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Care Matters Weekly: Friday 19 November 2021
Deadline for self-certification of medical exemptions, autism eLearning, IPC support services for you, help us with your vaccination videos and more. Please share.
Published on 19/11/2021 in Adult services | Care Matters Weekly | Children's services | Covid-19 | Job Portal | News | Weekly Information Sharing FAQs | Workforce
Deadline for self-certification of medical exemptions, autism eLearning, IPC support services for you, help us with your vaccination videos and more. Please share.
- Updated guidance
- COVID-19
- Information sharing
- Webinars and Training
- Sutton Care Hub
COVID-19
Vaccinated staff: 24 December deadline for self-certification of medical exemptions
Staff members who believe that they are medically exempt, or who were vaccinated abroad, need to have completed the temporary self-certification in order to be able to continue working in a care home.
After 24 December self-certification of medical exemptions will no longer be considered valid. Staff who have not applied for and received medical exemptions by that date will no longer be able to work in the care home. Only staff who are double vaccinated, medically exempt or who self-certify as having been vaccinated abroad can continue to work in the care home after that date.
Registration is required to apply for the COVID PASS medical exemption. Staff need to contact 119, not their GP to register for a medical exemption. The GP decision on medical exemption is final and there is currently no appeal process. If there are staff who are intending to have the first dose of the vaccine, or are awaiting the second dose after the 11 th November they cannot work in the Care Home. Managers will need to agree a period of leave or deployment until staff are fully vaccinated (2 doses).
Registered Care Home managers will need to check and record for all staff and visitors attending the Care Home the vaccination or medical exemption status. There is no requirement to record the clinical reason behind the exemption – only record whether a person is medically exempt or not. The exceptions to this are relatives and friends of residents and staff attending for medical or environmental emergencies in the care home.
It is important that managers continue to update the status of staff on the Capacity Tracker.
Coronavirus (COVID-19): providing home care
Provision of home care guidance has been updated in line with the latest clinical advice from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). This update brings together guidance for social care staff, registered providers, local authorities and commissioners who support and deliver care to people in their own homes in England.
Meanwhile, recent updates have been made to protect people defined on medical grounds as extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 and restricting workforce movement between care homes and other care settings. See also revisions to the code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel.
COVID-19 video request to care home providers: get involved!
Now that the mandatory vaccines deadline has passed, we would like to feature staff in a mini-campaign, highlighting the role they have played in getting vaccinated to keep residents and the community safe. The video will be used by the Council to help encourage local residents to take up the COVID-19 vaccine and testing programme.
The videos will be posted on the Council’s social media channels until early next year – when the NHS deadline falls. We would also like to disseminate to our voluntary groups to share with their members.
If you would like to get involved and showcase your wonderful staff and the care they are taking to help keep residents safe, please talk to your care home manager to get more details. Hope to see you on social!
Download the permissions form and our script ideas to help you.
Explaining vaccine hesitancy film: “Why I’ve had my winter vaccinations”
Selina Morris’s colleagues at the Close Care Home asked her many times if she had taken the flu jab. Her answer had always been no, until she read up on flu and COVID-19 vaccines and why having both was vital to keeping colleagues, residents and visitors safe.
Watch Selina’s story and get more information to help you and your colleagues make an informed and confident decision about vaccination this winter.
Information sharing
Be part of the Made with Care recruitment campaign
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) are looking for care staff to share their positive experiences and inspire others to consider adult social care careers, as part of the government’s Made with Care recruitment campaign.
Please share this request with your colleagues – we want to help showcase Sutton carers ahead of our new recruitment campaign that we are planning for early in the New Year. We want to involve the widest range of colleagues to help us represent the diverse nature of the care sector.
If you or your colleagues are interested in telling your stories, email adultsocialcarecampaign@dhsc.gov.uk
Don’t forget! – add your jobs
If you have any vacancies, please add them to the Job Portal! As part of our forthcoming recruitment campaign, we will be signposting the public to the job portal so that they can search for roles, so please start to populate it with your vacancies!
Contact [email protected] if you need any assistance.
National Safeguarding Adults Week 15 – 21 November: resources and webinars
Don’t forget that the Ann Craft Trust has lots of resources including posters on a range of topics to do with adult safeguarding, such as creating safer cultures and online grooming. You can also register for the final webinar that they are hosting for the week:
- 23 November: Safeguarding Adults at Risk Training for Managers and Designated Safeguarding Leads
Access the posters, or register for a webinar.
Autism in Inclusion Health eLearning
There is increasing evidence that autistic people are likely to be in inclusion health groups at a higher proportion than they are in the general population, and that they face a lack of understanding from staff. They also face significant additional barriers to accessing appropriate care alongside a high level of physical and mental health needs.
Based on guidance of the same name, this free eLearning module is built in collaboration with Fairhealth, and written by a group of experts including autistic people and specialist clinicians. Access the eLearning
CCG services to support IPC in Sutton care homes
The SW London CCG has produced a handy set of slides that outlines all their IPC services, including:
- Two types of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) training available – Core IPC skills training/COVID training – both via Teams, FREE
- Broadcast group – bite sized IPC advice direct to your phone. Email [email protected] to receive updates
- IPC Care Home Champion network support group – first Monday of each month, 2pm – 3pm
- Helpline email – infectioncontrol@swlondon.nhs.uk
- Audit tools – a number are available for self audit
There’s lots of helpful information, please take a look at the overview below for more details on all the
IPC Champions launch event: 30 November
A new network of adult social care infection prevention and control champions will be launched on 30 November, to help maintain and continuously improve standards across the care sector.
Run by the Queen’s Nursing Institute, the scheme will be supported by Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care Deborah Sturdy OBE, and backed by a £35,000 grant from the Department of Health and Social Care.
Lessons learned from the pandemic will be rolled out through the network to help minimise the future spread of infections, including COVID-19 and flu, to protect people living in care homes and receiving home care. The champions will share best practice through a series of virtual meetings, a newsletter and discussion forum.
The IPC Champions’ Network will be made up of frontline social care staff from settings around England who are responsible for infection prevention and control in their specific areas or homes.
The IPC network is open to staff working in older adult residential and nursing homes, extra care, supported living and domiciliary care services and staff who are members of existing link networks.
To join the IPC Champions Network, sign up via the QNI website. This is a professional network for clinicians and managers of care.
Register to attend the IPC Champions Launch Event on 30 November.
Weekly Information Sharing FAQs
Dear Colleagues,
Webinars for Care Homes
Thank you for joining the Webinar for Care Homes this week – we hope that these continue to support you during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to remain diligent in following guidance, using PPE and supporting staff and residents to be vaccinated.
View the agenda for the next session on 23 November.
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Webinars and training
IPC sessions for Community Social Care staff
Infection Prevention and Control education sessions for all levels of Community Social Care staff take place online every Monday between 2pm and 3pm.
The next sessions are:
- 22 November: Session 3 Urinary Tract Infections (UTI’s) and urinary catheter care & management
- 29 November: Session 4 Respiratory viruses and Outbreak Management
Register at Eventbrite to attend.
General IPC training sessions for all Community and Social Care staff
Join senior IPC nurses to learn more about general infection prevention and control training including: MRSA, Tuberculosis, diarrhoea, rashes, wound care, specimen taking, head lice, scabies, respiratory infections, including COVID-19, staff health and more.
Sessions run online every Thursday between 2pm to 4.30pm. Register at Eventbrite to attend.
Weekly Information Sharing FAQs webinar
The COVID-19 pandemic remains an extremely challenging situation globally and we recognise that this is the case for staff working in Care Homes of all types. We are continuing the weekly Infection Prevention and Control and Information Sharing webinar Tuesday mornings at 11:00am.
+44 20 3880 0300 United Kingdom, London (Toll)
Conference ID: 855 305 74#
Local numbers | Reset PIN | Learn more about Teams | Meeting options.
Weekly Capacity Tracker webinar
Capacity Tracker Webinars for Care Homes are taking place at 2:00pm every Friday.
Click here to join the meeting on your computer or mobile app Or call in (audio only) on +44 20 3794 0272 Phone Conference ID: 311 948 485#
Sutton Care Hub Job Portal
To support Sutton’s care providers to recruit the best staff for all positions from management, to clinical staff, carers and administrative support, we have created the Sutton Care Hub Job Portal.
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An archive of previous editions can be found on the Sutton Care Hub.
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