Care Matters Weekly: Friday 20 November 2020

This is the Care Matters Weekly update for Friday 20 November 2020, including information on:

• Sutton Care Hub
• COVID-19 Testing
• Contact Tracing: NHS Test and Trace
• London ADASS returns
• NHS Capacity Tracker
• PPE Guidance update
• Weekly Q&A with Care Homes
• Training Update
• Consultation: Stopping movement of care staff
• Update on the COVID-19 vaccine
• m4d Radio for people living with dementia and their carers

Sutton Care Hub

This brand new website will become the single point of access for guidance, resources and information for all staff working across all Sutton’s provider services. 

The Hub will be public, therefore providing staff, at all levels, with the assurance that they can access the correct, most up to date information at any time from their computer, phone or tablet. The Hub will support the London Borough of Sutton (LBS), South West London CCG (SWLCCG) and our providers to work together to build a stable, sensitive and supportive care offer in Sutton.

All the information you regularly receive from this newsletter will be hosted in a weekly update on the site, accompanied by useful links and updated resources. 

The Hub will be regularly updated with the latest news, guidance and much more. Please also subscribe to the Sutton Care Bulletin for bimonthly updates on the sector’s big news, spotlights on key successes, links to training and plenty more.  If you have any feedback or suggestions for additional content on the Care Hub, please contact [email protected] 

COVID-19 Testing

Sutton will soon have five active testing sites across the borough. These sites play a key role in our continued efforts to reduce the spread of the virus and keep the residents of Sutton safe. They will enable more residents within Sutton to access a test quickly and easily. 

Residents with symptoms will be able to book online or calling 119. 

More rapid COVID-19 tests are to be rolled out by government this week, in an effort to kickstart the significant expansion of testing.

Contact tracing: NHS Test and Trace

Homecare providers can support the NHS Test and Trace service by keeping an up to date record of  their care staff and recipients of care. All providers need to identify a person in your organisation who will be responsible for keeping and up to date records so information can be reported rapidly on request from the NHS Test and Trace service. If a provider is contacted the following information may be required at short notice.

• The name and telephone number of the homecare care worker.
• The dates and times that a homecare worker is at work.
• A log of the care workers visits to individuals receiving care for the previous 21 days.
• The name and number of the clients and or the client’s representative.
• The name and telephone numbers of other home care workers, when working in close proximity for example during a double up call.

The NHS Test and Track service will ask for these records only when necessary. The government Homecare Guidance  was updated on 4 November, please ensure you read and update your policies to reflect the changes.

London ADASS returns

This information is for Home Care and Supported Living staff only.

Please ensure you are completing The Adass Market Insight tool every Monday as this information is essential for London wide and local emergency planning.  Providers are currently asked to complete information on Mondays with regard to client, staffing, service capacity and PPE stock levels via a London-wide provider portal. This information represents a valuable and critical input to both London and Sutton emergency planning and response activity to the rapidly changing COVID-19 situation; at a local level, it will enable our commissioning teams to deliver targeted and effective support to Sutton’s social care providers. If you have any problems submitting your returns then please email  [email protected]

NHS Capacity Tracker

This information is for Care Homes staff only.

We are aware that the demands of making returns can take its toll, therefore in line with the new guidance issued by the National Capacity Team, please note the following:

Reports	Frequency	Additional Updates required
Vacancy and Business Continuity Information	Daily – Monday to Friday	When things change
ICF2/Weekly	Weekly – Monday only	When things change
ICF2/Monthly	Monthly – last Monday of the month	When things change

Deadline for the completion of all reports: 17.00hrs

Please nominate a member of your team responsible for completing reports in the event of your absence.

PPE guidance update

The latest guidance on PPE was updated this week.

Care providers in Sutton can order PPE through the government PPE portal to meet the increased need that has arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. PPE ordered from the portal is free of charge and subject to order limits per provider, which have been increased this week. Providers can also contact the PPE customer service team on 0800 876 6802 if you have any questions about registering and using the PPE portal. The team is available from 7am-7pm seven days a week to help resolve your queries.

Weekly Q&A with Care Homes

Please see below a PDF following the latest session with Sutton Care Homes.

Training Update

PPE Training

There are open sessions being held at Sutton Civic offices every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10-5 throughout November, December and January, each session is two hours. All places must be booked on the email below  and are limited to 8 people per session in order to maintain the 2m social distancing recommendations. Candidates will demonstrate the donning and doffing procedures and will have the opportunity to ask questions specific to their practice.  Please email [email protected] PPE and IPC Practitioner to book a place.

E-learning and other LBS training Update

We are pleased to let you know that Virtual College has recently upgraded their system to make it easier to select and access e-learning modules. As previously, this is free to those who care for residents of the London Borough of Sutton. 

Once enrolled for a course, approval is no longer required which means that you can access the learning directly without any delay.  The full e-learning offer is available on this  link  

To register, or re-register with Virtual College, which is required for all existing users, follow this  link   or visit  https://suttonscp.vc-enable.co.uk/register

If you have a large group of staff that require registering please email [email protected] for assistance. 

To view and book onto virtual face to face and classroom training sessions, visit  https://suttontraining.event-booking.org/   

The programme is regularly updated and additional places are added for popular courses so please visit these sites regularly.

Skills for Care 

Skills for Care has developed a 35-minute, interactive module that’s designed to support managers in all adult care settings to carry out learning reviews (an approach that brings people together to holistically explore an adverse event or near miss). In the Adult Social Care Winter Plan the government is asking care providers to carry out learning reviews following a COVID-19 outbreak, but they can be used for other situations as well.

The module will cover:

• What learning reviews are, why they’re needed and how they can help you
• How managers can move from completing reviews at an individual level to involving the wider team
• Practical tips for embedding learning reviews into your working environment.

The module is free to access but you can claim back £100 per employee who completes it from Skills for Care’s Workforce Development Fund to cover their time spent working through the module. You can find out more at: https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Learning-development/ongoing-learning-and-development/Learning-from-events/Learning-from-events.aspx

Stopping movement of staff consultation

There is an open consultation on stopping the movement of staff within care settings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Vaccine progress

Plans for deployment of a COVID-19 vaccine are underway, following the tried and tested rollout of influenza vaccines. Given the uncertainty over whether, and when, a vaccine may be approved, NHS are planning to be ready from any date from December with mass vaccination more likely in the New Year.

m4d Radio station for people living with dementia and their carers

m4d Radio is available at m4dradio.com via any internet-enabled device including computers, tablets, mobile phones, smart TVs and Alexas.