Care Home Week: 12-18 June 2017

Care Home Week: 12-18 June 2017

#carehomeweek17

www.scottishcare.org/care-home-week/

Led by Scottish Care, the inaugural Care Home Week will take place in Scotland from 12-18 June 2017.

Throughout this week, we will be celebrating and raising awareness of Scotland’s care homes, the individuals who live and work in them, their role in local communities and the opportunities care homes offer to enhance lives and wellbeing for a wide range of people.

We’ll be celebrating different elements of care home life each day from 12-18 June:

  • Monday 12 June – Politics and Policy
  • Tuesday 13 June – Arts and Engagement
  • Wednesday 14 June – Workforce
  • Thursday 15 June – Ordinary Living
  • Friday 16 June – Friendship & Care Home Open Day
  • Saturday 17 June – Volunteering
  • Sunday 18 June – Dreaming…

This week is an opportunity to share good news stories and promote the positive things that services and their local communities are doing.

We are seeking your help to enable us to prepare and share good news stories throughout Care Home Week.  This can be in the form of any (or all!) of the following:

  • Examples/case studies around any work you have been part of with care homes which relate to the week’s themes (information plus photos, quotes, stories etc)
  • Reports/resources/initiatives/events you think would be relevant to publicise and promote during the week
  • A guest blog of up to 500 words around any of the Care Home Week themes or about care homes more generally
  • Participating in Care Home Open Day on Friday 16 June, either by registering your service to take part or by visiting a care home on the day – find out more at carehomeopenday.org.uk
  • Publicising Care Home Week through your website and social media channels
  • If you’re on Twitter, using the hashtag #carehomeweek17

If you have any other ideas about how you could link with us for Care Home Week, we’d love to hear those too!

We would really appreciate receiving your stories and other contributions by Wednesday 7 June. Please send any information or resources via email to [email protected]  Please specify which day you think each element would be relevant for and please also provide your logo so we can include this on Care Home Week materials.

If you have any questions relating to this, or wish to discuss an idea for Care Home Week, please do not hesitate to get in touch with either Kat MacMillan or Becca Gatherum.

More information about activities throughout the week will be shared at www.scottishcare.org/care-home-week/ over the next few days.

We look forward to working with you to celebrate Care Home Week!

Care at Home & Housing Support Awards 2017

As ever, the annual Care at Home and Housing Support Awards were held to coincide with the daytime Conference and Exhibition and took place on 12 May at the Marriott hotel in Glasgow.

It was an evening to highlight and celebrate the best in care at home and housing support across Scotland, with an extremely strong field of finalists, all carrying out work of an incredibly high standard in an era of challenging budgets and an increasingly demanding work environment.

Hosted by Michelle McManus, the ten award categories were presented over the course of the evening and winners and finalists then danced the remainder of the night away with the band Waterfront providing the soundtrack to the festivities.

 

The full list of winners of the Care at Home and Housing Support Awards are as follows:

  • Care at Home Carer (Individual or Team), sponsored by Mears Group – Accommodation & Alcohol Support Fordeuk (Loretto)

  • Housing Support Carer (Individual of Team) sponsored by Healthcare Improvement Scotland – Belleisle House Team (Aspire)

  • Management and Leadership, sponsored by Strategic Thinking  – Sharon Fleming (Loretto Care)

  • Training and Staff Development, sponsored by Workforce Matters – Nina MacLean (Bluebird Care)

  • Co-ordinator/Administrator, sponsored by Partners for Integration and Innovation – Leona Hollywood (Mears Group)

  • Innovation, sponsored by Hazelhead Homecare – Appin & Lismore Community Care Team (Highland Home Carers)

  • Client Achievement, sponsored by Barchester – David Breingan (Mears Group), Steven Brodie (Mears Group), Sam Cullen (Aspire), Craig Ireland (Mears Group)

  • Housing Support Provider, sponsored by Loretto Care – Bright Care

  • Care at Home Provider, sponsored by Carewatch – Bluebird Care

  • Significant Contribution, sponsored by Citation – Gina Fordyce (Hazelhead Homecare)

Scottish Care worked with film maker Michael Rea to profile the finalists in the Care at Home Provider category. The audience at the Awards ceremony were shown the below film, which demonstrates just how important high quality care at home can be, not only for the recipients themselves but also for family members and indeed members of the workforce, who are striving to provide the best possible service to their clients.

Huge thanks to all our sponsors, who have supported the Awards, helping to make them the success they are.

The Scottish Care team work incredibly hard to make the Awards a real cause for celebration and we look forward to seeing you all next year when we will continue to fly the flag for excellence in Care at Home and Housing Support in Scotland.

Bringing Home Care: Transforming Support in the Community

On May 12 Scottish Care hosted the Care at Home and Housing Support Conference and Exhibition 2017, returning to the Marriott Hotel in Glasgow.

The theme was #bringhomecare and this resonated throughout some extremely thought provoking presentations and carefully curated insight sessions for our 250 delegates.

There were numerous highlights thoughout the day, including opening remarks from our CEO Dr Donald Macaskill, an insightful interview with Joanne Bilsland from Bluebird Care, an update on the work being co-ordinated by Maggie Dowe and an address from Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Shona Robison.

Please see below for a full list of speakers from the conference, with links to supporting materials (where available).

 

 

 

A number of people attending the conference have indicated that they found an interview with Joanne Bilsland from Bluebird Care of particular interest. She spoke with Katharine Ross, National Project Lead for Workforce Matters at Scottish Care, as part of the session on Supporting Solace: palliative care at home

To view the interview from conference in full, please click below:

Supporting Solace: palliative care at home, Joanne Bilsland interview

Twenty five exhibitors attended, and were available in the main hall to liaise with delegates.  Additionally, our conference-goers were able to choose from two different insight sessions to participate in over the course of the day. Scottish Care was delighted the following sessions were hosted both morning and afternoon. Please click on the links to access presentation materials from the day that may be of interest:

The conference also saw the launch of a short film, commissioned by Scottish Care to highlight positive stories of care in Scotland. Titled What a Difference Good Care Makes, the film was directed by Michael Rea and features a number of contributions from across the sector, including care recipients and their family members, care givers and management. The film received fantastic praise at the conference and is available to view below.

Feedback from the Conference and Exhibition has been overwhelmingly positive with 96% of delegates rating the day as good or excellent. If you were there on 12 May and wish to get in touch with any feedback from the event to help with planning for future Scottish Care conferences, please feel free to get in touch via email with [email protected]

We look forward to hosting the next Care at Home & Housing Support Conference in May 2018 - details on this event and the associated Exhibition and Awards will be published on the Scottish Care website in due course. 

A report on the Care at Home and Housing Support Awards 2017 will follow shortly.

Bringing Home Care: new report launched by Scottish Care

Scottish Care has today launched a new report, entitled ‘Bringing Home Care’, at the Care at Home & Housing Support Conference in Glasgow.

The report focuses on home care’s role in the preventative care agenda, how the sector has developed in recent years (including the impact of Free Personal Care), and a sets out a vision for the future of home care services.

The report seeks to demonstrate that for the care at home and housing support sector to become a sustainable, high quality form of care provision which is self-evidentially an intrinsic part of the whole, we must do a lot more to focus upon and develop some of the major contributory elements of its work.

The following areas of home care delivery are explored in the report, in relation to how they have changed over time to the present day, and what the future focus of care at home provision is likely to be:

  • The role of care at home workers and services
  • The development and sustainability of care at home services
  • Partnerships, relationships and status
  • The value placed on home care provision, and the people they support.

The report locates the tracking of these changes in a context of:

  • Highlighting the loss of relational elements of the care offer and the impact this has had;
  • Describing the increase in eligibility criteria and the consequential decline in overall use of care at home services;
  • Focusing on the potential of the ‘preventative role’ of homecare, and
  • Relating this to the ADL LifeCurve™ work of Professor Peter Gore from Newcastle University.

In doing so, it hopes to show that the future of care at home services must be developed and commissioned in a way that prioritises time-flexible, relationship-based, preventative approaches to care delivery.

You can read the report here.

Scottish Care emphasises the need for reform in statement issued before Care at Home & Housing Support Conference

Radical action is needed to reform home care services to ensure that elderly people are not being denied access to services they would previously have received.

New research by Scottish Care, the representative body for the country’s independent social care services, has found that:

  • Tightened eligibility criteria means the number of people assessed as requiring Free Personal and Nursing Care has reduced, and that those who do receive it generally have higher support needs
  • This means older people who would previously have received support at an earlier stage for tasks such as housework, shopping and cooking now receive either much less support or none at all
  • The commissioning of home care services on a ‘time and task’ basis compromises staff’s ability to deliver personalised, high quality care and support and puts this workforce under a huge amount of pressure.

The findings come from ‘Bringing Home Care’: a new report by Scottish Care which outlines the development of home care services over the past century, the impact of Free Personal Care and other policies, and the role of home care in providing preventative care.  It also sets out a vision for the future of home care services

Speaking ahead of Scottish Care’s conference for Care at Home and Housing Support Services today, where the report will be launched, CEO Dr Donald Macaskill said:

“Whilst we fully support the existence of Free Personal and Nursing Care and value its role in supporting people with social care costs, what we have seen since its introduction in 2002 is a move towards less people receiving more care.  Whilst this reflects the reality of constrained budgets, it means that many older people are being denied the support they need to enable them to live for as long as possible in their own homes. 

What’s more, delaying or denying someone’s access to care and support is counterproductive from a financial perspective anyway, never mind the negative impact this has on an older person’s health and wellbeing.  A lack of appropriate and timely support being provided in someone’s own home or in a care home is likely to lead to more presentations at A&E departments and hospital admissions that may have been preventable.

“That’s why, in this report and at our conference, we will be calling for a reformed approach to homecare which is preventative in nature and values relationships and spending time with people, in whatever way suits an individual’s needs.  It is only through this sort of care that individuals can be supported effectively to live at home and the strain on acute services can be relieved.”

The report also highlights that a failure to reform home care will be extremely costly, not only in financial terms but in human terms.  It found that:

  • Over one third of publicly funded care packages are commissioned for visits lasting under half an hour.
  • Even a 30 minute visit means that in reality, an average of only 24 minutes of care can be provided in that time.
  • 90% of organisations have difficulty filling support worker vacancies
  • One third of total staff leave every year
  • Of the support workers who leave organisations, 41% leave within the first 12 months.

Dr Macaskill added:

“The negative consequences of limited funding and time-restrictive commissioning are already impacting extremely negatively on the existing home care workforce.

“Not only are individuals in receipt of support services being denied the holistic care they deserve, which is not rushed or time-pressured, but the workforce who deliver this are being faced with impossible decisions about what care to deliver within such restrictive time and task commissioning.  It is no wonder that this is leading to so many individuals leaving the sector or not coming into it in the first place.

 “We as a society need to better value the work that these extremely skilled and dedicated care workers undertake, and support them to deliver the high quality, relationship-based and flexible care that Scotland’s older citizens deserve.

“If urgent action isn’t taken, the reality is that there simply won’t be the workforce or services to deliver home care in the future.”

You can follow conference updates at @scottishcare and by following #bringhomecare

Scottish Care: Mental Health Research

Mental health and older people services.

Scotland’s population projections indicate that the number of people aged 75 and over will increase by 86 per cent in just a quarter of a century to 360,000 more than today. Inevitably, this will mean a higher proportion of those with mental health needs being over the age of 65 and also a higher proportion of these individuals requiring the support of older peoples care services.

There are approximately 33,000 older people living in care homes in Scotland any night of the year, and nearly 1,000 other individuals living in care home services for adults with mental health issues. Additionally, 61,500 individuals receive support through home care services, over 50,000 who are over the age of 65. Given these figures, it is crucial that we ensure high quality mental health care and support is built into the provision of these services, which nearly 100,000 people across Scotland access.

Research undertaken over the last eighteen months by Scottish Care has focussed on discovering what it is like to work at the frontline in social care services, whether care home or care at home/housing support services. That research was published in ‘Voices from the Frontline’ (2016), ‘Voices from the Nursing Frontline’ (2016) and ‘Trees that Bend in the Wind: Exploring the Experiences of Front Line Support Workers Delivering Palliative and End of Life Care’ (2017). These reports have all served to highlight a range of particular challenges relating to both the mental health and wellbeing of those older citizens being supported but also the mental health and well-being of the workforce. These, in brief, fall into four categories:

1. Ensuring appropriate support for older people living with enduring mental health conditions who access social care services

One of the current shortcomings of mental health care and support is the way in which both formal and informal support is available to older adults when they are receiving social care services. The current infrastructure and professional relationships between care services, GP services, pharmacy services, Allied Health Professionals and primary care mean, at best, multi-disciplinary support to older adults is a postcode lottery. This has real implications for individuals living with mental health conditions who are likely to require a range of professional supports and particular expertise to enable them to live well. There are concerns of availability of support in community settings, insufficient staff awareness and training, and challenges involved in multi-disciplinary and cross-sector working – for care home and care at home services.
2. Awareness of the risk of developing mental health conditions in periods of transition, change and trauma, particularly in older age

There are particular factors relating to older people and social care which may prompt or exacerbate mental health conditions. For instance, older people are more likely to experience bereavement through the loss of friends, spouses and relations which can require mental health support. The negative mental health consequences of social isolation and loneliness are therefore more likely to be experienced by older people. Additionally individuals who go through transitions such as moving into a care home or another care setting may experience difficulties in adjusting to a loss of home or a perceived loss of identity, if adequate support is not present.

3. Transitions between adult services and older people’s services

There are risks to good mental health associated with transitions where individuals cease to be part of adult services and move to older people’s services at the age of 65. It is common for services to become less accessible or even denied, and for resource levels to be reduced at this time. This raises issues around how the human rights of older people in relation to their mental health needs and right to access essential supports are being protected and promoted. The needs of an individual are often overlooked, and replaced with a focus on age and systems. It is recognised that transition phases can lead to a breakdown in communication and quality of care and support, leading to further uncertainty and anxiety for individuals at the centre of that support.

4. Capacity of care staff to effectively support people living with mental health conditions

As the population ages and people access care and support services later due to the success of community and informal support, care staff are increasingly supporting individuals at advanced stages of life with more complex and wide-ranging needs. This increasingly includes those living with significant and varied mental health conditions. Often a care worker is the key link to other individuals involved in a person’s life and care, and the quality of relationships built mean they are often best placed to assess the health and wellbeing of the person they support. It is increasingly difficult to adequately fund specialised training for front line social care staff to provide the most appropriate interventions, particularly in the current climate of ‘time and task’ commissioning, staff shortages and continued underfunding of care.

What is Scottish Care doing?

Over the last few months Scottish Care has supported Outside the Box Consultancy to work with a small group of care home residents and individuals being supported in their own home to explore some of the mental health challenges they are facing. The results of this work will be published by Outside the Box later in the autumn. It will help to provide us with an initial picture of some of the challenges and stressors.

Over the next year Scottish Care has committed to develop work to explore the impact of mental health issues upon organisations and the staff who provide care and support to older people. We will do this in two main ways:

1.

We will undertake a process of desk research and review as well as a focused survey to:

• analyse the current level of experience, gaps and challenges re mental health and older people in care home/care at home services;
• identify mental health support issues at points of transition for those with pre-existing mental health needs;
• identify the level of unmet mental health needs in both care at home and care home contexts;
• identify learning and skills gaps in front line care home/care at home staff in relation to mental health needs.

2.

We will undertake some focus group work to explore the ways in which mental health and wellbeing issues impact upon the front line care home and care at home/housing support workforce. This will include an exploration of the personal mental health and wellbeing issues facing staff working within the sector and will build on the work which Scottish Care in conjunction with the Care Inspectorate has already started on the physical health and wellbeing of the workforce.

We would hope to be able to publish our findings by November 2017.
If you would like to know anything else about this work please contact our Policy and Research Manager, Becca Gatherum at [email protected].

New Scottish Care Palliative and End of Life Workforce Groups

Scottish Care published a report in February 2017 entitled ‘Trees that bend in the wind’.  This report was written following research with front line support workers which explored their experiences of caring for people – in care homes and care at home services – with palliative and end of life care needs.  A link to the report can be found below.

https://www.scottishcare.org/scottish-care-news/scottish-care-launches-new-report-on-palliative-and-end-of-life-care/

We have been overwhelmed with the amount of interest from members – and others – who want to work with us to progress the twelve recommendations made in the report.  We originally thought about creating one palliative and end of life care (PEOLC) workforce group to enable us to do this.  We have now decided that we will have two; one focused on the needs of care homes and the other exploring care at home and housing support services.

The aim of both groups will be to develop a greater understanding of the workforce development needs of people involved in delivering palliative and end of life care, and to generate practical, sustainable  improvements for the workforce.

The first Care at Home and Housing Support PEOLC Workforce Group meeting will take place at 10.00am – 12.30pm on Tuesday 30th May at the Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow.

 The first Care Home PEOLC Workforce Group meeting will take place at 10.00am – 12.30pm on Tuesday 6th June at the Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow. 

 We anticipate this group will meet every three months at various locations.  Depending on the level of interest we may be able to also create local forums.

 Both groups are for supervisors, managers, directors – and front line workers.  It is very important that we have support workers involved in both PEOLC workforce groups. 

If you would like to come to either of these meeting please contact Katharine – [email protected] by Friday 26th May.

Job: Development Officer – Partners for Integration and Improvement (2 posts)

DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS PARTNERS FOR INTEGRATION AND IMPROVEMENT, Health and Social Care Integration – Independent Sector Initiative.

12 months contract initially
£30,000 per annum pro rata – full and part time posts available

Integration of Health and Social Care is the Scottish Government’s ambitious programme of reform to improve services for people who use health and social care services.

Scottish Care is a membership organisation representing the largest group of independent health and social care providers across Scotland.

The Independent Care sector is a key player in health and social care integration agenda and we are seeking to engage Development Officers support this programme. Hosted by Scottish Care and working closely with Independent sector Regional Lead, providers and partners, the post involves ensuring sector involvement in the delivery of the agreed outcomes for integration.

The post holder will have a key role in supporting Health and Social Care Integration in Aberdeen City. They will develop close working relationships with Scottish Care’s Aberdeen City team (Regional Integration Manager and Reablement Trainers) as well as key stakeholders from Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership, Third and Independent sectors, NHS Grampian and people who use services and their carers and family members. The overall aim of this role is “to inform, engage with and support care providers from the Independent Sector so that we can fulfil our obligations and be an equal partner in Health and Social Care Integration”.

The post holder will require to be highly motivated and be able to use initiative, possess excellent communication and networking skills, demonstrate success and experience working with providers, regulators, people supported by services and carers. Qualifications and experience at a management level in health or social care would be an advantage as would knowledge of relevant policy, practice and the needs and aspirations of the Independent sector.

The post will be based in Aberdeen and hosted through Scottish Care. Consultancy, employment, secondment and job share opportunities considered. Employment is the default position.

For further information please contact Julia White, Regional Lead, Aberdeen City at [email protected]. Application forms are available through Scottish Care [email protected]

Closing date 4pm on Friday 26th May 2017 Interviews will be held in Aberdeen on Tuesday 6th June 2017

Care at Home & Housing Support Conference, Exhibition and Awards – 1 week to go!

Scottish Care’s annual Care at Home and Housing Support Conference & Exhibition will take place in the Glasgow Marriott, Argyle Street, Glasgow on Friday 12th May 2017.

There are still a small number of tickets available if you wish to come along. With the care at home reform process ongoing and an ever-changing landscape of health and social care, the conference is a crucial opportunity for providers, partners and stakeholders to hear about how the reform work is progressing and what effect it will have on the sector.

This year’s conference is entitled “Bringing Home Care: Transforming Support in the Community”

#bringhomecare

Click here to view the draft conference programme.

You will notice from the conference programme that there will be insight sessions before and after lunch to enable delegates to attend two different sessions.  When booking, you will be asked to choose the two sessions you wish to attend on the day.

Scottish Care will also be launching a new report on the care at home and housing support sector at this conference.

You can book your place to attend conference at: 
https://cahandhssconference2017.eventbrite.co.uk

You can only pay by card for online bookings.  Alternatively you can contact: [email protected] for a booking form.  Please note: no tickets will be issued until payment is received.

We look forward to seeing you on the day.

Donald Macaskill: Cast a Vote for Care on May 4

 

With just a few days before the Scottish Local Government Elections, voters are being urged to consider social care when casting their vote.

Scottish Care’s recently published Agenda for Care sets out the priority areas for care in Scotland, at a hugely important time for the sector. The manifesto document calls for the following to be placed at the heart of the care system:

  • fairer allocation of resources for the care of older people
  • protection of the social care budget from austerity cuts
  • a valuing of the social care sector and its importance in the same way that the NHS is valued
  • a concerted effort to encourage people to work in the care sector
  • meaningful involvement of services, individuals, families and communities in the planning of local care provision
  • removing the inequality between what Local Authorities pay for the services they deliver directly and those they outsource
  • more balanced media coverage of the care sector
  • support for innovation and the development of new models of care
  • better informed political comment and debate

Scottish Care Chief Executive Dr Donald Macaskill said:

“In Scotland we are faced with a 28% vacancy level in nursing in our care homes. There is a real crisis in the number of staff available and willing to work in the care sector and this is in part because local authorities do not provide sufficient funding.

“I’m calling for everyone to consider care before casting their vote on Thursday and to take five minutes to reflect on what the various candidates stand for when it comes to care.

“We want a dignified and respectful system for both care recipients and care providers and sadly, it is currently falling short of the mark. But by electing candidates who prioritise social care on May 4, this can change.”