懂阴帝

1. Deadline approaching - Cost of Care Exercise 2024: Action required 18 August 2024 deadline - (information for Younger adult (18 to 64 years) care homes and supported living services located in 懂阴帝 and the West Midlands Region, and which are contraced to 懂阴帝 and 懂阴帝 and Solihull Integrated Care System. 
2. Update on the frequency of Care Quality Commission (CQC) planned assessments (information for all providers)
3. Skills for Care new insights published and Workforce Development Fund (information for all providers.
4. Information Commissioner’s Office: Understanding app privacy notices (information for all providers)
5. Reminder: Business Energy Advice Service (BEAS) Free Energy Assessments and Grants from £1000 to £100,000 for SMEs in the West Midlands (information for all West Midlands providers)
6. Reminder: Capacity Tracker training dates August – September 2024 (information for all providers)
7. Updates of News, Events and Resources from Skills for Care August-September 2024 (information for all providers)
8. Reminder: BSoL Training Hub Student Placement Information Webinar 10 September 2024 (information for 懂阴帝 and Solihull care homes)
9. Reminder: Infection Prevention & Control Champions Forum 13 September 2024 (information for 懂阴帝 and Solihull care homes)
10. Reminder: Infection Prevention & Control Champion Training 20 September 2024 (information for 懂阴帝 and Solihull care homes)
11. Request from NHS England your participation to advise DHSC on care provider data needs (Information for all care providers)

1. Deadline approaching - Cost of Care Exercise 2024: Action required 18 August 2024 deadline – (Information for Younger adult (18 to 64 years) care homes and supported living services located in 懂阴帝 and the West Midlands region, and which are contracted to 懂阴帝 and 懂阴帝 and Solihull Integrated Care System)

This is a reminder that the submission window for this year’s cost of care exercise for younger adult care homes and supported living services is due to end on Sunday 18 August. Forms and guidance have been circulated to providers. If you don't have copies, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk - also refer to previous bulletins for further details.

Submit your cost of care templates to costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk in advance of the deadline – 11:59pm Sunday 18 August 2024. If you need to ask a question, email costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk

Supported Living services:

You are required to complete the Supported Living Costing Tool 2024 Tab I. – Standard (Cost +) only. The tool and guidance have been circulated to providers

Submission deadline - 11:59pm Sunday 18 August 2024.

Younger Adult Care homes (18 to 64 years old):

You are required to complete the Care Home Costing Tool 2024. The tool and guidance have been circulated to providers. N.B. please don't use the tool attached to the launch message on 8 July 2024, as this contained a small error in the operating profit calculation function. If you have already submitted your return, it does not materially affect the data you have supplied and we will amend the calculation on your submitted form.

Submission deadline - 11:59pm Sunday 18 August 2024.

Thank you in advance for your participation and timely submissions.

2. Update on the frequency of Care Quality Commission (CQC) planned assessments (information for all providers)

The CQC intended to publish information in July about their expectations of the frequency of planned assessments, and an indication of a date by when they will have updated all ratings for all providers. Due to the publication of the interim findings of the Dash review (see link below), the CQC will not be able to share this information as planned but will publish an interim statement in August about how frequently they plan to assess each type of service. More information will be published in September. The CQC will work with providers to develop a handbook which explain what providers can expect from an inspection, what customer services standards you should expect from CQC, and how the CQC can reach a shared understanding of what ‘good’ looks like for different service types.

3. Skills for Care new insights published and Workforce Development Fund (information for all providers)

The number of filled posts in adult social care has grown by 4.2% in 2023-24, meaning there are now 1.59m people working in 1.705m posts. International recruitment remains vital, contributing 105,000 recruits into direct care providing roles last year. Skills for Care’s annual report The size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England, provides the first glimpse of workforce changes for 2023-24. 

These crucial insights are developed using data from the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS). A major incentive for care providers to contribute to ASC-WDS is access to the Workforce Development Fund, now open for 2024-25. This fund allows providers to claim back money spent on staff training and development. Care providers report that this funding helps address skills gaps, improve care quality, and boost staff morale.

4. Information Commissioner’s Office: Understanding app privacy notices (information for all providers)

The Information Commissioner’s Office has produced a series of short videos for people using apps to highlight the importance of reading and understanding how an app plans to use their personal information before they sign up. The Care Quality Commission are encouraging providers to spread the message widely among their people who use their services.

You can watch a series of short videos below:

5. REMINDER Business Energy Advice Service (BEAS) Free Energy Assessments and Grants from £1000 to £100,000 for SMEs in the West Midlands (information for all West Midlands providers)

The Pilot Business Energy Advice Service (BEAS) is offering 4000 free energy assessments to small businesses across the West Midlands. The assessments will provide recommendations for energy reduction, helping to reduce costs. Then after a business has undertaken an energy assessment there will be an opportunity to apply for a grant for commercial and industrial SMEs to facilitate investment in energy efficiency measures.

For further information, visit:

6. REMINDER Capacity Tracker training dates August – September 2024 (information for all providers)

Please find attached training dates and joining instructions for homes support and care home providers during August and September 2024.

The sessions will cover:

• How to get set up on Capacity Tracker
• What Capacity Tracker is and its general functionality
• Tips & tricks to make your service stand out
• Current government policy and guidance, related to Capacity Tracker
• How Capacity Tracker is used to source vacancies
• How Capacity Tracker benefits the health & social care system

Contact Information:

• For system support and guidance: contact NECS Capacity Tracker Support Centre - phone 0191 691 3729 or email necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net. They are open Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm, excluding public holidays.
• Changing registration, closing, change of ownership: contact the CQC - phone: 03000 616161, email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk, CQC Provider Portal. They are open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm, excluding public holidays.
• If you receive an enforcement notice: contact the NHS Business Services Authority Enforcement Team (NHSBSA) – phone: 0300 330 2088, email:enforcement@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. They are open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm.

7. Updates of News, Events and Resources from Skills for Care August-September 2024 (information for all providers)

A flyer with updates of news, events and resources from Skills for Care August-September 2024 has been circulated to providers. To request a copy, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

8. REMINDER BSoL Training Hub Student Placement Information Webinar 10 September 2024 (information for 懂阴帝 and Solihull care homes)

NHS BSoL Training Hub are looking for nursing homes with an interest in becoming placement providers for student nurses and are holding a webinar on 10 September 12:30pm – 1:30pm to provide further information. Please contact Shelly Caines Healthcare & Nurse Associate Facilitator & Practice Educator for further information shelly.caines@nhs.net

9. REMINDER Infection Prevention & Control Champions Forum 13 September 2024 (information for 懂阴帝 and Solihull care homes)

The forum for existing and new champions will be take place online via Microsoft Teams, 9:30am to 11:00am on 13 September 2024

See the joining instructions below.

Meeting ID: 361 512 473 552

Passcode: GA9Gyr

10. REMINDER Infection Prevention & Control Champion Training 20 September 2024 (information for 懂阴帝 and Solihull care homes)

Do you want to become part of the IPC champions network? A flyer with further information and details on how to book a place has been circulated to providers. If you don't have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

The date of the next IPC Champions Training Day is Friday 20 September, this will take place at The Saffron Centre, 9:00am to 5:00pm.

To book your team in to attend this event please submit the following at the earliest convenience. Forename, Surname, Occupation, Email, Contact Number

The emails and or numbers provided should be a direct contact of the attendee. Can we please ask you to limit your nominated attendees to 3 – 4 individuals, more spaces may be made available closer to the date of the event. Please note this event is for care home staff who wish to become IPC Champions, if you already occupy this role IPC will soon contact you with news regarding the next IPC forum.

To book your place(s) or for more information please contact david.sewell@nhs.net or jean.dipple@nhs.net

This is a free event held in conjunction with 懂阴帝.

11. Request from NHS England your participation to advise DHSC on care provider data needs (Information for all care providers)

Dear Colleague,

I am reaching out to you today as my team needs to gain a better understanding of the data and information needs of care providers, to help us design a new national data platform and make sure it meets the needs of the care provider sector. Could you spare us some time to discuss this please? We have funding to develop a new online tool/product (called the Data Access Platform) that will enable us to share data being submitted regularly by care providers and local authorities back with those organisations, as well as make the data available to government analysts and social care researchers. We want to share it back in ways that help those organisations to understand what the data is telling them, so (for example) they can use it to improve how they run their services.

How can you get involved?

DHSC and Made Tech (our technical supplier) are developing the solution but do not clearly understand yet what it is that care providers would most like to know from the data that they are submitting, or how they would like the data presented to them on the platform. Therefore, we need to talk to representative care providers to find out what would be most useful to share back with them.

Care providers who are willing to get involved will be asked to join a research panel. Members of the panel will be given the opportunity to opt into research activities as outlined below:

User Profile Sessions

Designed to explore your ASC data needs and challenges so we can understand what you’re currently doing and what you find difficult when it comes to collecting and working with/analysing ASC data.

• Duration: 1 hour
• Where: online sessions conducted 1-2-1 or in pairs/small groups
• When: over the next six/seven weeks

Co-Creation Sessions

These sessions are where we intend to brainstorm and design the platform together. It is vital we design the data access platform together with those who will use the platform so we can make sure it adds value. Participants could be involved in one, two or all three of these sessions, (ideally at least 2 of them).

• Duration: 1.5 hours

• Where: online sessions conducted in groups of 6 to 8people
• When: 3 sessions conducted between w/c 12 August 2024 and 2 September 2024

User Testing

To test the ideas we've created in co-creation. Ideally those involved in user testing won’t have taken part in the co-creation so we can’t get unbiased feedback on the ideas presented.

• Duration: 1 hour
• Where: online sessions conducted 1-2-1 or in pairs
• When: 2 September and 9 September 2024

There is always the option to opt out if time is difficult. All panel members will receive updates on the project.

Who are we looking for?

We want to recruit around 30 different care providers from across the following sectors to speak with as part of this project:

• Residential Care Homes
• Domiciliary Care
• Supported Living
• Shared Lives Plus

In terms who we want to speak with within the care provider organisation, we want to recruit people who

1. are involved in routinely collecting and uploading ASC data and/or analysing that data, and/or,
2. representatives who have senior responsibility for the delivery of services by your organisation, who would want answers from the platform (either by looking at the platform themselves or by asking others to do that) and make changes/improvements to their services based on the data it contains.

For both types of participants, they do not need to be highly data savvy although this is also fine. There is always the option to opt out if time is difficult. All panel members will receive updates on the project.

So, if you, or someone at your organisation is willing to get involved to help support the development of this platform, please complete this short questionnaire to answer a few quick questions about your organisation and express your interest. Once we have your response, we’ll be in touch to explore which research opportunities you are able to join.

Why should a care provider volunteer to get involved?

It is vital that the policy and technical people working on the Data Access Platform understand what the key information needs of care providers are, so that the platform can be developed to respond to those needs. Without this information directly contributed by care providers, the policy and technical staff will be left to make educated guesses about what will be useful and there is a risk that the benefits expected will not be delivered for care providers.

Involvement in the project will help those care providers to understand how a national digital project is developed, provide useful networking opportunities and give those providers involved the opportunity to steer the project in ways that will be most beneficial to their businesses.

For any further information about volunteering for this project or if you have questions about the survey, contact:

• Keir Young, Social Care Group, DHSC - keir.young@dhsc.gov.uk / 07706 672 628
• Lisa Mills, Made Tech - lisa.mills@madetech.com

Thank you,

Nesha Begum

On behalf of the Implementation team