 August 12 PM.

There are 200 funded places available in this year’s intake of the new 2-year part-time work-based Graduate Diploma in Integrated Community Nursing (GDipICN) which is designed for nurses working at level 5 of the Career Framework for Health (Agenda for Change Band 5 equivalent).

NES has commissioned two universities to deliver the programme; Queen Margaret University (east and north regions) commencing in September 2020 and the University of the West of Scotland (west region) commencing October 2020.   See Appendix 1 for NHS Boards associated with each region.

It is expected approximately 150 places will be allocated to nurses from district nursing teams, 50 places to nurses from care home and prison healthcare settings and 40 places to nurses working in general practice.

More information about the programme is available at:

https://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/our-work/community-nursing-graduate-diploma/

Due to an oversight we would like to confirm that this course is open to all RN’s(Registered Nurses) not just registered general nurse as noted. Therefore any nurse registered nurse can apply.  

Below is a letter from Jane Harris, the Head of Programme detailing more information on funding. There is also a spreadsheet for providers to complete with details of all individual nurses who require funding.

Completed spreadsheets must be returned to [email protected] 

Huge thanks to everyone who joined us for our Digital Safety Huddle webinar and demonstration on Monday 3 August. And thank you to Nancy, Angela, Tracey, Anna, David from NES and Derek from Erskine for presenting on this webinar. We hope that care home providers has found this session useful.

The recording for this webinar can be found below.

Providers should have received an email from NES with 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.