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Job Opportunity – Policy & Research Manager (Maternity Cover)

Policy & Research Manager – Maternity Cover

SCOTTISH CARE

£25,000 per annum – 35 hours per week

Scottish Care wishes to appoint a Policy & Research Officer to work as part of our national team.  This is a maternity cover post, covering a 10-month period from February to December 2021.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), based from home with the regular requirement to attend meetings and events throughout Scotland.  The post holder is also expected to attend and work from the Scottish Care office in Ayr one day per week. Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the post may require exclusive home working for an unspecified period of time.

Scottish Care is based in Ayr but works across Scotland as the representative body for the largest group of health and social care sector independent providers delivering residential care, day care, care at home and housing support. Working on behalf of a range of providers, Scottish Care speaks with a single unified voice for members and the wider independent care sector, at both a local and strategic level.  Our vision is to shape the environment in which care services can deliver and develop the high quality care that communities require and deserve.

This post is key to the continued development and overall success of this high-profile organisation. The post holder will work with a complex variety of partners and stakeholders involved in the development and operation of the organisation.  He/she must be able to communicate and maintain credibility at all levels; and have an understanding of partnership working.

Previous experience of working in policy or research roles with tangible evidence of impact is essential.  Experience of working in the health and social care sector and a clear understanding of Scottish Care’s role and objectives is highly desirable.

The post holder must have excellent interpersonal skills.  They must be able to communicate effectively, confidently and clearly in a positive and open way with all stakeholders, demonstrating the ability to identify and understand internal and external audience needs and adapt style and language to meet them.

To request a recruitment pack,  please contact Laura Bennie (Office Manager & Executive PA) at [email protected]

Closing date 9am on 11th December 2020.  Interviews will be held by video conference on the 18th December 2020

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Scottish Care Wellbeing Webinar with Big Health – 2 Dec

Big Health, the company behind evidence based digital therapeutics, Sleepio and Daylight will be hosting a webinar for Scottish Care on the 2nd December at 11am.

Sleepio and Daylight have been available to all Health and Care staff in Scotland since May 2020 to help our key workers learn proven CBT techniques to help with any worry or sleepless nights they may be experiencing.

Please join us to hear Dr Dimitri Gavriloff (clinical psychologist and sleep medicine specialist) and Dr Richard Stott (clinical psychologist and anxiety specialist) explain more about Sleepio and Daylight, how you can access the programmes and what benefits you may see.

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].

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Social Care Data Forum Invite – 3 December

Social Care Data Forum – Thursday 3rd December 9:00 – 11:00 AM

As we all know data can be a barrier for people accessing care and support across the world.

For decades now, people have been telling us that they wished we could simply share information between professionals. With the right technology, this is possible.

We would like to take this a stage further, moving to a world of citizen held data where an has control of data held about them and they can choose which information they share and with whom.

This is the third and final Social Care Data Forum event hosted by Scottish Care to bring together interested parties to explore how this might work in practice, with a view to establishing a collaboration to embark on a proof of concept. Taffy Gatawa, Chief Information and Compliance Officer at Everylife technologies will be talking us through the pros and cons of data standards across health and social care.

We will also be exploring a vision for data in social care and funding opportunities to get things off the ground so please come prepared with any leads you are aware of.

Attendees include: software developers, MyDex CIC, care providers, statutory organisations, regulators, people who access care and support, academics and Scottish Government and digital thinktanks such as the Data Lab and the Digital Health Institute.

We hope you can join us for this event.

The forum is open to new members. If you would like to get involved or know more, please contact [email protected].

Social Care Data Forum 1

Notes from Data Forum 1
Session Recording of Data Forum 1
Presentation Slides: A world with citizen held data - David Alexander (Mydex, CIC)

Social Care Data Forum 2

Notes from Data Forum 2
Session Recording of Data Forum 2
Presentation Slides: Data Forum 2 - Karen Hedge (Scottish Care)
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Adult social care testing expansion – letters to providers

Please see below for a copy of the letters sent to social care providers from Donna Bell (Director of Mental Health and Social Care) on the expansion of Covid-19 testing in adult social care.

Testing Expansion in Care Homes

Donna Bell MHSC letter on expansion of testing - care homes - 25.11.20
Download letter

Testing Expansion in Care at Home

Donna Bell MHSC letter - expansion of testing to care at home services - 25.11.20
Download letter
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One Million Words of Kindness for St Andrew’s Day

The Scottish Government is asking people across the country to recognise the value of connecting with and helping others by reaching out to friends, family, neighbours and communities near and far in a bid to generate One Million Words of Kindness by Monday 30 November to mark St Andrew’s Day.

Launching this week with the reveal of a bespoke postcard designed by Edinburgh-based illustrator Emily Hogarth, the campaign celebrates the community spirit and shared kindness displayed across the country in what has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging years Scotland has faced in decades.

More than 100,000 free postcards which feature a matt laminate finish for Covid safety will be available in all 104 Lidl stores across Scotland from this week, for shoppers to pick up and send messages of thanks, hope or a simple hello to mark Scotland’s national day. The card is also available to download and share online from the Scottish Government’s website: www.onescotland.org/st-andrews-day

So ahead of 30th November, let’s all come together and continue to reach out and share kindness with those around us, especially now when we need it the most.

You can join in with these very special celebrations by simply sharing the postcard on your social media channels. Please use the hashtag #WeAreScotland in anything you post online.

If you would like further information, contact Ainsley Piggott at Stripe Communications on [email protected].

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Flu Vaccine Leaflet for Social Care

Influenza is a highly infectious disease that occurs every year, usually in the winter.  Symptoms can come on very quickly and include fever, chills, headache, aches and pains in the joints and muscles, and extreme tiredness.

Infected health and social care workers can spread flu to people receiving care and colleagues even if they have very mild symptoms or have no symptoms at all.

The flu vaccine provides the best protection available against the virus.

  • The vaccines are given in the autumn ideally before flu starts circulating.
  • The vaccine contains no live viruses, so it can’t give you flu.
  • You have to be immunised every year because the virus changes constantly and your immunity reduces over time.
  • Influenza is a different virus from Covid-19.

The best way for social care staff to avoid flu is to get a flu jab as part of this programme.

We encourage staff to take up this opportunity.  It’s quick, safe and free.

Find out more on the NHS Inform website: https://www.nhsinform.scot/flu

flu-campaign-leaflet-for-social-care-workers-2020

Link to leaflet: http://www.healthscotland.scot/media/3171/flu-campaign-leaflet-for-social-care-workers-2020.pdf

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Yearning for Christmas Past in Covid times: a personal reflection

Well, I have seen my first one of the year – my first Christmas tree – and it is not even the start of December ! I have spent a lot of the past week talking and planning for Christmas. Even though it is 5 weeks away there has been an awful lot of debate and discussion about Christmas. The media has been filled with stories of the four administrations of the United Kingdom being in dialogue with one another about what they can do in order for individuals to have a ‘better Christmas.’ People have been expressing the hope of being together with family and friends and of holding something which is more like the Christmases we have known. There has been discussion about what every day of ‘freer engagement’ will mean in terms of societal restrictions both before the Christmas season and in January.  I have found the debate and discussions both fascinating and frustrating.

Now I should state at the outset that I have always been a lover of Christmas. In fact, disproportionately so it is probably my favourite time of the year. I am a sucker for its traditions of carols and music, whether the dulcet tones of Bing Crosby or the modern classics of a Michael Bublé; I adore the food and the celebration, the conviviality and community; the sense of connection with past and the optimism of possibility.  I have grown ridiculously fond of the rituals of movies such as  ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, or the classics of ’Scrooge’ or my latest love ‘The Grinch.’ I mention all this lest I be instantly dismissed as a modern-day Scrooge or a reincarnation of the Grinch himself.

When I have reflected on the fascination and interest in Christmas this year the feeling that comes to mind is one of ‘yearning’. There is a deep longing and desire to have something which is familiar and deeply ritualistic in days which have been scarily different and lacking in the securities of patterned predictability. Feed into that the fact that for many people the essence of Christmas is indeed about longing, nostalgia and a re-enactment of memories in the moment and you have a concoction of desire that means that folks are desperate for a non-Covid Christmas.

My personal concern and I know this is shared by many in the conversations I have been having is that we are at risk of undoing all the hard work and sacrifice that so many have endured and suffered over the last nine months in order to have connection for a few days at Christmas. Now that may sound callous but those who have worked so hard to keep people safe in care home and community, who have had to experience the desolation of absence and lockdown, who have witnessed and lived through the tragic instances of the virus spreading and killing so many, those are voices which are fearful and anxious about what a Christmas period might bring.

However, let me be clear there are some things we need to nail straight away. I have heard from care home providers this week that they have been told not to allow presents or cards, not to put up decorations or Christmas trees. What tosh and folly. There is absolutely no reason in terms of infection prevention and control measures for any of these restrictions. A tree and decorations are perfectly possible if they are placed in locations which prevent them from being touched; cards and presents can be given, as they always have been, providing they are cleaned and isolated for some time and so on. We cannot allow fundamentalist and erroneous interpretations of IPC to become the modern day grinches.

What is equally important is all the work that I know is going on to ensure that rapid testing devices are in place in as many homes as possible to enable more immediate family visiting and contact to take place not just during the Christmas period but beyond. The essence of Christmas is belonging and togetherness and more than anything else this is the prize of this season for the care home sector, residents and families alike.

Having said all that in the rush to re-create a nostalgic sense of the familiar, to be together with family and friends we have to recognise that there are consequences of removing wider community and societal restrictions. The virus will not be taking an amnesty simply because of our desire to be together; it will not, despite ecclesiastical aspiration be any less deadly and fatal in the season of Christmas and the New Year. So, any actions we take have to be against the knowledge that there are very real risks which for some will mean that January could be a month of death and desolation. We have to as a society ask ourselves what is the price of Christmas togetherness that we are prepared to pay? How do we best enable connection and belonging,  meet the emotional and psychological needs of the many and at the same time protect those who are most at risk of an increase in the virus?

The debate and discussion about Christmas is really hard. We know that the essence of Christmas is about kindness and family, about togetherness and belonging, and that for countless thousands these last few months have been aching moments of separation and absence, with a really devastating impact on mental health and wellbeing. I know that for many being together around a table this Christmas might just be a lifesaver. But I also recognise and share the fears of those who are anxious that what we do in the Christmas season needs to include prioritisation of the vulnerable and those most at risk. No one wants to reap a harvest of tears and regret in January with escalating deaths and broken-hearted families. The decisions taken by our politicians and the actions we undertake ourselves in the coming weeks will be critical.

To yearn, to desire to be together, to be alongside those who are our kith and kin, to be with those we love and are loved by, is natural and healing, but the pain is that that togetherness may this year be at a cost. How do we get the balance right?

Yearning

I am yearning for the day

when my heart does not sink

into emptiness

at the absence of you.

 

I am yearning for the day

when I do not see a stranger

walking along

and hear the echo of your steps.

 

I am yearning for the day

when the eyes of another

shadow in the light

and hint at the sparkle of you.

 

I am yearning for the day

when laughter in a room

awakens the pang

and I feel the ache of you.

 

I am yearning for the day

when I can breathe beside

when I can look inside

when I can touch

when I can feel

you

here

near

warm

tender.

 

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Help to ensure the people you support have their voices heard in reform processes

The “People at the Centre” project is funded by the Scottish Government and led by The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE), working with the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Care.

People at the Centre would like to invite adults who live in Care Homes or who access Care at Home support to share their recent experiences of health and social care and wellbeing, and also to offer their suggestions about how health and social care support and services can improve now and in the future. Feedback will be used anonymously to form part of a report for the Scottish Government to inform decisions about changes to health and social care support.

We would value your assistance in supporting adults who live in Care Homes or who access Care at Home support to have their voices heard as part of the project while understanding that this is a challenging time for care providers and staff to support engagement activity.

Participation in this engagement is entirely voluntary and materials have been developed to support people to take part and staff to support in as flexible a way as possible.  This includes a range of methods – a telephone conversation, short survey or hard copy form – for people to share their views.

We would also value input from carers, relatives and friends of people who live in Care Homes or access Care at Home support. This can be done by supporting the individual to get involved themselves or by sharing views and experiences on their behalf.

Full information and downloadable resources can be found here – Engagement activity for adults who live in Care Homes or who access Care at Home support – People and Networks (alliance-scotland.org.uk)

Participation is possible up to 7th December 2020 and your support to help people to take part by this date would be very much appreciated.

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Citation Webinar – 26 November

Important webinar for care providers – employee wellbeing and engagement

After such a challenging year for the care sector, it’s never been more important to focus on your staff. Whether their stresses and strains stem from in or out of work, it’s easy to overlook those struggling in silence.

That’s why Scottish Care Preferred Supplier, Citation, is hosting a webinar on Thursday 26 November at 2 PM, which we strongly encourage members to join.

The hour-long session will offer practical top tips on how to proactively support your employees’ wellbeing. This includes the importance of developing strong foundations in HR, Employment Law and Health & Safety, to create an environment in which your people will feel safe, happy and supported.

REGISTER YOUR PLACE HERE

The session will be interactive and there will be an opportunity to ask their experts questions throughout, including a dedicated Q & A.

Some of the key discussion points will include:

  • Starting with the basics, including handbooks, policies, and contracts;
  • The fundamentals of employee engagement and why it’s particularly important for the care sector;
  • The three main motivators for your staff, including a positive working environment;
  • Practical tips and solutions for supporting your staff’s wellbeing, including communication, getting help from others, and training, learning and development.

Places are first come, first serve, so please reserve your place today to avoid missing out.

Once you have registered using the above link, please click here for further details for helpful tips on how to join on the day.

Please note that this webinar is open to all care providers and this session is hosted through Cisco Webex instead of Zoom.