We were delighted to welcome Professor Jason Leitch to our open webinar on Covid-19 Vaccination yesterday afternoon.
Huge thanks to our National Director, Karen Hedge and Prof. Leitch for hosting this webinar and answering the questions from the audience. And thanks to the over 100 individuals who joined us for this session, we hope you found it useful and informative.
A recording of this webinar is now available to view below.
This year’s Winter bulletin has now been published online and is available to view.
We will not be sending out physical copies of the Bulletin due to Covid-19, this edition is in a digital format instead.
Winter 21 Bulletin_compressed
Scottish Care is hosting an open webinar with Professor Jason Leitch, the National Clinical Director of the Scottish Government. This session will focus on Covid-19 vaccination and will take place on Thursday 16 December, 12:30 – 1:30 pm.
This webinar session is open to social care providers and frontline staff. Please share this information with colleagues and staff as it is a great opportunity to ask Prof Leitch any questions or raise any concerns about the vaccine.
If you are interested in attending this webinar, please register by clicking the link below. Once your registration is approved, you will receive an email with Zoom details to join.
Registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-lV79N8WR62-5Z-eazndTg
If you come across any issues at all, please contact [email protected].
We are pleased to publish the Climate Action and the Social Care Collective Roundtable Series – Report.
The Health and Social Care Academy and Scottish Care held a series of roundtables series between August – October 2021 to discuss social care in a changing climate. The events brought together speakers with experience and expertise from various backgrounds to discuss several themes – understanding the challenges for climate action in the social care sector, climate innovation and solutions, a wellbeing economy, net zero and reviewing the climate principles and actions developed as a result of the series.
While there no one expert, it was evident there are many in the sector who are keen to learn more and engage. Over the course of the series, it was clear that based on capacity and engagement there are many other issues in the sector that take precedence to climate action in social care but there is indeed a desire for change.
Embracing a commitment to change that is driven from a rights based, person-centred perspective will pave the way for action and implementation that is meaningful and just. Achieving radical and transformational change is a collective responsibility and fair representation of the social care sector must be part of Scotland’s priorities. Bridging the gap between principles, action and the changes that need to happen in the wider system will involve changes to law, policy and practice. As citizens, we are connected to social and political systems and within the sector we will continue to demonstrate how incorporating social care in the climate debate must be a priority.
We hope the report is informative and is just the beginning of an important conversation for sectoral sustainability.
Our next Preferred Supplier Webinar will be hosted by Sekoia on Thursday 16 December at 2:00 pm.
This webinar focuses on ‘Understanding the end-to-end process for going digital’.
AyoTel, Sekoia and Holmes Care would like to invite you to this webinar to present you with the going digital journey.
Don’t miss this webinar and join us. Details will be available on the Members Area of this website.
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting entries for the 2022 Care at Home & Housing Support Awards!
This is the perfect opportunity to recognise the achievements of providers, staff and service users in the Care at Home & Housing Support sector. The awards ceremony itself will be hosted in Radisson Blu on Friday 13 May 2022.
There are 10 different award categories to enter including:
Award entry deadline: COP Friday 28 January 2022
A new UWS-Oxfam Partnership report proposes a blueprint for a National Outcome on care to add to the National Performance Framework, backed by leading organisations, including Scottish Care.
A new national focus on care, care workers and unpaid carers is required, a report by the University of the West of Scotland (UWS)-Oxfam Partnership has identified.
The release of the report ‘Towards a Scotland that cares – a new National Outcome on Care for the National Performance Framework’, coincides with National Carers Day; and warnings from leaders in Scotland’s care sector that it is facing a very difficult winter.
The report highlights that none of the 11 existing National Outcomes within Scotland’s National Performance Framework, which are focused on care, carers and care workers.
The report, created in consultation with care workers, unpaid carers and organisations which represent them, provides a detailed blueprint for the addition of a new National Outcome on care to ensure the Framework enables Scotland to “truly become a country that cares”.
Dr Hartwig Pautz, Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at UWS, said: “Creating a new outcome dedicated to care would make Scotland one of the first countries to do this. Our report acknowledges that in recent years, significant and welcome policy has been developed in Scotland relating to diverse aspects of care; however, it highlights that an integrated National Outcome pulling everything together is urgently needed.
“By adopting a new National Outcome on care, bolstered by a robust monitoring framework, Scotland would be in a significantly improved position to measure whether it is valuing, and investing in its many care workers, unpaid carers and those experiencing care.”
Dr Chloe Maclean, Lecturer in Social Sciences at UWS, said: “The findings of this report are particularly important within the context of the Covid-19 crisis and how it made visible the problems concerning care in its unpaid and paid forms – care should therefore be an essential, core element of the National Performance Framework.”
Each of Scotland’s National Outcomes is underpinned by a series of performance indicators, to measure and drive spending and policy progress. The report suggests wording for a new Outcome on care, as well as a series of linked indicators to monitor success. The proposed Outcome covers the full spectrum of paid and unpaid care both for adults and children and for those with and without additional support needs.
In 2022, the National Performance Framework will start to undergo a comprehensive review process. The report authors, backed by Oxfam Scotland, Scottish Care, One Parent Families Scotland, the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, and Carers Scotland, argue that this is a major opportunity to anchor a new Outcome specifically on care in the Framework.
Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “The current winter crisis facing Scotland’s care sector clearly requires immediate political intervention, but it also requires long-term vision, strategy and leadership if Ministers are to avoid simply lurching from one crisis to another while leaving those delivering care to continue to pay the price.
“The fundamental problem is that people in Scotland who care for others, whether paid or unpaid, and whether for adults or children, have been undervalued and under rewarded for far too long. For too many people that results in personal and economic costs, including poverty. This systemic undervaluing of care is inextricably linked to the fact that care work is overwhelmingly carried out by women.
“Scotland has a chance to show that it doesn’t need to be like this while setting a ground-breaking international example. This research places a blueprint for a new National Outcome to drive and track long-term change on the table. Now all that’s needed is the political vision to test and deliver it.”
Today, Wednesday 24 November, 2021, the findings of a survey to care providers on their experience of regulation and oversight have been released in our report ‘The Ingredients for Growth’.
Imagery can help us to understand purpose, value and context; just as new shoots require certain ingredients to grow, improvement in care and support can only happen when the conditions are right.
For many, it has felt like the oversight arrangements introduced in May 2020 have created confusion in the landscape leaving the bodies involved trying to justify their purpose. Key themes running throughout the report are the need for clarity in the role and function of all parts of the system, and greater partnership working and consistency which includes recognition of sector expertise. Worryingly, this experience detracts from prioritising the needs and wellbeing of those in receipt of care and support.
Care providers raised several areas where oversight and regulation has failed, highlighting a serious lack of understanding of the context within which the care sector is providing support. This is evidenced through providers commenting on increasingly clinicalised approaches which disregard the distinctive role and purpose of social care; inconsistencies in grading; and a lack of objectivity and consideration given to the effects of the pandemic on the sector, not least on the morale and wellbeing of the workforce. While there have been positive experiences with oversight and regulation, these are often dependent upon relationships with the individuals involved. Interventions rarely recognise the work and changes that have happened over the past 20 months and heightened scrutiny increases challenges for staff and residents alike.
Going forward, a co-produced review and articulation of the purpose and function of regulation and oversight arrangements should be undertaken. Care and support are about people not systems; the review therefore must have a fundamental focus on creating the conditions for achieving the health and social care standards and the human rights-based approach which they embody. The process must recognise existing legislation, sector expertise, and the conditions required to implement arrangements and changes effectively. Scottish Care will continue to work closely with the Care Inspectorate via a longstanding joint working group and welcomes an invitation from the Chief Nursing Officers Directorate at Scottish Government to co-chair a short life working group to define and implement future solutions.
We are hosting an Insurance Webinar on Thursday 25th November at 2:00 pm with the Association of British Insurers (ABI ) and British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA).
In this session, Alastair Ross (ABI) and Alastair Blundell (BIBA) will be talking about their jointly published new guidance for care home operators on accessing Public Liability and Employer’s Liability insurance in the current market.
We are aware that members have expressed concerns over large premium increases and reduced number of insurers willing to insure services.
Members will also get the chance to find out more about this and to ask any questions they may have.
Please come along to this important session.
Details will be available on the Members Area of this website.
We will be hosting a webinar with Disclosure Scotland and Release Scotland. The aim of this session is to give care providers further information and confidence when making decisions employing care workers.
Scotland is facing a hiring crisis with record vacancies and unique challenges presented by COVID and BREXIT. Hear from organisations such as Release Scotland on the latest developments in hiring, accessing wider talent pools, Disclosure Scotland is committed to helping employers in the care sector make safe and fair recruitment decisions. A Disclosure Scotland background check should not always be seen as a barrier to employment.
Come and learn more at our upcoming webinar, taking place on Thursday 18th November, 2pm. Details to join this session will be available on the Members Area of this website.
Terms & Conditions
Website Design by Creo Design part of the Solutions On Demand Group 2022. All rights reserved