e-communiqué No 28: health and social care news - 10 May 2013

Events

Stroke Month road shows

The Stroke Association will be visiting libraries across Hampshire during 'Action on Stroke Month' in May to raise awareness of stroke, stroke prevention and the range of services available to stroke survivors, their family and friends.

According to the Stroke Association there are nearly 18,000 people living with the effects of stroke across Hampshire. The road shows include visits to Lymington on 16 May, Havant on 21 May, and Andover on 30 May. For more information about the road shows including times and venues, please contact Josie Gray on 023 8072 0438 or email Josie.Gray(at)stroke.org.uk As well as the roadshows there are other activities planned for Action on Stroke month in Hampshire. To find out more visit www.stroke.org.uk/strokemonth

Employment Law Update

10am – 12pm, 23 May 2013, One Community, Eastleigh SO50 9AL

This workshop is designed for voluntary sector trustees, business managers and anyone else with HR or recruitment responsibilities, as well as those who might need a refresher or just want to keep up to date with employment legislation.

This event will update you on current developments and planned changes in employment law and how these can be managed to reduce the risk to your organisation. There will be opportunities to discuss any issues you may be dealing with currently. If you would like further information related to this course or to book your place, contact Carol Grant, info(at)1community.org.uk, tel 023 8090 2400.

Cost: One Community Members £25.00, Voluntary Sector/Associate Members £35.00, Public, Private Others £50.00.

Alliance briefing event

11 June, Alton

The Alliance is an umbrella body for voluntary and community sector organisations in Hampshire which predominantly provide services for children and/or young people. It is in the process of finalising the programme for a briefing event, which will include an overview and update on the Special Educational Needs & Disability Pathfinder, with a focus on Personal Budgets.

The event will also be looking at what makes a good tender bid and, in the context of safeguarding, will be hearing about the role of the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). There will be the usual opportunity to catch up with colleagues, and to network. You can book your place by emailing enquiries(at)hants-alliance.org.uk If there is a burning topic that you think they should be covering on 11 June, then please add this to your email.

Fit for the Future – delivering care and value

17 June, London

This is Social Enterprise UK’s 5th annual health conference. With the Health and Social Care Act in place, and the Francis review highlighting the importance of engagement with patients, carers and their communities, there is growing opportunity for social enterprises and the voluntary sector to deliver more health services. This is a practical event to help charities and social enterprise better engage with national health bodies and commissioners. The event is a chance for delegates to network with experts in leadership, business and organisational development, and key social enterprise leaders and national health sector influencers, as well as take part in a number of practical sessions.

http://tinyurl.com/cfq3sp2

Opportunity for carers groups and learning disability groups to shape collaboration with the CQC

18 June, London

RAISE, which supports voluntary sector organisations in the South East, is looking for representatives from carers groups or networks and learning disability groups or networks to take part in a focus group with the Care Quality Commission on Tuesday, 18 June. The focus group will take place in London (venue tbc) and RAISE will be pleased to reimburse travel expenses.

RAISE is currently working with the CQC, which regulates all health and adult social care services in England, as part of a pilot project to explore how collaboration with the VCS might help to improve the experience of local communities in health and care services. In essence it is about working together to avoid another Winterbourne View.

In particular, CQC is keen to develop partnerships so that the voices of people who use health and adult social care services are better heard and this will, in the first instance, involve the development of clear and purposeful communication channels.

Participants in the focus group will be able to meet with the two regional representatives from CQC and they will also be able to:

learn more about the work of CQC: what it does, how it operates nationally and regionally
share their work, ideas and experience with CQC
help identify how collaboration with CQC could benefit our local communities and improve their experience of health and adult social care services
have their say in identifying what information from CQC would be useful for them and their network members
be involved in co-designing a model for improved communication channels between CQC and the voluntary and community sector in the South East

In supporting CQC in taking forward their work, RAISE has stressed the importance of co-design and see this as an opportunity for their colleagues in the South East to have a strong voice in how the communication channels are developed so that they are mutually beneficial, clear and purposeful.

RAISE hopes that you would wish to get involved and join them on 18 June. If you would like to take part in the focus group or learn more about it, please do not hesitate to contact Helen Rowland, Helen(at)raise-networks.org.uk or 01483 608345. RAISE has also posted a briefing sheet on CQC on its website at http://tinyurl.com/bquyox3

Working with gender & sexual diversity in the therapeutic relationship

10am-4pm, Sat 6 July, Basingstoke

This training workshop, organised by Basingstoke & District Counselling Service, will be led by Michelle Bridgman, UKCP Registered Psychotherapist. Attendees will gain an understanding of the issues affecting people who do not fit a binary gender model and/or are transgendered. Gender & sexuality diversity will be explored. You will gain an understanding of: -

terminology
current clinical treatment pathways for people questioning their gender identity
pathways for those seeking gender re-assignment
practical ideas that can be applied in your own therapy practice
diverse sexuality
gender –v- sexuality, different or overlapping?
how psychotherapy can be effective in this field
your own fears & concerns, and how to work with them

Cost: £65 for Basingstoke voluntary counsellors and trainees, £85 for external applicants. A certificate from Basingstoke Counselling Service will be issued for CPD purposes. For more information or an application form, please contact 01256 843125 or the Head of Training on 0118 9819834, e-mail cpd(at)basingstokecounselling.org or visit www.basingstokecounselling.org.uk where you can download an application form.

Workshop with HCC Adult Services Procurement

Monday, 8 July, 9.30am - 11.30am, Winchester

At the previous workshop held with HCC Adult Services Procurement on 1 February, it was suggested that a further event could look at examples of what makes for good and bad responses in tender bids. This workshop will seek to:

give attendees advice and tips on tendering, and evaluations.
provide an update on implementation of the Public Services (Social Value) Act

There are just a few places left. To book, please contact angela.dunning(at)actionhants.org.uk

Mencap Planning for the Future events

Mencap are offering free information seminars on how to take care of someone with a learning disability when you are no longer around - by making a suitable will or setting up a trust. A local solicitor with experience of drafting wills and trusts for the benefit of people with a learning disability is present at all the seminars, and they are an ideal opportunity to ask any questions that you may have with regards to your family will.

Thursday 11 July, 6.30pm - 8.30pm; Guildford YMCA, Bridge Street, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4SB
Wednesday 18 September, 12.30pm - 2.30pm; Southampton Solent University Conference Centre, 157 - 187 Above Bar Street, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7NN

http://tinyurl.com/c4keswh

Community First HEH – Summer Training Programme 2013.

For details please go to http://tinyurl.com/ctlnt2b

Funding and finance

Tender opportunities with HCC:-

1. Hampshire Carers Services

The services will be divided into three lots:

Carers Advice, Information and Support service: will include provision of information, carers support groups, 1-to-1 support, local carers clinics, and training for carers.
Carers Emergency Planning service: to support carers to develop their own individually personalised emergency plans.
Mental Health Carer Support Worker service: will complement the existing carer support workers service provided by the County Council and include information and advice on the full range of mental health support services available in each locality, signposting and referral to additional support services, information on “Take a Break” and direct payments to ensure mental health carers benefit from these initiatives, facilitating countywide carer support worker team meetings, expertise and training available to mental health operational staff.

The contract will run from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016 with options to extend annually for a total period not in excess of three years. The approximate value of each lot for the initial term of two years will be in the range of £240,000 to £704,000. Applicants can tender for one or more lots, and documents can be requested until 7 June.

2. Panel of Preferred Providers for Adult Services Domiciliary Care, Support Services and take a break: reopened 2013

HCC Adult Services has in place a Panel of Preferred Providers for Domiciliary Care and Support Services (the ‘Panel Arrangement’ or ‘Panel’) from which it commissions some Domiciliary Care and Support Services, as the need arises.

Inclusion on the Panel does not in itself guarantee that work will be commissioned. Documents can be requested until 6 June.

For more information on both the above, visit http://tinyurl.com/c2jg6vb

HCC Children's Services Integrated (CSI) Grant

Grants can support existing, developmental, and new work. Under the CSI grant programme, universal services with open access to all children and young people, will not be given as high priority as targeted services to their primary focus groups of children and young people, namely: young carers; young parents; young offenders; living in relative poverty; victims of neglect or abuse; children in care (including post adoption); at risk because of mental health problems; lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; young people not in education, employment or training; black, minority ethnic, traveller or who are facing barriers to participation or experiencing prejudice and discrimination because of their ethnic background (including refugees and asylum seekers); and disadvantaged because of learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

The second grant round for 2013/14 is open from 25 April to 6 June 2013. Grants are available to fund projects from October 2013 to March 2014. http://tinyurl.com/bnovsgg

£27.3m grant fund to help low income families with disabled or seriously ill children

Parents of children and young adults who are disabled or seriously ill will be able to apply for a share of the £27.3m Family Fund. The money can be used for days out, garden play equipment, computers, toys and kitchen appliances like dishwashers and washing machines. Applications can be submitted at any time. Visit the website for more information on how to apply, call 0844 974 4099 or email info(at)familyfund.org.uk Applications can be made by the parent or carer, and young people aged 16 and 17 can apply in their own right. http://tinyurl.com/cwv4s6e

Guardian Healthcare Innovation Awards 2013

The Guardian Healthcare Innovation Awards are an opportunity to celebrate and share best practice across different areas of the healthcare sector – both inside and out of the NHS. They are open to everyone – hospital trusts, voluntary sector, CCGs, commissioning support units, councils, startups and social enterprises, etc.

The aim is to showcase ideas or services which significantly improve the quality or management of care for patients, and share them with the rest of the sector.

Rather than changes which simply raise efficiency or lead to a marginal change in performance, the Guardian wants to find new approaches, or the application of existing ideas in a new way or new context, which meet the challenges of addressing rising demand, implement the NHS reforms, raise quality and efficiency – and give patients a better experience.

The entry deadline is Friday, 28 June. http://tinyurl.com/c9v22xn

Regulation and registration

How to sign up for CQC email alerts on inspections at your local hospital, care homes and other care services

You can now sign up to receive an email alert when any care home, home care agency, hospital or dental practice is inspected. The service is provided by the Care Quality Commission which is responsible for registering, monitoring and inspecting all NHS, private healthcare, and adult social care services in England to make sure they are providing care which meets national standards of safety and quality.

CQC carry out unannounced inspections of services, both on a regular basis and in response to concerns. You can sign up to as many services as you like to receive reports for services anywhere across the country at www.cqc.org.uk/emailalerts If you don’t have access to the internet and would like to request a printed copy of any of CQC’s inspection reports please telephone 03000 61 61 61.

Disclosure and Barring Service

The government has published a new webpage on the Disclosure and Barring Service. It includes details of services offered by DBS, including fees and guidance on applications, and how the referrals process works. http://tinyurl.com/c5eaz7l

Policy and practice

A message from NHS England

As you’ll be aware the Health and Social Care Act 2012 placed two duties on Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) specifically around engagement with patients, carers and the public in commissioning local services. NHS England is currently developing guidance, which is to be published in June, to support all commissioners in meeting these duties and would like to ask for your input and expertise in producing this.

The guidance is about showing commissioners the range of options on offer to them that enable services to be commissioned allowing patients to be active in their own healthcare and ensuring services meet the wants and needs of the local population. This acknowledges that one size doesn’t fit all – commissioners, through the different options, can tailor their approach to the individuals and groups within their areas.

If you would like to offer your comments, please contact Rebecca.clutterbuck(at)nhs.net or call 07879 488 103. The deadline is tight with comments sought by Friday, 17 May.

Social Care Bill

The Queen’s Speech confirmed previous announcements - legislation will be introduced to reform the way long term care is paid for. It will seek to reform care and support funding by creating a cap on care costs, extend the means test threshold for financial assistance and ensure no-one has to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for residential care.

It will also enshrine a right for carers to receive support from their local council, introducing a duty to meet carers’ eligible needs for support.

Other elements include:

introduce a new adult safeguarding framework
ensure continuity of support for people who move between local authority areas
modernise more than sixty years of care and support law into a single, clear statute, built around the person not the service
create a legislative framework that helps, not hinders, integrated care
provide a new legal entitlement for everyone to a personal budget

In response to the Mid-Staffordshire fall-out it will:

introduce Ofsted-style ratings for hospitals and care homes
give the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals at the CQC power to identify problems with the quality of care and ensure action is taken
make it a criminal offence for providers to provide false and misleading information about their performance

But doubts are already being expressed about how much of the above can actually be delivered given the backdrop described by social care directors below.

Social care funding: 'a bleak outlook is getting bleaker’

A substantial squeeze on adult care services has been recorded by the latest annual survey of social care budgets carried out by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). The survey* shows that, despite much welcomed resources being transferred from the NHS to local authority-funded social care, directors of adult social services are planning to save another £800m in the 12 months to April.

Overall, in the three years since the beginning of the current austerity programme, some £2.68 bn savings will have been made by adult social care – 20% of net spending – not just through simple `back-office’ adjustments, but by "providing different, more cost effective packages of care, or reduced levels of care, to many elderly or disabled people."

Two of the most marked trends indicated by the survey show that some 13% of the planned savings (£104m) will result in direct withdrawal of services, while nearly a fifth of councils thought that a reduction in the levels of personal budgets would be 'highly important'.

The ADASS survey shows that areas likely to be 'highly important' as aids to saving resources in the coming year include:

shifting activity to cheaper settings (40%)
increased personalisation (47%)
better procurement practices (68%)

Only 14% of directors anticipated increasing charges to users as highly important, while 65% reckoned that increased prevention and early intervention would provide significant savings opportunities (spend on prevention - £588m - in 2013/14 represents only 4.2% of adult social care budgets).

When asked which areas had been affected by savings to date, some 30% of directors said that fewer people can access services, and nearly half said that providers are facing financial difficulties. 45% of councils did not increase fees to care homes at all.

50% of ADASS members think that fewer people will be able to access adult social care services in two years time
50% fear that people will be getting smaller personal budgets
57% think providers will be facing greater financial difficulty
42% anticipate more legal challenges

* The survey was conducted through April 2013. Of the 152 top-tier social services authorities in England, 145 responded. http://tinyurl.com/btz8ans

Public Health England (PHE) local centres

PHE has 15 local PHE centres. “Each local centre director will be a partner in the local public health system, which includes the voluntary and community sector, and their unique role will be to provide a range of services and expert advice that is tailored to the needs, wishes and aspirations of local government, clinical commissioning groups and the local NHS.” As well as supporting local authorities in their new role, they will work with NHS England to support it in its role as a direct commissioner of key services, including specialist services and national public health programmes. The centres will also deliver health protection services directly and in support of local government, the NHS and others.

The Wessex PHE Centre is located at Unit 8, Victory Park, Solent Business Park, Fareham PO15 7FN, tel 0845 055 2022. The director is Dr Jim O’Brien. http://tinyurl.com/bnfzjmj

Public Health England priorities for 2013 and 2014

You can read PHE’s priorities at http://tinyurl.com/cg93oq5

The Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework 2013 to 2014

Sets out the indicators for measuring adult social care outcomes in 2013 and 2014. http://tinyurl.com/d5nphcg

What's new?

Disabled children's charter for health and wellbeing boards

This charter from Every Disabled Child Matters has been developed to support health and wellbeing boards in meeting their responsibilities towards disabled children, young people and their families, including children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and health conditions. Boards who sign the charter will agree to meet its seven commitments focusing on improving health outcomes for disabled children, young people and their families, and to provide evidence after a year on how they have met each one. http://tinyurl.com/c5xhkjm

The emotional impact of stroke – Feeling Overwhelmed

Too many stroke survivors and their families are abandoned when they leave hospital and left without the support they need to help them cope with the emotional impact of stroke. A new report from the Stroke Association, Feeling Overwhelmed

Over half of stroke survivors felt depressed and 67% experienced anxiety as a direct result of their stroke. They also reported high levels of fear of a recurrent stroke (63%), anger (48%) and lack of confidence (73%).
42% of stroke survivors said they felt abandoned after leaving hospital and 79% had received no information or practical advice to help them cope with the emotional impact of stroke.
Stroke can also have a negative impact on relationships. Over half of stroke survivors (53%) have experienced difficulties in their personal relationships with a husband, wife or partner as a result of stroke.

The report also reveals that stroke causes an emotional shockwave for carers, who say that the emotional effect of caring is the most difficult aspect to cope with. The Stroke Association is calling for information, practical advice and emotional support to be made available to everyone who has had a stroke and for the emotional needs of carers to be recognised by health and social care professionals and appropriate support made available to them. http://tinyurl.com/c2wyvrm

Making managed personal budgets work for older people

Age UK's recent publication, Making managed personal budgets work for older people. What older people want, what works and how to achieve the best outcomeshttp://tinyurl.com/clcoeyb

Job opportunities

A number of new vacancies with Youth Options, the Hampshire Parent Carer Network and No Limits are on the Alliance Jobs Board. http://tinyurl.com/3yo5r3c