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Weekly update for adult social care providers

3 January 2024

Happy New Year!

Wishing all our providers and partners a very Happy New Year - we look forward to a productive year of working with you.

Latest Capacity tracker reporting windows and training dates

The reporting windows for the coming months are:

  • 8 January to 15 January 2024 (inclusive – both dates included)
  • 8 February to 14 February 2024 (inclusive – both dates included)
  • 8 March 2024 to 14 March 2024 (inclusive – both dates included)

Training dates for providers are now published on our dedicated National Capacity Tracker page.

3 November 2023

Thank you!

A big thank you from Dorset Council to all our Care Home providers in achieving 100% compliance during the DHSC October 2023 submission window and for your continued support.

Latest Capacity tracker reporting windows and training dates

The reporting windows for the coming months are:

  • 8 November to 14 November (inclusive – both dates included)
  • 8 December to 14 December (inclusive – both dates included)

Training dates for providers are now published on our dedicated National Capacity Tracker page.

Home Care Capacity Tracker Webinar, 8 November 2023 at 1:30pm

Reminder that Home Care providers have been invited to a webinar on Wednesday 08 November by Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), to share important information that they hope you will find useful. In particular, information on why the data you share with us via the Capacity Tracker is important to them.

 

The webinar will be held on Microsoft Teams – Link for the meeting | Meeting ID: 375 960 411 503 Passcode: LEX9VA

If you have any queries about this webinar, please contact capacitytrackerguidance@dhsc.gov.uk

Winter Preparedness and COVID-19 Testing

Symptomatic testing for residents eligible for COVID-19 treatments and outbreak testing will continue throughout the winter period as detailed in the IPC guidance. To enable the sector to continue to test during this time with no limitations or delay due to replenishing stock, we are giving you the opportunity to request additional stock of COVID-19 Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests. The number of tests available will depend on your total bed capacity as registered with the CQC.

Total Bed Capacity Total Tests Available

  • 10 or less 70 (10 packs of 7)
  • 11 or more 497 (71 packs of 7)

You will be able to request your additional stock of COVID-19 tests via the order portal from 20 October to the 3 November.

These are the steps you should take to complete your order request.

  • navigate to COVID-19 test order portal here
  • enter your UON (Unique Organisation Number) and press continue
  • select 'order LFD tests for winter preparedness'
  • check your organisation’s address and press continue
  • enter the total number of LFD tests that you are requesting according to the table above, and press continue
  • confirm your order request

You will receive an email when your tests have been dispatched, informing you of their delivery date. Requesting additional stock of LFD tests will not affect any orders waiting to be fulfilled or your ability to order LFD tests should you need them at a later date. If you have any urgent questions regarding testing within your setting, please contact 119.

NHS Funded Nursing Care Survey

The Department Health and Social Care (DHSC) is currently in the process of setting the 2024 to 2025 rate for NHS-funded Nursing Care (FNC). This is being informed by a one-off cost collection exercise, run via Capacity Tracker. The survey is non-mandatory, but it would be great if as many providers as possible could complete this. We are writing to you now, to give you advance notice that the survey is expected to go live on Wednesday 25 October and will be open for three weeks.

What is FNC?

Funding is provided by the NHS to residential nursing care providers to support the provision of nursing care. FNC can help manage pressure on acute hospitals and supports system flow by reducing avoidable admissions of individuals with complex discharge needs. It can also relieve pressure on NHS primary care services by enabling nursing care to be delivered within the individual’s residential home.

DHSC sets the national FNC rate which dictates the amount the NHS pays care homes delivering FNC. This is paid per resident, per week. Given wider inflationary pressures, we are now conducting a further one-off ‘cost collection exercise’ to ensure that we have the most recent and accurate data available when calculating the national rate. You might recall that we last did this in 2021.

What information is needed to complete the survey?

We would like to encourage as many providers as possible to complete this survey. Although it is optional, a greater sample size will mean more reliable results, which is why we would like to encourage you to complete the survey when it launches. When you complete the survey, please ensure that you have data on the number of residents by funding type and payroll information on both pay and hours worked by registered nurses for the two months of April 2023 and September 2023 (or your most recent completed payroll period) to hand.

Once the survey has gone live, you will see a link to it when you log into Capacity Tracker and further communications on how to complete it will be sent shortly. If you have any questions, please contact the DHSC FNC inbox at fnc@dhsc.gov.uk

For those users who update Capacity Tracker via the Provider Bulk Update Template and would like to complete the survey, please contact the Capacity Tracker Support Centre who are available Mon to Fri (excluding Public Holidays) 8am to 5pm by phoning 0191 691 3729 or emailing necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net
 

 

2 October 2023

National Capacity Tracker

The reporting windows for the coming months are:

  • 8 October to 16 October (inclusive – both dates included)
  • 8 November to 14 November (inclusive – both dates included)
  • 8 December to 14 December (inclusive – both dates included)

Training dates for providers are now published on our dedicated National Capacity Tracker page.

Discussion paper: How can care providers learn from Safeguarding Adult Reviews?

Oxford Brookes University and the Institute of Public Care have published a paper to prompt a discussion as to whether there should be a national mechanism to identify and share with care providers the most relevant learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews. 

13 September 2023

Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement (25 August 2023)

This guidance is to be used to support the response to coronavirus (COVID-19). It sets out how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in adult social care settings in England.

Change made: Updated information on accessing COVID-19 treatment and on availability of vaccination for those eligible.

The New Adult Social Care Acute Respiratory Reporting Process

Please remember to use the new web-based care OBRA Tool:

The Outbreak Risk Assessment Tool for Care Settings (Care OBRA Tool) has been used by the UKHSA South West Health Protection Team (HPT) since 31 January 2022.

It is used by Adult Social Care (ASC) settings reporting new outbreaks of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI’s) including COVID-19, Influenza (flu), unidentified ARI (e.g., chest infections), and single cases of Influenza.

Due to its success, this Care OBRA Tool has been developed further to allow care settings to report ARI outbreaks directly online via a new web-based Care OBRA Tool without needing to call/email the HPT first, thus saving valuable time.

This new web-based Care OBRA Tool being launched 22nd August 2023, incorporates a degree of automation to the assessment process and advice given, so that providers receive a copy of their submitted information immediately and an initial advice email based on the infection and risks reported.

SW HPT staff will still review the data manually and provide further advice when required.

The following link will take you to the new web-based Care OBRA Tool 

COVID-19 vaccination programme starts 11 September 2023  

COVID-19 vaccination programme is being brought forward to September 2023 from November 2023. You will be contacted by Dorset Vaccination team imminently to arrange times to visit and carry out the vaccinations on your residents.

Eligibility

All Care Home should be visited during the Autumn Winter campaign, this is all Older Adult Care Homes (OACH) and now includes all Non-Older Adult Care Homes (NOACH).

All residents in OACH, as per JVCI advice, and all residents living in a NOACH, as per NHSE advice, are eligible and therefore should offered vaccination.

Timings

All CH visits should take place between the 11 September 2023 and 22 October 2023.

Care Home visits taking place after the 22 October 2023 should be for reschedules or mop up visits.

Relevant documents relating to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme can be accessed here.

Disability and autism training

The Department for Health and Social Care has launched a consultation on the Oliver McGowan draft code of practice. The draft code of practice sets out how health and care providers, who are Care Quality Commission registered, can meet the new legislative requirement (Section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022) to ensure staff receive training on learning disabilities and autism appropriate to their role.

21 July 2023

National Capacity Tracker

Data collection reporting windows for August and September 2023 are as follows:

  • 8 August to 14 August 2023 (inclusive – both dates included)
  • 8 September to 14 September 2023 (inclusive – both dates included)

Upcoming Training for Providers

Care Home & Home Care Provider Training: Using Capacity Tracker. These sessions are aimed at Adult Social Care CQC regulated providers:

  • How to get set up on Capacity Tracker
  • What Capacity Tracker is and its general functionality
  • Tips and 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 and social care system

Joining instructions for the training sessions:

  • Sessions will be hosted on Microsoft Teams.  
  • No prior booking is required and the number of participants per session is unlimited
  • Please join the session a few minutes beforehand to allow for a prompt start 
  • Estimated duration of each session: 1 hour. 

2023 Schedule for Care Home Provider Training:

2023 Schedule for Home Care Provider Training:

 

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