Care Matters: Thursday 12 May 2022

Cost of Care Exercise, Liberty Protection Safeguards, a Carers Guide to Home Fire Safety, Goodwill Payments Update and more. Please share.

Published on 12/05/2022 in Adult services | Care Matters Weekly | Covid-19 | News | Workforce

Cost of Care Exercise, Liberty Protection Safeguards, a Carers Guide to Home Fire Safety, Goodwill Payments Update and more. Please share.


Cost of Care Exercise

You will already be aware that the Government has initiated a national cost of care exercise to inform its overall reforms to adult social care. This exercise is being led by local councils in each area. Local authorities are concerned to understand the impact on budget allocations of the £86,000 cost of personal care cap and changes to the means test for access to social care support.  

As a result, I am writing to ask for your support as we undertake this exercise for Sutton. I hope we’ll be able to work together to gather information that will provide as clear a picture as possible on the reality of the care market locally. 

Over the next few weeks, you are likely to be contacted by the Council as we gather information about running costs and overheads across providers so that we can be confident we have a sustainable and properly funded adult social care market in Sutton. We are looking to establish a view across South West London that provides a genuine profile of the actual costs of care in our areas and to understand together the steps we need for a high quality sustainable future care market.

The Department for Health and Social Care requires us to complete an exercise to establish the actual cost of care for people aged over 65-years in residential care and over 18-years with home care support by 14 October 2022. 

Alongside this, we have to develop a draft ‘Market Sustainability Plan’. Both ‌pieces of work will support us in moving towards paying providers a fair cost of care and ensuring a healthy and sustainable future social care market in South West London.

While each local authority has to submit its own cost of care exercise, Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton and Wandsworth are working together to minimise the burden on providers, to save you being asked for the same information many times, and to ensure consistency and accuracy and a shared understanding of the care market across South West London.

Where you provide care in more than one borough, you will be able to work with a lead borough to ensure this exercise can be delivered with the minimum burden on you.

We appreciate this may be an additional stress on your already busy schedules, but we are planning the exercise in a way that keeps that pressure to a minimum. When we get in touch, we will share the tools and guidance for collecting and returning the information and will support you as much as possible to complete and return the information.

Thank you for your support and commitment to helping us meet our targets for this national requirement that will have a measurable local benefit to the whole local system. We look forward to working with you on it.

Liberty Protection Safeguards: Consultation Events for People with Lived Experience

The Department of Health and Social Care are currently holding a consultation on the Liberty Protection Safeguards. As part of this consultation process, it is vital that they hear what people with lived experience think about the new system that they have designed.

However, they understand that not everyone will want to tell us what they think by responding to the Easy Read consultation survey. They are therefore going to be holding a number of online events where people with lived experience of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and the Mental Capacity Act will have the opportunity to tell us what they think about the Liberty Protection Safeguards and what it might mean for them.

It is expected that each event will be held online and will be roughly two and half hours long, including half an hour for breaks. The events will be run by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and led by Hilary Paxton, who has previously led events for people with lived experience about the Liberty Protection Safeguards. 

If you or someone you know would like to attend one of these events, please fill in and submit this online form. Please make sure that a form is submitted for each person who is interested in attending.

Further information about the open consultation can be found on the Gov.uk website

A Carers Guide to Home Fire Safety

Learn how to keep people that receive care safe from fire.

A formal video is now available for carers on the LFB website. Those who wish to view this video will have to input some basic information in order to gain access to it.

What you will learn:

  • How to recognise people who are at risk of having a fire
  • Identify key high risk factors
  • Show what actions can reduce these risks
  • Describe what to do in the event of a fire

Please assist and share this link with your teams to complete.

Please click here

Goodwill Payments Update

12/05/2022

By now, Carers who completed the application form for the Goodwill Payments should have received their prepaid cards in the post. Thank you again for your patience.

The deadline for using all the money on the card in accordance with the Cardholder Agreement letter is Midnight on Wednesday 15th June 2022. After this date you will not be able to spend any remaining money on the card.

Carers who are experiencing difficulties activating the card should contact Allpay Customer Services for advice:

Email: [email protected]

Call: 0330 808 0102 

Sutton Care Works is Now Open

Sutton Care Works, our recruitment window into the social care sector in Sutton is now open  from Wednesday to Friday, from 10am to 5pm during May (with longer opening hours to follow in June) in the St Nicholas Shopping Centre. 

The aim of the space is to reach local people to talk about care work in a positive light and share the range of vacancies across our provider services. 

We know many of you have been busy updating your vacancies on the Job Portal – thank you! Please keep it up – we’re not sure how long it will take for this to filter through to residents, so please help us spread the word to anyone you know that you think might be interested in a career in the care sector.

Sutton Care Works is located at:

Second floor (opposite Primark)

St Nicholas Shopping Centre

3 St Nicholas Way

Sutton

SM1 1AY

Thank you to everyone who has worked with the Sutton Care Works project team to help get this off the ground. Good luck with your recruitment!

Latest Guidance

The latest guidance has been published about COVID-19 testing for ASC services. Please click the link below to go to the GOV.UK webpage.

Click here

For all the latest guidance on the Carehub regarding COVID-19, please click here to view the updated pages regarding;

  • Visiting
  • Testing
  • Outbreak Management
  • Admissions
  • Infection Prevention and Control

Training and Development

The Residential & Home Care Show, part of Health Plus Care: 18/19 May

Since the Residential and Home Care Show last took place in 2019 it is impossible to underestimate the devastating impact Covid-19 has had on the whole sector. This FREE two-day event is geared around very practical sessions, high profile panel discussions and inspirational keynotes. Increase your knowledge, take away tangible takeaways and leave re-energised ready for the challenges ahead!

Register now!

Training and development: Foundations of Palliative Care for registered healthcare professionals

St Raphael’s Hospice is running palliative care foundation courses for registered healthcare professionals.

The Foundations of Palliative Care is running 21 and 22 June and 8 and 9 November, and is aimed at/suitable for registered nurses, nursing associates and paramedics. 

Topics covered:

  • What is Palliative care & What is Hospice Care
  • Advance Care Planning
  • Symptom control
  • Priorities of care for the dying
  • Non-pharmacological interventions for symptom control
  • Registered Nurse/HCP Verification of Expected Adult Death (simulated learning)
  • Syringe pumps and Saf-T Intimas: practical workshop

A light breakfast, lunch and refreshments are included throughout the day. All attendees will receive a certificate that can be used towards revalidation, CPD and appraisal. 

For more information & booking please see the St Raphael Hospice website or contact the Education team on [email protected]

Guidance changes? Help from London Borough of Sutton Public Health team

There have been a number of changes in guidance over the recent weeks. If you need any help or advice on the changes please contact the London Borough of Sutton Public health team. Drop them an email [email protected] 

Webinars and training

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. 

Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

+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

Subscribe to the Sutton Care Bulletin! 

The Sutton Care Bulletin features a round up of good news stories and successes from across Sutton’s care sector, as well as useful information, guidance and resources. Please make sure you have subscribed to receive future editions.

An archive of previous editions can be found on the Sutton Care Hub.

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