1. NEW GUIDANCE Infection prevention and control in adult social care: acute respiratory infection (information for all providers)

2. UPDATED GUIDANCE Guidance documents updated in relation to COVID-19 testing (information for all providers)

3. Urgent Community Response Team (UCR): Support available for Care Homes’ urgent care needs (information for all Birmingham and Solihull care homes)

4. Birmingham City Council Dementia Website is live! (information for all providers)

5. Skills for Care update (information for all providers)

6. Update from Communicate 2U and Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSol ICB) Rethink communication event (information for providers supporting citizens with learning disabilities)

7. MEASLES: an important message (information for all Birmingham providers)

8. Pride Well Summit: Birmingham LGBTQ+ History Month Health Conference 2024 Free Virtual Events and Webinars 1 to 29 February 2024 (information for all providers)

9. Care Quality Commission (CQC) Blog: Continuing the work of the Supported Living Improvement Coalition (information for all supported living providers)

10. REMINDER CareFind: Public Facing Website from Capacity Tracker - February 2024 Training Dates for Care Home Providers (information for all care homes)

11. REMINDER Skills for Care: Midlands activity provision network 15 February 2024 2:00pm - 4:00pm (information for West Midlands care homes

12. REMINDER Hall Green Neighbourhood Network Scheme (NNS) Younger Adults Showcase 22 February 2024 (information for providers in Hall Green)

13. REMINDER Kent Surrey Sussex Homecare Research Community of Experience - The role of homecare and other services in supporting adults' food and drink care needs 21 February 2024 (information for all home support providers)

1. NEW GUIDANCE Infection prevention and control in adult social care: acute respiratory infection (information for all providers)

This guidance covers infection prevention and control measures to reduce the spread of viral acute respiratory infections (ARIs), including COVID-19, in adult social care settings.

The full guidance can be found in the link below;

Infection prevention and control in adult social care: acute respiratory infection

2. UPDATED GUIDANCE Guidance documents updated in relation to COVID-19 testing (information for all providers)

The following guidance documents have been updated;

Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement

The guidance above sets out how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in adult social care settings in England. It has been updated to remove ‘COVID-19 testing: terms and conditions’ and ‘COVID-19 self-test for staff, service users and visitors in adult social care settings: privacy notice’. See the call-out box for new links

COVID-19: testing in the workplace and eligible high-risk settings

The guidance above sets out the latest terms and conditions plus standard operating procedure for coronavirus (COVID-19) workplace and eligible high-risk settings testing. It has been updated to remove ‘COVID-19 self-test for staff, service users and visitors in adult social care settings: privacy notice’. The section ‘COVID-19 testing: terms and conditions’ has been added.

3. Urgent Community Response Team (UCR): Support available for Care Homes’ urgent care needs (information for all Birmingham and Solihull care homes)

Care Homes in Birmingham and Solihull are advised to contact the UCR in the first instance for receiving urgent care. The team can provide a rapid response service within two hours of your call. This referral service offers an alternative to calling an ambulance and helps to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions or readmissions. This service has highly skilled and dedicated clinicians who can deliver a rapid response to the urgent care needs of your residents or refer to the ambulance service if emergency hospital care is needed.

Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you do not have a copy, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Urgent Community Response service for referrers across Birmingham and Solihull

4. Birmingham City Council Dementia Website is live! (information for all providers)

Birmingham City Council wants to enable all people with dementia and those who care for them, to have the best possible health and social care support throughout their dementia journey.

Citizens will now have a single point of access for information and advice about dementia that is clear and easy to navigate via our new website (see link below). Anyone can access information about what support is available before and after a diagnosis, and how to access this support. Signposting to other support services that are available, and support for carers.

www.birmingham.gov.uk/dementia

We want to make a positive difference to citizens’ living with dementia’, enabling them to live in their own homes, remaining independent and with personal choice for as long as possible. Dementia is not a normal part of ageing. Anyone who is worried about their memory can access support.

5. Skills for Care update (information for all providers)

Updates on training and development opportunities from Skills for Care and partners and important information about workforce development funding have been circulated to providers. If you do not have a copy, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

6 Update from Communicate 2U and Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSol ICB) Rethink communication event (information for providers supporting citizens with learning disabilities)

The event held on the 18 January 2023 was a great success with overwhelmingly positive responses from attendees who said they felt much more confident in communicating with individuals with a learning disability or autism following the event.

The presentation created in conjunction with Communicate 2U and Coventry University, including “The Poo song” has been circulated to providers. If you do not have a copy, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Please be aware that the film clip involving The Poo Song is solely for educational purposes. Kindly refrain from uploading it to social media platforms.

For any further information on this event or future LeDeR learning, email nhsbsolicb.leder@nhs.net.

7. MEASLES: an important message (information for all Birmingham providers)

Measles is currently circulating across Birmingham. It is a highly infectious disease, which can be very serious. Two doses of the MMR vaccine is the best protection against measles. Vaccines that don’t contain pork are available at all GP surgeries. To protect you, your family, and your community, contact your GP surgery to catch up with any missed MMR vaccinations, at any age. Call ahead to your GP surgery or other healthcare setting before attending with suspected measles.

Find out more about the signs and symptoms of measles, and the MMR vaccine;

Measles - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

8. Pride Well Summit: Birmingham LGBTQ+ History Month Health Conference 2024 Free Virtual Events and Webinars 1 to 29 February 2024 (information for all providers)

Shine the Light on Issues, Celebrate and Connect with LGBTQ+ Communities, share emerging practice and learning at the Pride Well Summit Birmingham LGBTQ+ History Month Health Conference 2024 1 to 29 February.

To find out more, visit the following links and view the attached events calendar and flyer;

Pride Well Summit Webpages

Pride Well Summit Eventbrite Collection

9. Care Quality Commission (CQC) Blog: Continuing the work of the Supported Living Improvement Coalition (information for all supported living providers)

In the first of a new blog series, Stefan Kallee, interim Deputy Director for People with a learning disability and autistic people CQC, shares the latest on the work of the Supported Living Improvement Coalition and its network groups.

The coalition brought together people with experience of supported living services, their relatives and representatives, care providers, charities, and local authorities among others.

The CQC’s role as the host organisation ended in 2023, and 3 groups continued work as the Supported Living Improvement Network. These groups looked at:

• Supporting people well
• Housing matters
• Respectful and inclusive language

Towards the end of 2023, the coalition came back together so that everyone could hear what the network groups had been working on and share information. Following the meeting, the Respectful and Inclusive Language Network set up a survey to help understand what good communication is, how communication can be improved, and how people can be supported to lead conversations about their lives. It is aimed at people who use supported living services, their families and friends, and people working in supported living.

• Blog: Continuing the work of the Supported Living Improvement Coalition
• Survey: The Respectful and Inclusive Language Network's survey on good communication
• Survey: Easy read guidance for the survey on good communication (PDF)

10. REMINDER CareFind: Public Facing Website from Capacity Tracker - February 2024 Training Dates for Care Home Providers (information for all care homes)

The Capacity Tracker team, have been developing a new tool to help members of the public search for Care Home vacancies via a new public facing website, CareFind. Capacity Tracker will provide this as a free service for Providers on an opt-out basis, with some conditions in place.

The concept of CareFind has been developed with the support of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. CareFind aims to give benefits to both providers and people looking for care services, building on the information and resource of Capacity Tracker.

All Care Home providers are invited to attend the February CareFind Training Sessions. For further information click on the link below:

click here

If you have any queries when updating your information, please don’t hesitate to contact the Capacity Tracker Support Centre on 0191 691 3729 or necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net

11. REMINDER Skills for Care: Midlands activity provision network 15 February 2024 2:00pm to 4:00pm (information for West Midlands care homes)

This meeting will provide a learning space for staff involved in facilitating meaningful and stimulating activities with the people they support. The network will have a particular focus on the following topics:

• Supporting people with limited mobility
• Increasing the use of digital tools
• Developing skills and career progression for activity coordinators

Who should attend?

• Activity coordinators
• Staff involved in leading activities
• Managers seeking to improve activity provision in their service

This meeting will be run on Zoom. Registrations will close 90 minutes before the scheduled start of the event;

Register now

12. REMINDER Hall Green Neighbourhood Network Scheme (NNS) Younger Adults Showcase 22 February 2024 (information for providers in Hall Green)

Join the Hall Green NNS for a showcase celebrating the work of community organisations supporting younger adults in Hall Green constituency.

This event is at The MAC, Cannon Hill Park, on Thursday 22 February 2024, 9:30am to 1:00 pm. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you do not have a copy, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

You can book using the link below;

Hall Green NNS Younger Adults Showcase Ticket Booking

13. REMINDER Kent Surrey Sussex Homecare Research Community of Experience - The role of homecare and other services in supporting adults' food and drink care needs 21 February 2024 (information for all home support providers)

This online lunchtime event is aimed at updating providers on the findings from the above project (see link below) and is being held on Wednesday 21 February 12 midday to 1:30pm

NIHR SSCR-funded project

You can sign up to the event below

here

Alongside support from healthcare and family or friends, home care services offer an important way of supporting older people to stay well and healthy, helping them to access the food and drink they want, when they want and how they want. This is not only important in reducing risks of malnutrition and dehydration, but also to help people live well at home and improve quality of life. This study was a first step in understanding what is already known about how homecare supports older people with food and drink, and give a clearer idea of what needs to be done in terms of research to build the evidence base, and how adult social care policy and practice can support older adults with food and drink in later life.

There will be brief presentations by the research team at the University of Kent, University of Surrey and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, as well as an opportunity for Q&A and discussion of the findings/recommendations.

For further information about this event and the research, email my colleague Dr Lavinia Bertini: l.bertini@bsms.ac.uk.