Lateral flow testing at point of entry We recognise the increased pressure across social care and that the majority of care providers are doing everything they can to keep people safe. We've become aware that in some areas our inspectors are being asked to take a Lateral Flow Test (LFT) and on occasion being refused entry if they don't comply. Our inspectors have been advised not to take these tests as they're already part of a regular testing regime. All of our inspectors are recognised as 'visiting professionals' under Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) guidance which explains: A visiting professional is defined as anyone visiting the care home in a professional capacity, for example a chiropodist. Some visiting professionals, including NHS staff and CQC inspectors will already be part of a regular testing regime, and therefore they will not need testing on the door of the care home. We can assure you that all inspectors visiting your locations are being tested weekly for COVID-19, which gives us a consistent approach to testing. This is in addition to our existing protections for CQC staff engaging in inspection and registration visits; - risk assessments are completed by each member of the inspection team before all site visits
- training on how to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is completed
- training on Infection Prevention and Control is completed
Provider collaboration in urgent and emergency care In autumn 2020, we carried out a series of reviews to look at how providers were working together to deliver urgent and emergency care services during the pandemic. These provider collaboration reviews are intended to share good practice to help drive local, regional and national improvement. While these reviews took place under different circumstances and pressures to those currently being experienced, their lessons remain valuable. We have seen some terrific examples of where the pandemic has been a catalyst for change. We wanted to share these positive examples now to support services, providers and systems as they work together in response to the continued pressures of the pandemic. We hope these early findings and examples of good practice will support providers and systems plan their ongoing response. We will be publishing a full report of our findings in the spring. Find out more on our website. COVID-19 Insight report issue 7 We've published the seventh issue of our COVID-19 Insight report. In this month's report, we share further data on the designated settings scheme for adult social care, and look more closely at data on deaths from COVID-19. You can read the full report here and accompanying news story on our website. Designated Schemes To ensure safe care for people discharged from hospital with a covid-19 positive test, CQC has worked with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), local authorities and individual care providers to create the Designated Setting scheme. This scheme is to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in care homes and will allow for a focus on the care that people who have contracted COVID-19 need. NHS Resolution has published a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document to help clarify Designated Settings Indemnity Support. The indemnity arrangements will be supervised by DHSC and administered by NHS Resolution. For more information on the indemnity arrangements, please contact CNSC@resolution.nhs.uk. Update on review into the application DNACPR decisions In December 2020 we published the interim report from our review into the application of do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This sets out the progress of our review so far and our expectations around DNACPR. You can find the methodology for the review on our website. We are now reviewing evidence gathered as part of the review and working towards publication of a national report. This report will set out our findings, including any known themes and trends. It will also describe good practice and outline any known changes to the use of DNACPR in response to the pandemic. Care and support should always be delivered in a person-centred way. Advance care planning is no exception and we continue to monitor and review the application of DNACPR decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Skills for Care's latest webinars Following the success of their webinars which ran in 2020 looking at the challenges faced by the BAME workforce, Skills for Care are hosting another series of virtual events focusing on the shared priorities of BAME leaders and managers. - How to become an anti- racist organisation. An expert panel will explore the challenges an organisation may face, how they can embrace and understand race and what they should do to address the imbalance. Tuesday 9 Feb 2021,10:00 – 11:30
- Discrimination and workers' rights. An expert panel will explore how people are discriminated against, the types of discrimination and what individuals can do to address this. Tuesday 23 Feb 2021, 10:00 – 11:30
You can find out more information and book your place by visiting the Skills for Care website. COVID-19 vaccination programme The government have updated their COVID-19 vaccines delivery plan which explains how the UK government was able to build up a supply of vaccines and how it is planning to deploy them. You can read the plan here. You'll also find documents relating to the programme on the GOV.UK website. Here you can download leaflets and consent forms for having the COVID-19 vaccine.  Enhanced Health in Care Homes: a guide for care homes The Care Provider Alliance (CPA) in partnership with NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) have published a new guide which explains what the Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH) service is, how to make it work in the best way possible for people living in care homes and the people who care for them, and what everyone involved can expect from it. You can read and download a copy of the guide on the CPA website. Keeping data safe – Updated briefing for care providers On 31 December 2020, the UK government and the EU reached a Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The Agreement contains a bridging mechanism that allows the continued free flow of personal data from the EU/EEA to the UK after the transition period until adequacy decisions come into effect, for up to six months (i.e to end of June 2021). As a sensible precaution, during the period when the bridging mechanism is in place, it is recommended that organisations work with EU/EEA organisations who transfer personal data to them. Together putting in place alternative transfer mechanisms to safeguard against any interruption to the free flow of EU to UK personal data. The Care Provider Alliance and Digital Social Care have updated their briefing for care providers to reflect these developments. You can read and download a copy of the briefing on the CPA website. Vitamin D and care homes guidance The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have published Vitamin D and care homes guidance. This guidance has been produced in consultation with the CQC medicines optimisation team. DHSC are supplying care homes with a four-month supply of vitamin D food supplement to support residents' bone and muscle health. Public Health England (PHE) recommend that people living in care homes should take a 10microgram vitamin D supplement all year. We've published CQC guidance which supports the DHSC position of vitamin D as a food supplement and not a medicine. You can read the guidance here. Immigration reimbursement scheme If you work in social care and have paid the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) on or after March 31st, 2020 you may be able to claim money back from the Government. You must be working for at least 16 hours per week during that period, but this can be in more than one eligible job. Reimbursement payments are processed in six-month instalments in arrears. If you think you're eligible you can find out more information and apply on the GOV.UK website. NHS Business Authority Service (BSA) are also looking for eligible people to test the online service. If you'd like to take part in the research and feedback to help improve the service, you can contact IHS directly. HM Government's Tell Us Once Service – New Video Slideshow Tell Us Once is a service that lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) have launched a short advisory video which highlights to bereaved people how they can use the service once, to inform many government organisations and public sector pension providers of a death. You can share this video with colleagues or add it to your website by visiting the DWP YouTube page. There are also free flyers and posters available by contacting the Tell Us Once communications Team. For more information on the service you can visit the GOV.UK website. Join My Home Life England's expert advisory group My Home Life England are looking for care home managers to join their expert advisory group and help shine a light on the great practice in care homes across England. They'd like help from managers to co-produce new ways of finding and communicating best practice resources. You can find out more information by visiting their website. 'Because we all care' public campaign – focus on unpaid carers Earlier this month we launched the latest activity spike of our public campaign to encourage people to feedback on their care experiences. #BecauseWeAllCare is a joint initiative with Healthwatch England and works alongside voluntary and community partners. Our latest spike of activity focusses on reaching unpaid carers. Unpaid carers play a crucial role in supporting people with care needs and we want to encourage them to tell us about the care they, and their loved ones receive from health and social care services. We want to encourage people to report poor care to give us their insight into what people are experiencing. We want to hear about good care too so we can celebrate it and share good practice. Thank you for all your support with the campaign to date. We hope you will continue to support the campaign through your own communication channels. We have a range of campaign assets that you can use to encourage feedback. You can find out more about Because we all care on our website. Is your registration information up to date? It is a providers' responsibility to ensure their registration information held with CQC is correct. This information is used to calculate fees, so it's important that it's right. We would encourage you to check your entry on the register. If you need to make changes, you can find more information on our website, or speak to your relationship owner. NHS Providers 'Winter Watch' podcast In the latest podcast from NHS Providers as part of their Winter Watch series, Adam Brimelow, NHS providers Director of Communications, speaks to CQC colleagues Heidi Smoult, Deputy Chief Inspector for Hospitals, and Debbie Ivanova, Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care, about the concerns surrounding winter inspections, infection prevention and control, and the clinician support tool Patient FIRST. Find out more about Winter Watch and listen to the podcast. LGBT+ History Month For the first time, CQC's LGBT+ Network is marking LGBT+ History Month in February, following a successful first CQC Virtual Pride in July 2020. The network wants to show support to colleagues as well as providers and the public, reinforcing that CQC strives for equal and good quality care for everybody. Throughout February the following sessions are open to anyone who wishes to attend. All sessions will be approximately an hour. For more information and to sign up please contact ray.mason@cqc.org.uk - Memoirs of a semi-professional sinner: 50 years as boy, man, party animal, activist, patient
Tuesday 2 February, 1-2pm - Curious Conversations: All Things Trans
Friday 5 February, 1-2pm - LGBT+ Awareness Raising Session
Tuesday 9 February, 1-2pm - Pride in Practice gold award
Tuesday 23 February, 1-2pm - 'Curing Queers' talk with Dr Tommy Dickinson
Thursday 25 February, 2-3pm - CQC 'Twitter Takeover' by the LGBT+ Network
Friday 26 February, all day Feed back now on our future strategy On 7 January we published a formal consultation on our future strategy. The draft strategy is the product of over 10,000 interactions with stakeholders and sets a bold ambition for CQC over the next five years. Our strategy is built on four themes that together determine the changes we want to make. Running through each theme is our ambition to improve people's care by looking at how well health and care systems are working and how they're acting to reduce inequalities. The consultation will run for eight weeks, closing on 4 March 2021. Your views and feedback have been invaluable as we've developed our draft strategy. We'd now like to hear what you think to our proposals so we can make sure it works for everyone.You can to this by either submitting a consultation response or adding a response on our digital participation platform CitizenLab. Ian's latest blog Ian Trenholm, Chief Executive of CQC, has blogged about the proposed changes in our strategy and the current context in health and social care. We want our regulation to be more relevant and continue to work in a flexible way to manage risk and uncertainty. | |  | Watch our strategy webinars Find out more about each of our strategic themes by watching the webinars our theme leads have recorded on our YouTube Channel. | |  | All CQC offices are closed Please do not send post - visit our website for details on how to contact us. There is now an overview of adult social care guidance on the GOV UK website Accessibility resources to help you communicate about COVID-19  Follow us on Twitter! Keep up with our work with professionals and provider organisations in England by following us on Twitter @CQCProf. | | 
No comments:
Post a Comment