Provider Corner - Care Homes Guidance

Please click here to download recent documentation from NHS on 'Important information about how eligible adults aged 18 and over can access treatments for COVID from 27 June 2023 onwards'

Residential and nursing care home accreditation process

If you are opening a care home within the Nottingham City or Nottinghamshire County region, or you would like to provide continuing healthcare services for adults over 18, your organisation can apply for a contract with Nottingham City Council and Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).  Providers can apply to deliver these services by registering and completing the information via www.eastmidstenders.org. 

For further information and link to the accreditation form please click here

If you have any queries please email lion@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

The free Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) service helps providers to manage their teams and provides crucial intelligence to key decision makers such as Government, DHSC, CQC and local authorities. ASC-WDS provides access to funding for training, safe and free management of staff and training records and the ability to benchmark your workplace against similar providers. Users will also gain special offers and discounts from Skills for Care and some endorsed training providers. 

Click here for further information

Click here to read the Annex B cost of care report.

This consultation will inform the government’s proposed development of secondary legislation on visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices. It closes on 16 August: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/visiting-in-care-homes-hospitals-and-hospices 

For the attention of:

• ICB CNOs
• ICB IPC Teams
• Care Home Leads 

Sent on behalf of Kirsty Morgan, Assistant Director of Infection Prevention and Control

Dear colleagues,

We write to you all following the change in the national guidance around the mandate for mask wearing. Whilst we recognise that the national guidance no longer mandates the wearing of masks, we are aware of a significant increase in respiratory viruses during this winter season and would recommend and encourage that all care settings continue to recommend mask wearing.

We know from our experience of the last few winters that the wearing of face masks, along with other elements of the hierarchies of control for the prevention of infection such as hand hygiene and environmental cleaning, has had a significant impact on the reduction of respiratory viruses across all settings. Therefore we would encourage this best practice to continue, to protect both the residents and service users as well as our colleagues working in these settings. We would also strongly encourage all residents and colleagues who are eligible to have their COVID-19 booster and their flu vaccine, it is not too late to be vaccinated.

Please continue to discuss with your ICB and local authority colleagues.

Student Placement Opportunities | Nottinghamshire Alliance Training Hub (NATH) (nottstraininghub.nhs.uk)

• Introduce potential new employees to social care
• The opportunity to educate healthcare professionals on how care homes works
• Upskill current staff to be mentors and supervisors
• Weekly tariff per student – placements vary from 2 – 7 weeks dependent on area
• Students have a range of skills that will provide extra support to your residents

Following placements available: -

• Student nurses
• TNAs
• Paramedicine
• OT and Physio
• Pharmacists
• The students are all from local universities

Contact michele.tuttle1@nhs.net,  steve.white6@nhs.net, or james.baillon@nhs.net for further discussions

Did you know that Notts Alliance Training Hub (NATH) can access apprenticeship levy funds which will fully fund the cost of apprenticeships for your staff?

Apprenticeship Levy | Nottinghamshire Alliance Training Hub (NATH) (nottstraininghub.nhs.uk)

• NATH will facilitate meetings between you and training providers to find the option that works best for you.  You can also continue to use your current training provider
• We will guide you through the very simple process to apply for levy funding
• Opportunity to upskill current staff or introduce new staff to your organisation
• Invest in your staff to improve retention
• Over 100 standards available from Level 2 – Level 7 from care assistants to degrees and everything between
• More information available - Apprenticeship search / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Want to know more?  Contact michele.tuttle1@nhs.net,  steve.white6@nhs.net, or james.baillon@nhs.net

Both care homes and homecare are mandated to update the Capacity Tracker every month. Care homes and homecare providers will be required to update their data by 11pm on the 14th day of each month – or the next working day when the 14th is on a weekend or public holiday. Data must be no more than a week out of date i.e. it must be correct to no further back than the 8th of each month.

If you need any assistance updating, please contact the Capacity Tracker Team.

Phone: 0191 691 3729 (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm)
Email: necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net

React To Home Rounds provides training and information about the home round and wider multi-disciplinary team (MDT) processes in line with Enhanced Health in Care Homes Framework guidance.

It gives best practice guidance around what ‘good’ looks like for care home and healthcare MDT working. Finally, it offers practical resources and process around how to identify if a resident is unwell as well as an escalation framework to support access to the right service at the right time.

Supporting Care Home Staff to:

• Start to identify signs of deterioration early and escalate appropriately - asking is my resident unwell?
• Know the options for local healthcares service provision
• Access the right healthcare service at the right time

Quality and Efficiency Outcomes Seen:

This training has helped us identify when our residents are becoming unwell at the right time and has meant we need to make fewer GP appointments as some queries can wait until the hoe round. - Care Home feedback

The number of care home contacts outside the care home round have significantly reduced - Lead GP feedback

How To Access Training

This face-to-face training is available NOW for all care homes, if you are interested please contact the trainer: michele.tuttle1@nhs.net

The resources are also available as part of an online training resource at: www.reactto.co.uk 

Every care home will shortly be receiving their own unique QR code access for the Care Home Companion or can access via the generic link on the QR poster – see below.  This resource will provide current expert guidance on a wide range of healthcare management issues such as hydration and nutrition, falls, tissue viability, dementia to name a few.  Take a look!!

All providers should register their services on the ASKLiON website.

ASKLiON is Nottingham City’s health, social care and community directory supported by Nottingham City Council and the CCG.

To register on ASKLiON please visit the ‘create a free account’ page and register. Once registered please go to ‘manage your listings’ and then to ‘create a new directory record’. From there you can create, own and edit your record/s and keep them up to date with any future changes. When you press save this will submit any information to ASKLiON for approval. Please feel free to add all services and events that are under your management.