Dear colleagues I am writing to you with information relating to the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held at the Renfield Centre, Glasgow at 1.00 pm on the 30th October. The primary purpose of this meeting is to give members an opportunity to hear about the current status of discussions in relation to the development of a Care Home Cost Model, what this may mean for the National Care Home Contract and to enable the wider Scottish Care membership to inform any negotiations that may take place over the next few months. If you are able to attend the EGM please inform Cath Balmer as soon as possible – [email protected] In addition, in order to provide as much support and information as possible the new Members Section of the Scottish Care website contains accompanying documents and a Discussion Board. We also intend to hold a webinar session for those who want to access information by those means. You can sign up to access this section and the NCHC documents at: http://scottishcare.org/members-area/ You will be asked to set up an account – please ensure only appropriate individuals within your organisation set up an account such as owners/proprietors and senior managers. This is to ensure that we can share sensitive, high level information with the right people. Once your account has been approved by Scottish Care, you will be able to log in to the Members Forum. We are currently developing specific materials for members who deliver residential services, and these will be available on the website a couple of days before the EGM. These will be supplementary to the main paper. Following the Extraordinary General Meeting an electronic vote will take place on the Options detailed in the website documents (although these may be amended). Once you read the papers you will see that this is a critical time for the care home sector and that the decisions that, as a membership, are taken over the next few weeks and months will have significant impact on the sustainability of the sector. Finally, I am pleased to say that the Cabinet Secretary will be attending the Care Home Conference on the 15th November as will representatives of the IJBs and COSLA. There will be opportunity for discussion and questions on the critical issues contained in the papers. Upon reading the papers you will note my own belief that engagement of the Scottish Government is going to be critical if we are to achieve what we believe to be a fair rate for fair care. I would encourage you in the strongest possible terms to support the conference by your attendance especially during these debates. This is a rare opportunity to seek to communicate the strength of feeling within and the commitment of the care home sector at such an important time. Conference details can be found at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/national-care-home-conference-and-exhibition-tickets-70762238761 Kindest regards Dr Donald Macaskill CEO, Scottish Care
