The Carer Digital - Issue #56

T H E P U B L I C AT I O N F O R N U R S I N G A N D R E S I D E N T I A L C A R E H O M E S

W W W. T H E C A R E R U K . C O M

The Carer Digital

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THECARERUK

Issue 56

“Burnout” of Social Care and NHS Staff At Emergency Level Says Report

“Burnout” with staff in the NHS and social care in England has reached an “emergency” level and risks the future of the health service, MPs have warned.

A highly damning report said workers were exhausted and overstretched because of staff shortages, and said while the problems existed before the pandemic coronavirus has worsened the pressures.

The report gathered various data from NHS surveys and evidence given to a committee of MPs at an inquiry, highlighting the issues regarding staff shortages; the impact of workforce burnout; workplace culture; impact of Covid-19 on burnout; and workforce planning.

In the report, ‘Workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and social care’, the committee said the absence of a ‘People Plan’ for social care is widening the disparity in recognition and support for the social care components of health and social care.

The report notes a Skills for Care estimate in October 2020 that put the staff turnover rate in the adult social care sector at 30.4 per cent in 2019-20, equivalent to around 430,000 people leaving their jobs, and the the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) told MPs that, prior to the onset of the pandemic, there were 50,000 nursing vacancies in the UK.

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PAGE 2 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT Welcome to the latest edition of The Carer Digital!

Our lead story makes rather concerning reading, but will come of no surprise to anyone.

The report has caused an outcry with demands for immediate action, but those involved in the sector know only too well that the issue of staff burnout has been an ongoing issue for years. Covid has simply exacerbated it.

Pre pandemic a report highlighted the fact that there are 112,000 vacancies in any given day, and turnover rate was a staggering 32.2%.

Covid has put unprecedented pressure on people working in primary and secondary care, but is is disingenuous to think that this is a Covid issue which will, once we emerge from Covid, simply ‘disappear”.

Another study has revealed that healthcare workers feel undervalued and feel to be a “disposable resource”, which again will come as no surprise.

Pre-pandemic the sector was already experiencing absenteeism, recruitment, retention and turnover.

Staff shortages are the key factor according to the report, which invariably has an impact of workload. In his oral evidence, Professor Michael West of the King’s Fund, explained to MPs sitting on the Committee, the relationship between excessive workload and burnout: “I want to be clear about the issue of excessive workload.

"The danger is that we do not see it. It is like the pattern on the wallpaper that we no longer see, but it is the No. 1 predictor of staff stress and staff intention to quit.” He added.

Low pay and reward was also a factor, which again has been an ongoing issue for years. MPs said in the report: ‘The low pay is a particular issue in the social care workforce.

‘For the Local Government Association (LGA), pay was not the only area of reward discrepancy between the social care and NHS workforces, with less favourable sick pay and pension arrangements likely where social care workers are employed in the independent sector rather than by a local authority.

“It also pointed out that NHS workers were also more likely to have access to retail and other discounts, although this was beginning to change'.

Successive governments have in all honesty “kicked the can down the road”, taking the sector and staff for granted.

Which is a real pity. Since the pandemic broke, many people furloughed from other sectors, in particular hospitality, crossed over to the adult social care sector. A real opportunity, albeit due to a crisis, to help resolve the staffing crisis.

Many people in the social care sector who do leave their jobs stay within the sector,

Editor

Peter Adams

which indicates, for the moment at least, social care is not losing staff to other sectors.

There will be no quick fix and as Martin Green OBE of Care England rightly says, money alone is not the answer.

We here at THE CARER have seen just how committed and dedicated those working in the sector are, at care events, and feedback generally, in particular in the response we receive to our “Unsung Hero” award.

Industry bodies, experts and observers have provided the government with a template to address the key issues of the report, its no good having committee after committee investigation if those recommendations are not carried out.

I do hope that the government will now seriously look at implementing a long term strategic plan which is give the sector the badly needed boost of confidence it is crying out for.

On a side not, a story in this issue about a training programme which involves table tennis took me back! I was “back in the day” a handy player, playing Merseyside youth tournaments, great game, and great initiative by Community Integrated Care.

I hope to see a table at one of the forthcoming trade shows, to see if I have retained the “talents of my youth”!!

We here at The Carer have also launched another Unsung Hero award!

Yes, our “no-frills glitz or glamour” award of a luxury hamper for somebody working in a residential/nursing care environment from any department who has gone the extra mile and deserves a bit of recognition! (See page 17).

Nominations are open until July 9th so please email us at The Carer with a small paragraph of what your nominee has done and why you think they are worthy of recognition to nominate@thecareruk.com Once again we have called on some of the industry’s “leading lights” for insight, advice guidance and best practice, and are always delighted to print the many “uplifting stories” we receive from care homes and staff around the country so please do keep them coming! I can always be contacted at editor@thecareruk.com

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THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 3

“Burnout” of Social Care and NHS Staff At Emergency Level Says Report (CONTINUED FROM FRONT COVER....)

MPs said: “The emergency that workforce burnout has become will not be solved without a total overhaul of the way the NHS does workforce planning.

“After the pandemic, which revealed so many critical staff shortages, the least we can do for staff is to show there’s a long-term solution to those shortages, ultimately the biggest driver of burnout.”

The also MPs said that, while issues such as excessive workloads may not be solved overnight, staff should be given the confidence that a long-term solution is in place.

“The way that the NHS does workforce planning is at best opaque and at worst responsible for the unacceptable pressure on the current workforce which existed even before the pandemic,” the study said.

Workforce burnout across the NHS and care systems now presents an extraordinarily dangerous risk to the future functioning of both services,’ said Jeremy Hunt MP, committee chair.

‘An absence of proper, detailed workforce planning has contributed to this, and was exposed by the pandemic with its many demands on staff. However, staff shortages existed long before Covid-19.’

The King’s Fund research said NHS staff were 50% more likely to experience high levels of work-related stress compared to the general working population.

Professor Michael West of the King’s Fund, explained to the Committee: “The danger is that we do not see it. It is like the pattern on the wallpaper that we no longer see, but it is the No. 1 predictor of staff stress and staff intention to quit.”

“It is also the No. 1 predictor of patient dissatisfaction. It is highly associated with the level of errors.Unless we have a well worked-out plan for how we can fill all the vacancies and reduce the attrition rate of staff in the NHS we are going to be in trouble”.

Responding to the report Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Social care staff have been on the frontline throughout the pandemic, doing everything they can to protect people of all ages from the dreadful effects of coronavirus.

“Despite their extraordinary endeavours, this report rightly highlights we still face a huge recruitment and retention crisis in social care, with more than 100,000 vacancies available on any given day and extremely high turnover rates.

“Social care deserves parity of esteem with the NHS and action is desperately needed for the care workforce including on pay, conditions, professionalisation, skills and training.

“All of those who work in and draw upon social care need a sustainable, long-term funding solution to how we provide care and support, which allows people to live the lives they want to lead. We urge govern-

ment to bring forward its proposals as soon as possible and before the summer parliamentary recess.”

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, says: “Whilst the workforce is resilient it is only as resilient as the funding and support behind it hence the need for adequate long-term support for the sector. We want to work with the Prime Minister to ensure that his promise to reform social care is delivered upon and carries the views and experiences of those at the front line. Money alone is not the answer, we need to ensure that social care is established as a career with the kudos associated with due professionalisation and one way to deliver that would be a ten year plan for workforce akin to that of the NHS”.

The inquiry examined workforce burnout across the NHS and social care in particular the increased pressures brought about by COVID-19 and the resilience of services to cope with high levels of staff stress.https://committees.parliament.uk/work/494/workforce-burnoutand-resilience-in-the-nhs-and-social-care/ The key recommendations are as follows: • Repeats call for Health Education England to publish objective, transparent and independently audited annual reports on workforce projections covering next five, ten and twenty years, including assessment of whether sufficient numbers are being trained • Workforce projections should cover social care as well as the NHS • DHSC should produce a People Plan for social care as a priority, aligned to the ambitions set out in the NHS People Plan • Level of resources allocated to mental health support for health and care staff should be maintained as and when the NHS and social care return to ‘business as usual’ after the pandemic • NHS England should review role of targets across the NHS which seeks to balance the operational grip they undoubtedly deliver to senior managers against the risks of inadvertently creating a culture which deprioritises care of both staff and patients.

Martin Green continues: “As we made clear in our written submission and oral evidence, health and social care are two sides of the same coin.

It is therefore essential that the adult social care workforce has the same access to resources as colleagues in the NHS. Maintaining the financial sustainability of social care providers is of fundamental importance in maintaining the capacity of the integrated health and care system and the resilience of the adult social care workforce”.

Dr Katherine Henderson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “The findings of the report may be shocking to some but will come as no surprise to health leaders and health care workers. The College has long raised concerns about workforce shortages, staff burnout and lack of funding, and has been calling for a workforce plan and a joined-up strategy to manage the exit from the pandemic.

“The health service is facing an overwhelmingly challenging time and the previous lack of workforce planning has let existing health and social care staff down. The workforce was short of staff before the pandemic. Existing staff, after 15 months of incredibly tough work when they lived on adrenaline and a lot of good will, are now facing a significant jump in demand and pressure. They are exhausted and burned out, physically and mentally, and many have had little, or no respite and are now back in the deep end facing a rise in intense pressures and hospital activity. And there is a growing risk that senior clinicians could retire early, or junior staff leave the profession, leaving a less experienced and smaller workforce behind.

“Following the publication of the Health and Social Care committee’s report we hope that the Government and Members of Parliament will now recognise the severity of challenges that the health service and its staff face and take necessary actions. The Health and Social Care committee provide welcome and detailed recommendations. If no action is taken, there will be, as the report says, ‘an extraordinarily dangerous risk to the future functioning of both services’.”

Dr Hodon Abdi and Dr Dave Chung co-chairs of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committee, added: “The HSC committee report lays out the disparities between staff from an ethnic minority background and their white counterparts. In Emergency Medicine alone, data from our own staff survey showed that during the first wave of the pandemic, one third of staff from an ethnic minority background were “very concerned” about their health compared with only 8% of white staff.

“The report goes on to reference the Workforce Race Equality Standard Report, the NHS Staff Survey, and quoting health leaders and data from a range of sources including: the BMA; NHS Providers; The King’s Fund; NHS Confederation; and other medical Royal Colleges.

“The sheer amount of evidence makes it clear that staff from an ethnic minority background face negative experiences including bullying and abuse, employment barriers, workplace issues and inequalities within the NHS. “Nearly one quarter of the NHS workforce is made up of staff from ethnic minority groups, so when the treatment of staff from these groups appears to be institutional and systemic, it must be met with swift and effective action and support for those affected. Racism, racist behaviours, disparities, and inequalities are completely unacceptable and the failure to address these issues is a failure to staff affected. The NHS has a duty to its workforce and must do everything in its power to build an inclusive environment that values all staff equitably and equally.”

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Why Regular Movement Holds the Key to Physical and Mental Wellbeing

By Philippa Shirtcliffe, Head of Care Quality, QCS (www.qcs.co.uk) “Less exercise and more TV” is how some headline writers summarised University College London’s (UCL) survey on physical activity during the lockdown.

UCL’s study, which included 70,000 people, found that 40 percent of them did less exercise in the last lockdown than in the first, while 19 percent said they watched more television.

Another poll – this time conducted by the Youth Sport Trust – which was taken last year – found that 73 percent of teachers interviewed say that “children have returned (to school) with low levels of physical fitness.

The care sector has been badly affected too. I’m unaware of any polls that have been conducted surveying exercise levels amongst care staff.

However, anecdotally at least, I can say that many professional carers, that I have spoken to, say that long hours, which are often compounded by staff shortages or staff absences, give them little time to take a walk for enjoyment, go for a run or take a swim – hobbies that many of them took for granted before the pandemic.

THE IMPORTANT OF MOVEMENT But why bring up this subject now? Well, research published on the ‘On Your Feet Britain’ website, a national activity awareness day, which takes place this Thursday, extols both the benefits of “regular movement”.

While most of us are already aware of the value of exercise, the ‘On Your Feet Britain’ campaign page also reminds us that physical activity is not only important for physical health but “increases concentration” and “improves motivation”.

At QCS, the leading provider of content, guidance and standards for the social care sector, it’s something that my colleagues and me are all too aware of. Our senior leadership team openly encourages staff to make time for exercise and mindfulness. We use Microsoft Teams to run group yoga classes, we schedule ‘walking’ meetings and participate in exercise and wellbeing challenges. Last year we took part in the Kaido Challenge, which required team members to do a set amount of exercise each day for forty days. It helped to forge a wonderful sense of

comradeship within each team, not to mention improving group fitness.

EXERCISE FOR MENTAL WELLBEING Unfortunately, not every leadership team or every sector recognises the value of exercise as a vehicle for wellbeing, or has the luxury of doing so.

Take the care sector, for example. It is currently experiencing a mental health crisis. According to the GMB Union, which includes 620,000 workers from a myriad of different sectors, 75 percent of professional carers have suffered “worsened mental health” as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

While we need to see greater investment in mental health services, wobble rooms and counselling, there is no doubt that exercise – both physical and mental - has a key role to play too. Exercise stimulates endorphins, which leave people feeling happier, more positive, and, most importantly, less stressed.

COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP NEEDED TO FOSTER A CULTURE OF EXERCISE But it takes strong leadership from Registered Managers to have the courage to insist that walking, running, swimming, cycling, yoga or mediation are built into the average working day.

Implementing such a programme, however, is not as hard as it sounds. It is really about making movement an inherent part of the culture. It’s also about starting with small changes. So, for example, ask yourself, ‘does every video conferencing meeting need to be conducted while seated?’ If not, think how many of your Zoom meetings could be carried out while standing or even walking? If you enjoy a lunchtime walk, then why not combine it with a Zoom meeting? Could you do your morning handover as a stand-up meeting?

There is also affirmative action that only Registered Managers can take to encourage movement amongst staff. If, for example, several staff members have professed a desire to cycle to and from work, do they have the indoor and outdoor facilities that they need to support their bike rides? In other words, are there enough secure bike racks outside the care home? And, are there showering facilities?

GOVERNMENT HELP ALSO NEEDED Alternatively, if it's the gym or the swimming pool that care professionals most want to access, then Registered Managers from larger carer groups may find that local leisure centres are prepared to offer their staff discounts. However, it is likely that staff working for smaller residential homes and domiciliary care providers may not be automati-

cally able to benefit in the same way. My advice, therefore, would be to write to the local authority and re-emphasise the point that care workers are extremely valued members of the community and have a right to use all of the facilities that those earning a higher wage enjoy. Low pay should be a barrier for hard working people – particularly care workers – to access leisure centres. In addition to the vast slew of reforms that the government has promised to make, it should also consider providing care sector workers with free access to leisure centres and mental health services.

When taking into account the selflessness, dedication and courage of care professionals in the pandemic, this is a suggestion that the vast majority of the population would agree with, but anyone who takes a different view should at least see the practical side of the argument for doing so. In addition to better pay, care workers desperately need to have access to these services and key facilities. There is a possibility that this won’t be the last pandemic we see in our lifetimes, and if we are to contain future health crises, then we’ll need an agile, resourceful and resilient army of health care workers to make a significant impact.

They’ll need to be both physically and mentally strong to demonstrate the same bravery and dedication that today’s care workers have exhibited in the current pandemic.

Sadly, when this crisis finally begins to abate, many care workers will leave the profession feeling that they have could not give any more.

Perhaps the greatest learning point is that as a society we did not protect and safeguard care worker’s mental health. We need to learn the lessons of history and give our care professionals the tools and the support they need to make a profound difference.

Promoting movement on Thursday, April, 29th may not seem like a big step in reaching that goal, but if it persuades even a handful of Registered Managers to include exercise as a raft of holistic wellbeing measures that safeguard mental and physical wellbeing, then it is has done its job.

ON YOUR FEET THEN, BRITAIN! If you wish to find out more about QCS , why not contact QCS’s compliance advisors on 0333-405-3333 or email sales@qcs.co.uk?

To learn more about ‘On Your Feet, Britain’, please see the following link: https://onyourfeetday.com

Learning Disability Charity Launches Campaign To Ensure Flexible Support And ‘No Bedtimes’ Councils As lockdown restrictions ease and venues begin reopening a major lobbying campaign has been launched by learning disability charity Stay Up Late. The campaign seeks to end institutionalised practices and inflexible support provision that leaves far too many adults with a learning disability unable to enjoy the things they want to do.

The charity has written to directors of social care across the country calling on them to ensure all contracts with support providers make clear that they must operate flexible provision.

The letter, written with input from the charity’s team of Stay Up Late Ambassadors who all have a learning disability and/or autism, states: “We know of some great support providers who have flexible rotas meaning that people with learning disabilities can be supported to live the lives they choose – which of course includes the right to Stay Up Late and have a good social life too.

We know how important this is ourselves and makes us happy in our lives. Sadly though we see and hear of lots of examples of where support is inflexible. Before lockdown you could go to any club night for people with learning disabilities and watch the dance floor empty at 9pm.”

The letter goes on to call for every local authority commissioning social care to become a ‘No Bedtimes Council’ and makes three key demands:

Talk to your commissioning teams and change all contracts so they have a clear expectation that rotas will be flexible to allow people to stay out late.

Tell us if you already do this anyway If you can’t do this please tell us why so we can understand better what the problems are Jason O’Neill, one of the charity’s Ambassadors, commented: “I think we need to help people with a disability or a learning disability to stay up late and go to gigs. For example, going to a pub or a music concert to have fun, just like other people do.”

Shannara Woodward, another Ambassador with the charity, added: “I want councils around the UK to listen to us and get involved. Once a council finds out about it and they start work then it’s like a domino effect.”

Stay Up Late is also urging members of the public to lobby their own local councillors supporting this call. People can get in touch directly with their own local representatives via the charity’s #NoBedtimes campaign page here: https://stayuplate.org/the-stayup-late-campaign/no-bedtimes-campaign/ The letter has been sent to all Directors of Social Care in local authorities in England. Stay Up Late will be working closely with colleagues in Scotland and Wales to pursue similar approaches with the relevant local authorities there.

Read the letter at https://thecareruk.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/06/Stay-Up-Late-letter-to-councils.pdf

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 5

PHE Guidance On Use Of Enhanced PPE Is ‘Step In The Right Direction’, Says BMA Responding to updated guidance from Public Health England on infection prevention and control in healthcare settings, which recommends the wider use of respiratory protective equipment for staff where a risk cannot otherwise be managed, BMA council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “Throughout the pandemic the BMA has led the calls for adequate protection for healthcare workers battling this disease on the front line. Not least, as evidence emerged of the way the virus spread through the air, we have consistently called on the Government and policymakers to take a precautionary approach to PPE, by recommending the wider use of appropriate PPE such as FFP3 respirators.

“Today’s updated guidance is therefore a step in the right direction, and asserts the legal obligations of carrying out proper risk assessments and implementing specific measures to manage risks. Crucially, it recommends that respiratory PPE (such as FFP3 masks) must be considered where the threat from passing on Covid remains high, and should not be limited to those areas where ‘aerosol-generating

procedures’ (AGP) are taking place. This means extending their use to those staff whose exposure to airborne particles from a patient is no less, and whose risk of contracting Covid is therefore no less than for those engaged in those procedures classified as AGPs. “Despite the majority of staff now having been vaccinated with two doses, it is important that those working on the front line should be given stronger guarantees with appropriate PPE (rather than just surgical masks), given that no vaccine provides complete protection. With the new variant being highly transmissible and more resistant to vaccines, we cannot give the virus any opportunity to spread if we have the means to prevent it.

“Ultimately, if doctors become infected, not only is there a risk that they pass on the virus to patients, but if they become very ill they are unable to provide care and patients do not get the treatment they need.

“Therefore, employers must now look at this guidance and implement it locally, protecting staff, and in doing so, protecting patients and minimising the wider impact on health services.”

Residents At Local Care Home Are Delighted By Return Of Pet Therapy Barchester Southgate Beaumont care home, in Enfield, was full of animal mischief when Toby the Yorkie – Pom came to visit the home. Residents and staff were delighted to meet their new four legged friend.

General Manager Beatrice Godfrey said: “Our residents have really enjoyed their furry visitor today.

We knew that having Toby here would be a bit of fun for all our residents, especially as some find it a little difficult getting out and about. We are always looking for different activities for the residents and we have seen the seen the enjoyment and the therapeutic influence animals can have on people and we would like to thanks Toby and Asil for spending time with us today.”

Resident Hazel was very excited to meet Toby: “As a child we had a poodle. I have so many won-

derful memories of our dog. I love animals, I am also a cat fan you know. Today was very enjoyable and it was wonderful that Toby and his trusty assistant Asil came to see us.”

Resident Ivan said “Toby is a great little character, he gave a great furry cuddle and we can’t wait to see him again next week”

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PAGE 6 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

What Can We Expect from the CQC’s New Strategy for the Changing World of Health and Social Care?

By Shannett Thompson, healthcare regulatory partner at Kingsley Napley (www.kingsleynapley.co.uk)

On 27 May 2021, the Care Quality Commission (the “CQC”) launched its new strategy for 2021 and beyond which 'champions regulation driven by people's experiences of care'.

The strategy describes a number of key shifts the CQC will adopt, both in terms of its regulatory role and its approach in performing its regulatory function, which care home owners and care home professionals should be aware of.

As well as an 'unremitting focus on safety”, there is a new emphasis on the culture that operates in care homes and listening to those who work in the sector and the families it serves.

THE CQC SETS OUT ITS AMBITIONS UNDER 4 THEMES: 1. A focus on what matters to people and communities when they access, use and move between services.

Notable here is the intention to prioritise listening to feedback and to implement better tools to enable the CQC to identify and engage with the public including a commitment to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society. Doing more to reach different groups of people and raise public awareness of the CQC and its role as a regulator also features prominently, with an aim of empowering people and providing greater transparency on how the CQC views what is good and outstanding care.

2. Ensuring smarter regulation that is more dynamic and flexible in approach to enable the CQC to better target its resources to manage risk and, when care is poor, to respond effectively and proportionately.

Traditionally, the CQC’s method of quality assessment has predominantly involved carrying out routine on-site inspections to observe and

rate the care people receive. Its new strategy suggests a move away from reliance on such, towards an approach that is more flexible and targeted.

This marks quite a considerable change for the CQC and could be more favourable for providers in the health and social care sector. The present inspection model has a significant margin for error since it can only realistically provide a snapshot based on what the inspectors see and hear during the process. The new approach should mean greater emphasis on the CQC conversing and engaging with services and local systems around quality in a much more on-going fashion, and carrying out on-site inspections only when there is a clear need to do so. Then the focus of on-site inspections will be less on monitoring activity and analysing paperwork and more about talking with service users and staff. The proposed outcome of this new way of assessing quality will be more meaningful ratings.

The fact this will be supported by better data integration and better digital platforms should also make it easier for service providers to work with the CQC, via more efficient submitting of data. The aim is to minimise duplication and the creation of unnecessary workload.

3. Regulating organisational cultures to improve safety through learning, focusing on improving expertise, listening and acting on people’s experiences, and taking clear and proactive action when safety does not improve.

The CQC is not alone as a regulator in attaching greater importance to culture. For the care sector of course a strong safety culture is important to ensure “risks aren’t overlooked, ignored or hidden – and staff can report concerns openly and honestly, confident that they won’t be blamed.”

The CQC will expect service providers it regulates to demonstrate that learning and improvement are the primary response when anyone raises concerns. It will also focus more on the types of care setting where there is a greater risk of a poor culture going undetected, acknowledging that people in particular services are often afraid or unable to speak up for themselves and more likely to be failed by a poor culture.

The strategy indicates a pragmatic and determined approach will be adopted, whereby the CQC will use its powers and act quickly where it deems improvements take too long or where the changes proposed by a service provider under investigation for poor culture will not be sustainable: “We’ll take action where services are unable to identify systemic issues in their own organisational culture or fail to learn lessons from widely publicised failures happening across health and care.”

4. Spotlighting priority areas to accelerate improvement by collaborating and strengthening its relationships with services and the people who use them.

We expect the CQC to be more heavily engaged in collaborating with local services and systems and offering greater clarity on the standards it expects. A new programme of activity is also suggested to drive change, involving the publication of new guidance, tools and frameworks to inform and support good practice. This is likely to include examples of what works based on findings from the CQC’s in-depth reviews, and more activity around research it undertakes to drive evidence-based improvements in practice. It is clear that the CQC intends to play a more active role in setting clear expectations, enabling access to support, and empowering services, in addition to its core regulatory and enforcement role where it observes poor care.

CONCLUSION This is a strategy aligning the CQC with the aims of the recent Government white paper on Health and Social Care reform requiring increased collaboration between the CQC as regulator and the local community systems and services it regulates and supporting the shift to more integrated services.

As ever the proof of the pudding will be in how quickly the CQC gears up and evolves in practice to support these ambitions. For those working in the care sector it is surely good news that greater engagement and collaboration underlie many of these changes and that the standards the CQC expects will be clearer. On the other hand, where poor practices and culture exists, there is a greater chance a light will be shone and continuous assessment will require a more concerted effort to meet obligations and deliver on improvements.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 7

Over 40 Million People Receive First Dose of Covid-19 Vaccine in UK Over 40 million people in the UK have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the latest figures show, as the UK’s vaccination programme continues at pace.

Health services across the UK have now administered a total of 67,287,864 vaccines between 8 December and 05 June, including 40,124,229 people with first doses [76.2%] and 27,160,635 people with both doses [51.6%] ensuring they have the strongest possible protection against COVID-19 from a second dose.

A recent study by Public Health England (PHE) shows that two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant first identified in India. Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant is similar after two doses compared to the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant dominant in the UK, and we expect to see even higher levels of effectiveness against hospitalisation and death.

The government met its target of offering a vaccine to the most vulnerable by 15 April and remains on track to offer a first dose to all adults by the end of July. NHS England has extended the offer of a vaccine to everyone over the age of 30.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “It is an astonishing achievement to deliver over 40 million first doses in under six months. In all corners of the UK, people are rolling up their

sleeves when their time comes to protect themselves and the people around them.

“It seems with every day we pass another major vaccination milestone on the road back to recovery. Over three quarters of adults have received a first dose and over half of adults have now been vaccinated with the life-saving second dose.

“I pay tribute to the tireless work of the NHS, volunteers and armed forces in building this momentum – but our work is not yet done. I encourage everyone who is eligible to join the millions who have the fullest possible protection from this virus by getting their jab when the time comes.”

Last week, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced that Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine was authorised for use in the UK. It is expected doses will become available later this year. The single-dose vaccine was shown to be 67 per cent effective overall in preventing COVID-19 infection and 85% effective in preventing severe disease or hospitalisation.

To ensure people have the strongest possible protection against COVID-19, appointments for second doses have been brought forward from 12 to 8 weeks for the remaining people in the top nine priority groups who have yet to receive both doses.

The move follows updated advice from the independent experts at

the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which has

considered the latest available evidence and has recommended reducing the dosing interval to counter the threat of new variants of concern.

The government and its scientific experts are monitoring the evolving situation and rates of variants closely, and will not hesitate to take additional action as necessary.

Vaccines Minister, Nadhim Zahawi said: “Our vaccination programme, the biggest and most successful in NHS history, has now delivered over 40 million first doses into arms – a fantastic achievement.

“I am incredibly proud of everyone involved who have worked tirelessly to help us reach milestone after milestone. It is time to redouble our efforts on the second dose, to ensure everyone has maximum protection.

“The offer is open to everyone over the age of 30, so when you’re eligible, get the jab. It could save your life and protect your loved ones.”

Vaccinated people are far less likely to get COVID-19 with symptoms.

Vaccinated people are even more unlikely to get serious COVID-19, to be admitted to hospital, or to die from it and there is growing evidence that vaccinated people are less likely to pass the virus to others.

Nicola Sturgeon To Consult On National Care Service For Scotland Scotland’s first Minister Nicola Sturgeon has promised to consult on legislation to establish a National Care Service in Scotland.

Setting out her priorities for government, the First Minister said the consultation will begin in the next hundred days, with the aim of introducing legislation in the first year of parliament, adding that service is planned to be operational by the end of this parliament, as one of its “most important and enduring legacies”.

The promise comes after the Scottish National Party said in its election manifesto that it would take forward recommendations of the independent Feeley review and create a National Care Service in the next parliamentary term.

The National Care Service is set to oversee the delivery of care, improve standards, ensure enhanced pay and conditions for workers and provide better support for unpaid carers.

The First Minister said: “The plans I have set out are unashamedly ambitious. We will tackle the COVID crisis as our immediate priority. We will lead by example in addressing the climate crisis. We will create a National Care Service, to match the post-war National Health Service.

We will widen opportunities for young people.

“We will build a modern, high-tech economy, while staying true to enduring values of fairness and compassion. We will seek a better politics. And we will put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.

“Our programme is rooted in today’s reality. But it also shows the way to a brighter tomorrow.”

The National Care Service will be operational within this five-year term of the Scottish Parliament, the Health Secretary has said.

Humza Yousaf said legislation for the new service will be laid within a year, while consultation will begin within the Government’s first 100

days in office.

Mr Yousaf said: “This will be the most significant public sector reform since the creation of the NHS in 1948 and will be operational within the five-year lifetime of this parliament.

“In our first 100 days we will begin consultation on the necessary legislation with a view to introducing it within the first year of this parliament.

“We will also establish a social covenant steering group including those with lived experience who use our care services.”

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard welcomed the move but said it must include a review of finance. “Over the past six months, no part of our society has been more tragically hit by Covid-19 than our care homes. Today’s announcement of a review is a welcome signal of intent. But time is running out.”

PAGE 8 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

Will Care Homes Face An Uncertain Future Without Further Financial Support?

By John Rozenbroek, CFO/COO at Capify (www.capify.co.uk) Care home workers have been at the forefront of the battle against coronavirus, and the sector has faced incredible challenges throughout this pandemic.

As the world struggled to control the spread of the virus, care homes were amongst the worst hit and had to prioritise protecting resident’s health above all else. Now, as we begin to emerge from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 we are beginning to see the true financial impact this has had on the sector.

Reduced revenue due to a drop in the number of residents; an increased need for workers; high staff turnover and the additional cost of PPE and other safety measures within care homes has had a significant impact on cash flow for these businesses.

Care England estimated that the cost for adequate PPE during the coronavirus outbreak to be a huge £253 per care home resident, per week. This is an enormous increase on pre-pandemic costs, which were reported to be around £4 per resident, per week.

The pandemic has highlighted just how crucial care homes are and the important role they play in supporting our loved ones at the end of their lives. However, there are fears now that without further financial support, the sector will suffer, and so will the level of care residents have access to.

We recently completed a survey of SME owners – many of which are in the care sector – and 43 per cent of businesses believed the support offered by the government throughout the pandemic has not been good enough.

On top of that, our survey showed that more than 80% were still looking for finance to support them, despite the many different support schemes that have been introduced.

As lockdown restrictions continue to ease and the country starts to reopen, do care homes really have everything they need to recover from this crisis?

THE NEED FOR GOVERNMENT SUPPORT Unlike NHS-run hospitals, care homes are often privately owned businesses and therefore their revenue comes from patient fees. In an effort to help the sector in its recovery, the Government announced additional financial support for care homes, including a £600 million adult social care infection control fund. However, this funding was distributed across local authorities and deployed at their discretion, and therefore wasn’t readily available to every care home business.

However, as of March 2021 the government had lent over £76 billion to businesses, including many health and social work companies, through its four main financial loans schemes; Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), Coronavirus Larger Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and the Future Fund.

The statistics show that the government’s BBLS has now provided more than £46bn in funding to more than 1.5m businesses, while the CBILS has lent more than £24bn to almost 100,000 businesses.

According to a House of Commons report, health and social work businesses made up four per cent of the

total loan value of both the CBILS and BBLS, totalling more than £2.3bn provided to more than 60,000 businesses across the UK. The figures are huge, and although it was announced earlier this year that the new ‘Pay as You Grow’ scheme would give businesses with a Bounce Back Loan more time to repay their loans if they need it, the problem is much bigger than that.

Businesses we speak to have either accessed the schemes already and now need a second injection of capital, or they were not able to access the scheme in the first place, so are facing the challenge of determining what they can do now.

For many businesses that did access the schemes, we know that money has already been used to help them through what was a hugely challenging period, so very little if any has been carried forward to look at future growth or investment.

Boosting cash flow was the top priority for 57% of businesses in our survey, proving there is still huge demand for working capital. For adult care homes having working capital to ensure high-quality care can be given to all residents and that they have the staff needed to deliver this is absolutely key. Cash in the bank is a necessity.

On top of all of this, the pandemic has put enormous pressure on workers within the care sector and as a result, many businesses have experienced high staff turnover and sickness, leading to a shortage of key skills.

The State of Health Care and Adult Social Care report gives an indication of the toll the pandemic has had on the social care workforce with 7.5% of working days lost to staff sickness, compared with 2.7% pre-COVID-19.

We know that there's a huge amount of resilience and determination amongst the UK's small businesses, which really are the backbone of the UK economy.

But it's clear that SMEs, and especially those within the care sector are still in desperate need of finance this year despite the huge amounts of money that have been lent through the BBLS and CBILS. The Pay as You Grow scheme will provide some welcome relief for many businesses, but it does not address the fundamental issue, which is that SMEs still need finance.

THE ROLE OF TRADITIONAL BANKS Traditional banks continue to make it difficult for SMEs to get the finance they so desperately need to get back on their feet properly, which I believe means that alternative lenders like ourselves will have a crucial role to play in the months that lie ahead. We’re seeing increasing demand from SMEs across the care sector, where we have a strong customer base already, as well as lots of other industries, which is linked to the £50m Small Business Fund we created to help businesses get moving again.

The majority of the UK’s ‘big banks’ are much happier lending to larger businesses with a long track record of profitability. But that doesn’t help SMEs and the impacts of the pandemic will have damaged the chances of many smaller businesses getting finance from a big bank.

That’s where I think the fintech industry will need to step up more than ever before to help companies bridge the gap. There’s already been huge growth with more and more business owners looking to get finance more quickly; with a simpler approach and with more flexibility. For these reasons, I expect 2021 will be a big year for alternative lenders with the support for the care sector set to be high on the agenda.

UK Music And Music For Dementia Join Forces On Ground-Breaking Power Of Music Survey UK Music and Music for Dementia have joined forces on a ground-breaking project to show how music can play a more vital role in improving health and wellbeing.

As part of the project, the collective voice for the music industry and the campaign have launched a nationwide ‘Power of Music’ survey.

The survey, which is open to everyone – organisations and individuals – will contribute findings to further discussions with government about the right policy interventions needed to enhance music’s role in health and wellbeing.

Questions include the role for music in improving care for those living with psychological and physical conditions, barriers that might prevent greater partnership, and what more could be done to support the use of music in health and wellbeing in care.

UK Music and Music for Dementia are keen to get as many responses as possible from both individuals and organisations before the survey closes on June 30th.

The decision to undertake the survey followed a top-level meeting in April when UK Music and Music for Dementia brought together Government Ministers, music industry and healthcare leaders, charities and other stakeholders to discuss the benefits to health and wellbeing that music can bring.

Among those who attended the online event were DCMS Minister

Caroline Dinenage MP, Health Minister Nadine Dorries MP, UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, Music for Dementia Campaign Director Grace Meadows, and representatives from Arts Council England, National Health Service, National Care Forum and the Alzheimer’s Society, among others.

In recent years there has been increasing evidence to show the power that music can have in supporting those with a variety of conditions including dementia, depression, autism and those in need of endof-life support.

According to the BPI’s All About The Music 2021, 94% said music helped lift their mood during lockdown and 73% said that they felt more able to manage their anxiety levels thanks to listening to music during the pandemic.

The Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing said that music therapy reduced agitation and the need for medication in 67% cent of people with dementia.

A study in 2017 by the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine revealed 96% of patients in a controlled study had positive responses to music therapy. Vocal and emotional interventions were two of the most effective means of improving symptoms which included pain, anxiety, depression, shortness of breath and mood.

UK Music Chief Executive, Jamie Njoku Goodwin, said: “Music has an incredible potential to improve lives in all sorts of ways – and this is especially true when it comes to health and wellbeing.

“I’m determined to seize these opportunities and make sure we capitalise on the astonishing power of music to improve health and wellbeing. I’ve been blown away by the huge appetite across the music industry, the health and care sector, and Government to do more in this area.”

“The Power of Music project that we have launched with Music for Dementia will enable us to gather views from across the sector, develop clear recommendations for what needs to be done, and bring about the positive changes we all want to see.”

Music for Dementia Campaign Director, Grace Meadows said: “The transformative power of music is unquestionable and never before have we seen that come to the fore as we have over this past year, particularly for people living with dementia.

“We have an opportunity now, provided by government, to think and act together from across sectors, about what we can do together to make music more central in our lives to support our health and wellbeing.

“I would urge everyone to contribute to this consultation and provide vital insights into the most effective and innovative ways we can do this, together.”

LINK TO SURVEY: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/55TQ7FW

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 9

Thousands Support #Fixcareforall People across the nations have been supporting MHA’s #FixCareForAll campaign which calls for the Government to bring forward proposals to reform adult social care at the earliest opportunity.

Launched before the Queen’s Speech, which yet again failed to bring forward details of what social care reform could look like, the campaign has seen people publicly pledge their support along with high profile organisations.

So far, more than 790 letters have been sent by people to MPs calling for reform after a poll for the campaign highlighted that more than two thirds of people believed social care should be a top priority for the Government with almost half (43%) believing the Government doesn’t care about the needs of older people. In addition, more than 600,000 have supported the campaign on social media.

The campaign is being run by older person’s charity MHA, the largest charitable care provider in the country.

MHA Chief Executive Sam Monaghan said: “The numbers of people supporting our campaign and backing our calls shows that the general public are increasingly concerned that this critical issue keeps being shelved. We will be keeping up this pressure to #FixCareForAll until firm proposals are published and we can scrutinise

them.

“We are now heading towards the 100th week since the Prime Minister stood on the doorstep of Number 10 and pledged to fix social care once and for all with prepared plans that the sector is still yet to see. The time for action is now upon us.”

High profile individuals and organisations supporting the campaign include Deborah Alsina, CEO of Independent Age, Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia UK, NHS Confederation, Jane Ashcroft CEO of Anchor Hanover, Kate Henderson, CEO of National Housing Federation, and trade bodies such as Care England and NCF. Deborah Alsina said: “With the end of the pandemic in sight, it’s essential that we invest in the care sector and its staff as their vital role supporting people in need of care has been so vividly highlighted.

“The government cannot continue to ignore the desperate need to fix social care.

People in later life, their families and many working age adults who need care support are being let down and denied the opportunity to live their best lives. The government must meet the moment and deliver bold reforms.”

To find out more about the campaign and add your support, go to www.fixcareforall.co.uk

Local Care Home Residents Go On Safari

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Hugh Myddelton House care home in Enfield were treated to an exciting live streaming tour of Knowsley Safari, hosted by Engagement Assistant, Verity Dann.

Knowsley Safari has been welcoming visitors for 50 years since it opened in July 1971. Situated in the Knowsley area of Merseyside, the safari park is home to 750 animals on a 550 acre site, it boasts the longest safari drive in the UK. Verity’s workshop took a peek behind the scenes at Knowsley to find out what it is really like to work in such a demanding yet rewarding world. Residents discovered what a day in the life of a keeper entails from feeding time with the giraffes and meerkats through to training sessions and everything in between. Verity explained some of the conservation projects that Knowsley Safari is involved with and how this is positively affecting some of the world’s most endangered species.

Verity says: “We really enjoyed being able to show the Barchester residents a selection of the fantastic animals we have at Knowsley Safari, we are very proud of the work our brilliant teams do here. We were just so happy to be able to share our passion for wildlife conservation and answer all the residents’ questions.”

Lucy Tomlinson, Resident Experience Manager for Barchester Healthcare, commented: “We have been using technology to keep our

residents and patients connected with their loved ones as well as offer live streaming events, entertainment and activities throughout the pandemic. We are excited to work with our amazing partners like Knowsley Safari to bring a wide range of different experiences into our homes for all to enjoy, particularly as this talk provided such a lovely

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opportunity to see so many different animals and learn all kinds of intriguing facts about them.

“Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active and socially connected, providing a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities,” Lucy added.

General Manager, Ramona Stanciu said: “Our residents are fascinated by animals and so we were delighted to be able to take part in this fantastic workshop. It was brilliant to be able to ask Verity and the team questions about their experiences of working with the different animals.”

We are welcoming new residents into our homes to ensure that we are there for those that need care and support. We’re making our homes as safe as possible and will ensure that all new residents and staff are vaccinated before moving in or working in our homes. Please do give us a call on 020 8886 4099 if you are looking for care or need any further help.

Hugh Myddelton House is run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering highquality care across its care homes and hospitals. Hugh Myddelton House provides [nursing care, residential care, respite care.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 11

FDA Approves Licence for Alzheimer’s Drug Aducanumab in US The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it has granted a licence for the drug aducanumab (known commercially as Aduhelm) in people with Alzheimer’s disease in the US, with expectation of a further stage four clinical trial. This marks the first time a drug has been approved for dementia treatment in nearly 20 years.

The ruling will see aducanumab, an antibody treatment developed by the pharmaceutical company Biogen, made available to patients in the US. It was approved via the Accelerated Approval pathway. Accelerated approval can be based on the drug’s effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict a clinical benefit to patients, with a required post-approval trial to verify that the drug provides the expected clinical benefit. If the drug does not work as intended, they can take steps to remove it from the market.

The UK regulator, the MHRA, and EU regulator, the EMA, are expected to give their decisions on whether to grant the drug a similar or different form of licence this autumn.

Alzheimer’s Research UK has today written to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to request that the evaluation process by UK authorities be accelerated.

There are an estimated 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia, most commonly caused by Alzheimer’s disease, and it is the leading cause of death in England. With an ageing population and currently no treatments available to delay the onset or reduce the progression of diseases that cause dementia, this number is set to rise to 1.3 million by 2030.

Aducanumab is designed to target amyloid, one of the hallmark proteins that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s at an early

stage in the disease process. The drug is given through an infusion into a person’s arm and was tested in people who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and very early stage of Alzheimer’s who have had amyloid detected in their brains using a PET scan. However, early information suggests the FDA’s licence appears to be broad enough to cover anyone with Alzheimer’s disease, with the FDA highlighting uncertainties around the clinical benefit.

In 2019, Biogen stopped its two phase III trials of aducanumab (called EMERGE and ENGAGE) because early indications suggested the drug would not show sufficient benefit to patients. However, after further analysis the drug company announced they were filing for FDA approval based on results from one of the studies showing a noticeable slowing of cognitive decline in people on higher doses of the drug.

Over recent months, the trial results and submission have sparked debate about how regulators judge the effectiveness of any new Alzheimer’s treatment, and how meaningful the impact of a drug would need to be on someone’s day-to-day life to meet that threshold.

In November 2020 the FDA’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee voted against approval of aducanumab over concerns that the evidence did not support its effectiveness. However, in today’s ruling the FDA have stated that they will assess the further evidence of benefit in the post-approval clinical trial and as greater numbers of people receive the treatment.

Hilary Evans, Chief Executive at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “The decision by the FDA marks a pivotal moment in the search for lifechanging new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The approval is a

positive step forward for people with Alzheimer’s disease in the US and we welcome the opportunity for Biogen to conduct a post-approval clinical trial to reveal more about the potential real-world benefits of aducanumab. Aducanumab will be the first ever drug to reach patients in the US that tackles the underlying disease process itself. The findings of these additional studies could pave the way for a new generation of life-changing drug treatments.

“People with dementia and their families have been waiting far too long for life-changing new treatments. It is now essential that regulatory authorities here assess the evidence to decide whether they believe the drug is safe and effective for use in the UK. Alzheimer’s Research UK has today written to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock calling on the government to prioritise and accelerate this process, to give people with Alzheimer’s the answers they need as quickly as possible.

“We hope this historic ruling has an immediate positive impact on the global search for effective dementia treatments. Aducanumab was only tested in certain individuals with early Alzheimer’s, so renewed focus and investment in dementia research will speed up the search for lifechanging treatments for those with other dementias, and in the later stages of disease.”

“Aducanumab is still some way from reaching patients in the UK, but Alzheimer’s Research UK continues to work tirelessly to prepare the UK health system so that any new drug can reach those who need it most without delay. Research has the potential to transform the lives of everyone affected by dementia and we will keep working to make more breakthroughs possible.”

Decline In COVID Deaths Reassuring But We Must Not Rush To Finish Line The UK has announced zero daily Covid deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the first time since March 2020.

The latest figures also reported another 3,165 new cases, compared with 3,383 on Monday and 2,493 one week ago.

The death rate has been steadily falling, between Weeks 19 and 20, the number of deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) decreased in care homes (5 fewer), hospitals (30 fewer) and private homes (9 fewer).

There were 4 deaths in other locations, the same as in Week 19. Deaths involving COVID-19 in hospitals as a proportion of all deaths in hospitals fell to 1.6% in Week 20 (2.2% in Week 19). Deaths involving COVID19 in care homes accounted for 1.1% of all deaths in care homes, an

decrease from Week 19 (1.3%).

Commenting on the latest mortality figures published by the ONS, Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said: “The fall in the number of deaths from COVID-19 is reassuring – but the race is not yet won, and it is imperative these figures do not change direction. The evidence shows rising infections associated with COVID-19 variants, which is particularly concerning as some people have not yet had their first or second vaccinations. Given predictions of a summer wave of infections, the government must now use all available data to consider carefully whether 21 June is the right date for lifting all restrictions.

“It is of real concern that cases are climbing quickly, and our members are increasingly worried that this will lead to more hospital admissions. The more people with COVID-19, the more impact there will be on recovering other services – including the huge backlog of elective treatment.

“If this roadmap is truly to lead us to recovery, the government must consider all options, including slowing the pace of lifting the last elements of lockdown. We have come a long way, thanks to public adherence to restrictions and to the vaccination programme, but slow and steady will win this race – rushing to the finish line could backfire.”

PAGE 12 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

#GladtoCare Awareness Week Returns Following the Success of Initial Launch Person Centred Software and Autumna are thrilled to announce that #GladtoCare Awareness Week is returning for a second year.

Following the great success of the 2020 inaugural event, which saw over 250 care homes take part and the #GladtoCare hashtag used over 25,000 times in just one week, it is hoped that this second-time celebration will become an annual awareness week.

Created in admiration of the care sector, #GladtoCare Awareness Week serves as a celebration to resilient care workers, following what has undeniably been a trying period for the industry. It shows appreciation for the extraordinary contributions that carers make to the lives of recipients of care, their families, and community members, reassuring families currently looking for care and in turn resulting in improving occupancy for providers.

Spearheaded by Person Centred Software and Autumna, two major

players in the care industry, #GladtoCare Awareness Week 2021 will take place from Monday 5th July to Friday 9th July 2021. Throughout the week, participants will be invited to join in with a variety of fun and innovative activities designed to get the entire care community and its residents involved.

Speaking of the initiative, Jonathan Papworth, co-founder of Person Centred Software, said: “The response to the inaugural #GladtoCare Awareness Week was fantastic and saw hundreds of care providers across the UK get involved at the height of the pandemic. One year on, and with the COVID-19 still very much impacting the sector, we were keen for the event to return.”

"We hope that as many care providers and care workers will get involved as possible to shine a light on all of the incredible work that’s been done, and continues to be done, within the industry, much of which often goes unnoticed and underappreciated," Jonathan concluded.

Various initiatives during the week will encourage carers to highlight reasons why they are ‘#GladtoCare’. Through the sharing of stories, photos and videos on their social channels, participants will be asked to

Anna Chaplaincy: Here To Help!

Anna Chaplaincy began just over 11 years ago with one person - the former broadcaster Debbie Thrower, in Alton in Hampshire. Now, it’s a rapidly growing, widely respected nationwide ministry with Anna Chaplains and people in equivalent roles, in places as diverse as Orkney and Cornwall, south Wales and the Scottish highlands, Cumbria and Kent, Cheltenham and Newcastle.

The purpose of Anna Chaplaincy – named after

the widow, Anna, in the Bible – is to offer spiritual care for older people and their carers, to advocate on their behalf and to champion their contribution to the wider community.

As Debbie Thrower explains: "Our vision is to see an Anna Chaplain in every small- and medium-sized community in the country, and for the Anna Chaplain name to become synonymous with spiritual care for older people."

Anna Chaplains work closely with care home managers and staff and carry out a wide range of activities in care homes and in the wider community.

In normal times, being an Anna Chaplain involves visiting older people wherever they may be living, meeting one-to-one, hearing life-stories, taking services and home communion, drinking tea, praying, making music or simply holding someone’s hand in

showcase milestone moments that have made them feel particularly proud to be caregivers, providing inspiration for people to consider careers within the industry.

Care providers and care workers are encouraged to register their participation in the campaign by visiting www.gladtocare.com. Here, they will receive a free #GladtoCare digital toolkit, including decorative bunting, display posters, social media frames, and a bespoke activity calendar full of ideas for getting its residents involved including a virtual fitness session.

For more information on #GladtoCare Awareness Week, and how to get involved, please visit www.gladtocare.com.

To keep up-to-date with the events of #GladtoCare Awareness Week, please follow the #GladtoCare social channels: https://twitter.com/gladtocare https://www.linkedin.com/company/gladtocare/ https://www.facebook.com/gladtocare/ https://www.instagram.com/gladtocare/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyfrGGsJau5MkHqituoiqTQ

companionable silence. They also offer pastoral support to front-line care home staff.

But for Anna Chaplains, as for everyone else, these have been far from normal times. They haven’t been able to go into care homes or make home visits for months but, ever creative and adaptable, they’ve switched to Zoom and FaceTime, window visits, telephone calls, handwritten notes and individual gift bags of tea and cake.

Former nurse, Sally Rees, was ordained priest and commissioned as Anna Chaplaincy Lead for Wales, in a small socially distanced but very special service at Brecon Cathedral late last September.

"I’ve been part of the Anna Chaplaincy network from the very first gathering,’ she says, ‘so I’ve been witness to Anna Chaplaincy growing.

"Lockdown has been very difficult for Anna Chaplains, their teams, and the people for whom we care. But in this time when we can’t ‘do’, our praying for people is no small thing – praying is never a small thing, but in these times I really do believe our

goal is to do that deeper prayer, which protects and holds and keeps."

As the whole area of social care, and support for the older members of our communities, moves centre stage as a result of the pandemic, (The Carer 12.04.21), Anna Chaplains are uniquely placed to share their wisdom and experience with practitioners and policy-makers alike. Increasingly, team leaders Debbie Thrower and Julia Burton-Jones are consulted by government, church leaders and academics and there is an increasing demand for Anna Chaplaincy training and resources. In an indication of the growing regard for the work of Anna Chaplaincy, Debbie Thrower was honoured to lead a special service on BBC Radio 4 to commemorate the 125,000 people who lost their lives in the first year of pandemic.

For more information go to www.annachaplaincy.org.uk.

Anna Chaplaincy is a ministry of the charity BRF. For more information go to www.brf.org.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 13

Local MP and Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab Becomes Whiteley’s Latest Volunteer Recruit The Whiteley Homes Trust welcomed VIP volunteer, Dominic Raab MP, who joined their team to help highlight the work of its charity in supporting low income, vulnerable older people in Surrey, during national Volunteers’ Week.

This week, as part of national Volunteers’ Week 2021 (1-7 June), The Whiteley Homes Trust has been celebrating our amazing volunteers who do so much to support the work of our charity here at Whiteley Village. The team were delighted to be joined by an extra special volunteer recruit- Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab, local MP (Esher and Walton), Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State.

Mr Raab joined staff and volunteers preparing and delivering fish and chips to residents in our cottages and Huntley House extra care centre, including 96-year-old war veteran Roy Lavender, who talked briefly about his experience of fighting in Normandy after D-Day – the 77th anniversary of which is celebrated on Sunday (6th June).

Director of Care and Community, Kevin Humphrys said: “We’re really proud of the work our charity does for older people on low incomes and our brilliant volunteers are right at the heart of it. We were very grateful to Mr Raab for visiting us today and for the time he took to chat to people. Fish & Chip Friday

is hugely popular at Whiteley and was a perfect opportunity to show how our volunteers work side by side with our staff. It was great to see him get involved – filling up the fish and chip boxes, and a lovely surprise for our residents to have a VIP delivery too!”

Whiteley Clubhouse Manager, Sylvie Izzard said: “It was great to meet Dominic today and for the team to have their hard work and commitment recognised and appreciated. Before the pandemic we only served hot meals from the Clubhouse, but when lockdown started the Trust had to close all its public facilities. To make sure we could keep supporting residents, we had to set up a new meals-on-wheels service, which delivered a daily hot meal to any Whiteley resident who needed one. It proved so popular that we’re still running the service today. Our staff supported deliveries initially, but it would not have been possible to continue without the dedication of our fantastic team of volunteers.”

Dominic Raab said: “It was great to mark Volunteers’ Week by delivering fish & chips to residents at Whiteley Village. There’s a fantastic community spirit here, and I enjoyed meeting the residents and staff, hearing their stories and experiences. Thank you to Whiteley Village for inviting me, and to all the local volunteers who have gone above and beyond during the pandemic.”

Bluebird Care Swindon Carer Named ‘Domiciliary Carer of the Year’ Christina Guy, a Carer at Bluebird Care Swindon, has been named as the ‘Domiciliary Carer of the Year’ in the Swindon and Wiltshire Health and Social Care Awards.

Christina secured the award in recognition for her outstanding dedication to her customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first lockdown, Christina shut down the area that she works to ensure that she was the only Carer visiting her customers. This meant that those she visited were as safe as possible from the virus and, by choice, worked seven days a week for over six months to ensure they all received continual exceptional care.

During this time, Christina supported her customers with different tasks, such as shopping or picking up medication when friends or family were either unable to leave their house or unable to visit. She also took books and DVDs to customers to make sure that they were kept entertained at a time when people couldn’t visit, and libraries and other local entertainment venues were closed.

As a result of her efforts, not one of Christina’s customers were affected by COVID19, having all received safe and industry-leading care throughout this period.

Christina was nominated for the award by two of her customers as well as the Bluebird Care Swindon office. Reflecting on her heroic efforts, a child of one of her customers said that during the last year Christina had “gone above and beyond to

ensure the safety” of their 101-year-old mother.

Speaking of her award win, Christina said: “It’s safe to say I was very shocked to have won the Domiciliary Carer of the Year award and feel very privileged to have done so. I couldn’t have done what I did without a fabulous support network, including my family, friends and the Bluebird Care Swindon team. All of these people supported me throughout the pandemic so I could focus on supporting my customers.

“I did what I thought was right for the people I care for, however the customers and families also sacrificed throughout this time to allow us to bubble as we did and I would like to thank them for this. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to do my bit and help people where I could.

“I would like to congratulate all of the nominees in the Swindon and Wiltshire Health and Social Care awards – in my opinion we are all winners.”

Speaking of Christina’s exceptional dedication to her customers, Lauren Flannigan who nominated her for the award and also works at Bluebird Care Swindon, said: “Christina has worked for Bluebird Care for around five years now and been a carer for many years before that. She is an asset to our team and very well loved by her customers and she upholds extremely high standards at all times.”

PAGE 14 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

Equality and Human Rights Commission Gives Green Light to Mandatory Vaccines in Care Homes

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published its response to the Government consultation on making vaccines mandatory in care homes.

The EHRC emphatically supports mandatory vaccines in residential care homes, stating ‘in our view it is therefore reasonable to require care home staff to be vaccinated in order to work directly with older and disabled people’.

Matthew Hendra, a Senior Associate, and James Sage, a Partner and Head of Social Care at Royds Withy King (www.roydswithyking.com) comment.

One of the key areas of challenge for any requirement for mandatory vaccination would be that it breaches a worker’s right to respect for private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This is a qualified right and may be infringed where doing so is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim (such as protecting health).

The endorsement from the ECHR for mandatory vaccination will give the Government confidence over the legal arguments and likely paves the way for the Government to proceed with its proposals. It also serves as useful guidance for care providers considering making vaccination a condition of employment.

THE ECHR RESPONSE

The EHRC fully support the national vaccination programme, saying it ‘is an essential step in protecting public health and the right to life and removing significant restrictions to our freedoms, participation in the community, and family lives’.

They concluded that the Government’s actions in ‘protecting the right to life has rightly been prioritised’ and ’in legislating for mandatory vaccination the Government is right to prioritise protection of the right to life for residents and staff’.

As justification for its position it also noted the effectiveness of vaccines, finding that they provided good protection against serious illness and death as well as some protection against transmission.

Importantly, the EHRC said there must be safeguards to ensure proportionality, as well as minimising the risk of discrimination and breach of workers’ human rights, including: Legal exemptions – there should be exemptions for the ‘small number of people who cannot medically take the vaccine’.

For those unable to be vaccinated, alternatives should be considered, including PPE, rapid testing and redeployment No worker should suffer financial detriment as a result of taking the vaccination (travel, loss of pay etc) Reasonable adjustments must be made for disabled people who are unable to be vaccinated so that they are not disadvantaged, for example by agreeing redeployment away from front-line roles, at an equivalent grade and rate of pay Recruitment questions about health (including vaccination status) should be compatible with section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 Adverts should clearly state that medically exempt people can apply.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS The ECHR response acknowledges the significant impact that making the vaccine mandatory could have on staff retention in the sector.

Vaccine hesitancy is greatest amongst ethnic minority groups and women, who make up a high proportion of the care workforce. The ECHR recommends that these issues are properly debated in parliament before the Government proceeds with its proposals.

We agree that this is a fundamental issue. The consultation suggests that staff can be “redeployed” if they refuse the vaccine but the reality is that this is not possible in the social care sector, in the way that it is in the NHS, and there is the potential for high numbers of care staff to lose their jobs.

Approximately 20% of the workforce is unvaccinated and the prospect of care providers being forced to dismiss them is a serious concern. Recruitment is already a significant challenge and there are over 100,000 vacancies already existing in the sector.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? We await the Government’s decision on whether it plans to amend the Health and Social Care Act to make vaccinations a legal requirement in residential care homes.

If the proposal is implemented, the Government’s proposal is that care managers will be required to carry out checks to ensure its workforce are vaccinated or medically exempt. This could create a significant additional administrative burden on managers and it is imperative that an effective system is put in place to make it workable in practice.

CQC will be tasked with enforcement and the consultation envisages that vaccination rates will be used by CQC to determine which homes to inspect.

Should employers introduce mandatory vaccinations now?

Employers coming within the scope of the current Government proposal should wait for the Government decision wherever possible.

Other employers who wish to implement mandatory vaccines now would be wise to follow the EHRC’s approach in carefully weighing up the effect on workers’ and customers’ rights.

Legal advice should be taken on the process of implementing mandatory vaccinations and how to minimise the risk of claims, including: · Unfair dismissal (where employees resign or are dismissed for not vaccinating); and · Discrimination (particularly where employees are unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons).

The NACC Awards 2021 Launch To Recognise The Unsung Heroes of Care Catering The National Association of Care Catering (NACC) has officially launched the NACC Awards 2021.

The prestigious awards are open for entries with a deadline of Friday 16 July 2021.

From care homes to community services, such as Meals on Wheels and Lunch Clubs, NACC members are invited and encouraged to recognise the unsung heroes within their organisations and the care catering sector.

The judges are looking for inspirational examples of care catering innovation, excellence and dedication in the following categories: The Triumph Over Adversity Award, sponsored by Bullseye Food Packaging Care Establishment of the Year Award, sponsored by Hobart UK Meals on Wheels Award, sponsored by apetito Catering Team of the Year Award, sponsored by CaterCloud Catering Manager of the Year Award, sponsored by Unilever Food Solutions Our Care Catering Hero Award, sponsored by Premier Foods The Triumph Over Adversity Award has returned for 2021, reflecting the ongoing challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic presents within the care sector and to recognise the significant business and/or personal difficulties teams and individuals have overcome to ensure the continued delivery of a quality meal service for residents and clients.

The shortlisted finalists will be revealed in August, with the overall

winners announced and honoured by NACC members, industry colleagues and friends at a special gala awards dinner on Thursday 7th October 2021 at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, as part of the NACC Training & Development Forum 2021*.

In addition to the five categories open for nominations, the recipients of the Pam Rhodes Outstanding Achievement Award, sponsored

by Anglia Crown, the National Chair’s Award and the ever-popular NACC Region of the Year Award, sponsored by Meiko, will be declared.

The NACC Awards 2021 nomination brochure with full nomination requirements can be downloaded here.

Sue Cawthray, National Chair of the NACC, said: “The NACC Awards are an incredibly important part of the NACC calendar of events and our opportunity to showcase and celebrate the exceptional talent, innovation and dedication that care caterers across the country consistently demonstrate.

“Good food and nutrition coupled with uplifting dining experiences are fundamental to quality care. Care caterers are keenly aware of the impact mealtimes can have on both physical and mental wellbeing and their desire to do the very best by their residents and clients drives excellence in our sector. This has never been more evident than throughout the pandemic, which has been a particularly challenging for care catering. Through our awards we have the privilege of sharing the many inspirational stories and initiatives. I encourage all our members to enter the NACC Awards 2021 and give our frontline unsung heroes the recognition they deserve.

“This year’s gala dinner will be an extremely special event as, once again, we will be able to get together with our members, industry colleagues and friends to celebrate our finalist and winners, and all the amazing accomplishments of our sector over the past year.”

Entry to the NACC Awards 2021 is open to members of the NACC. For more information about how to become a member visit www.thenacc.co.uk.

New Transparent Face Mask Shields Your Smile, Without Hiding It! Newly launched Smile Shield has a transparent panel to aid communication, whilst offering medical grade protection, and meeting all elements of the government’s Transparent Face Mask Specification. Smile Shield has also over 98% bacterial filtration efficiency, is breathable, splash proof and hypoallergenic.

It is a British invention, created by two founders Jennifer and Lisa, who also own TAD medical, known for its range of medical supplies, already widely used by hospitals, educational facilities and the emergency Services.

Jennifer Soboslay, Founder of Smile Shield comments: “Visual facial expression is a huge benefit to many industries, as communication is so important to us all, especially a smile, which can change the sentiment of the information being shared or be

encouraging without words. The Smile Shield allows lip reading, visible facial expressions, and a clearer understanding and connection between people to take place.”

The Smile Shield™ can also be used as a surgical mask.

The clear front panel makes the mouth visible, which is especially important for those caring for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, have a learning disability, or suffer with autism or dementia.

Soboslay, adds: “We saw a gap in the market for a medical grade mask with a clear panel, that can be used by healthcare providers.”

Hypoallergenic and latex free, the Smile Shield mask is comfortable to wear and offers over 98% Bacterial Filtration Efficiency. For more information about Smile Shield, please visit: www.smileshieldmask.com.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 15

Minister Promises Care Crisis Visit

A Government minister has promised to visit care on the frontline following a visit by a campaigner battling to get the Government to tackle a crisis in the way we look after older and vulnerable people.

The Chair of provider organisation the Independent Care Group (ICG), Mike Padgham, met Care Minister Helen Whately in Westminster over the challenges facing social care.

And during the visit, the Minister promised to visit Mr Padgham’s home county of North Yorkshire, when her diary allowed.

Mr Padgham said after the meeting: “We didn’t expect all the solu-

tions straight away and there are no quick fixes, we are going to have to keep up the pressure. But she has agreed to visit Yorkshire, when her diary allows, to see the challenges we face, which is positive.

“She also listened to our concern that providers are facing a battle for survival against financial ruin following the pandemic.

“Many, including those who took in discharged Covid-19 patients from hospitals, are now facing dire financial difficulties because their occupancy rates have not recovered and they have been battered by other soaring costs associated with Covid-19, including higher staffing costs, extra PPE costs and high insurance premiums.

“The Minister shared our passion for staff within social care to have a proper career path and we stressed that those workers needed to be rewarded properly for the job they do.

“She also listened to our plea for care providers to be made low or zero-rated for VAT, again to alleviate some of the financial pressures on them during the current crisis.

“We were also able to discuss issues facing homecare providers and the challenges faced by those who look after people in their own home, a central plank in the Government’s care policy.

“Looking further ahead we were able to share with her the urgency of overall reform of the sector, which we feel should include NHS and social care being merged so that only one body is responsible for cradle to the grave care.”

In a document from the ICG, Mr Padgham set out a blueprint for reform.

It reminded the Minister that £8bn has been cut from social care

spending since 2010 with the result that at least 1.5m people are now living in this country without the care they need. A shortage of staff means care settings are struggling to provide the care that they can offer – there are at least 120,000 vacancies in the care sector on any one day.

As a starting point the ICG wants to see: • A root and branch overhaul of the way social care is planned and funded • NHS care and social care to be merged and managed either locally or nationally • Extra funding for social care, funded by taxation or National Insurance • Dementia treated like other high priority illnesses, like cancer and heart disease • A fixed percentage of GDP to be spent on social care • Social care businesses to be zero-rated for VAT. “I am sure the Minister is aware of all the issues and we didn’t go into this meeting expecting any overnight transformations. But I would describe the meeting as positive and constructive and I got the impression that the Minister cared, in particular about maintaining good quality care for the future,” Mr Padgham added. “This was just a start. We hope the Minister will come to visit Yorkshire and that we can keep up the dialogue. In the 30+ years I have been working in social care, I probably found the Minister the most receptive of any I have previously met.

“There is a long way to go before we have achieved the level of social care reform that the country needs and we must all keep up the pressure on the Government to move on this and to bring forward proposals soon.”

Chippy Teas All Round At Local Care Home Staff and residents at Barchester’s Magnolia court care home in Hampstead had a fantastic time celebrating National Fish & Chip Day on Friday 4th June, surely one of the best days of the year!

Alfred, our Head chef at Magnolia court whipped up a selection of different flavoured batters for residents to try along with some home-made tartare sauce and mushy peas, everyone had a great time guessing the different batter ingredients. Our Hospitality team Priscillia and Marvel were happy to share the day with us. Later on they enjoyed a quiz where they were tested on fun fish & chip facts.

General Manager, Octavian Stanciu said: “It wasn’t just the residents that were excited when we found out there was a National Fish & Chip Day, the eyes of all our staff lit up too – fish & chips are such an iconic dish, everyone loves them and it’s even better when there is a good excuse to eat them!”

Bill, our residents’ Ambassador at Magnolia court commented: “We’ve all had

such a lovely day. Fish and chips accompanied by a cold glass of beer is delicious, it’s always been my favourite – you can’t beat fish & chips as far as I’m concerned!”

Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active, and provides a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities.

We’re making our homes as safe as possible and will ensure that all new residents and staff are vaccinated before moving in or working in our homes.

Please do give us a call on 0208 731 9881 if you are looking for care or need any further help.

Magnolia court is run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering high-quality care across its care homes and hospitals. Magnolia court provides nursing care, residential care, respite care.

PAGE 16 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

How To Prevent Infection Spreading with Safer Bed Bathing

By Elizabeth Jamieson, Senior Product Manager, Vernacare (www.vernacare.com) Daily assisted bed bathing is usually provided for critically ill or immobile patients to help improve personal hygiene and skin care, promote comfort, and most importantly prevent infection. Poor hygiene can cause a build-up of pathogens on the skin, which can increase infection risk.

One research study found that 51% of patients in ICU were infected, the vast majority with a healthcare-associated infection (HCAI).

Moreover, it is thought that up to 39% of patients have at least one hospital-associated pathogen on their hands within 48 hours of hospital admission.

Critically ill patients are at greater risk for skin colonization and infection with multidrug-resistant organisms. Supporting those in hospital or community care settings with a lack of mobility, to cleanse regularly, is a fundamental aspect of nursing care.

There are several assisted bathing solutions available that help to provide a body wash for the elderly or those with limited mobility. Keep reading for our recommendations.

REUSABLE WASHCLOTH Reusable washcloths, which are often used across multiple patients, are well known for harbouring bacteria and should be replaced with a single-use disposable body wipe or cloth. This is particularly important for patients who are immunocompromised or critically ill, or those whose skin integrity is compromised, for example, patients with burns.

WATERBORNE BACTERIAL INFECTION Tap water meets stringent safety standards, but it is not sterile; as

DAILY CHLORHEXIDINE BATHING The use of chlorhexidine wipes in hospitals, as well as other CHG based products, has increased over recent years, leading to concerns that repeated exposure of bacteria to chlorhexidine might result in resistance. Some suggest that if clinical use of chlorhexidine continues to increase, it is important to be alert to the possibility that this may lead to the emergence of new clones with reduced susceptibility.

Indiscriminate chlorhexidine use in the absence of efficacy data should be discouraged.

RINSE-FREE BED BATHING TECHNIQUES – BEST PRACTICE

such bacteria and other microbes may be present when the water leaves the tap. For typical household uses these microbes rarely pose a serious health risk, however, in healthcare settings, patients might be more vulnerable to infection.

In recent years, research has indicated that water systems can act as a source of P.aeruginosa transmission in healthcare settings, and as a result, many infection prevention specialists advise that tap water should be avoided when caring for critically ill patients.

The development of water-free systems are giving healthcare providers a range of no-rinse body wash wipes to choose from when cleaning patients or residents.

Rinse-free washing eliminates: • Reusable components (such as reusable face washcloths) • The use of water (which can be responsible for waterborne infectious diseases) • The use of harsh disinfectants (similar to those used in CHG Bath wipes) The soft single use washcloths available contain a unique combination of skin cleansers to help remove sweat, dirt, urine, and faeces from the skin. Use one single-use cloth per anatomical region to ensure effective cleansing and minimised risk of cross-contamination.

If performed correctly, it is widely accepted that the mechanical action of wiping will remove most harmful bacteria from the skin, without the requirement for a biocide within the formulation.

Salad Days For Green-Fingered Care Home Residents Green fingered care home residents at a Wrexham care home are growing their own fruit and veg.

Residents at Pendine Park’s Penybryn and Bryn Bella homes have formed their own gardening club and are hoping for a bumper crop despite the wash out of the May weather.

The project is being led by horticultural expert Andrew Jones who has been helping them cultivate a delicious array of summer salad ingredients so they can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Andrew is head gardener with Pendine Park which has seven care homes in Wrexham and another, Bryn Seiont Newydd, in Caernarfon.

He enjoys overseeing the gardening club and is delighted to be running it again after its activities had to be suspended due to the lockdown restrictions of the pandemic.

Pendine Park artist in residence Sarah Edwards said residents had missed the club which is often combined with arts and crafts classes.

She said: “Today, as well as planting young tomatoes into bigger pots, our residents have also been painting plant pots in an array of colourful patterns and colours to make them more vibrant.

“Despite this year’s unpredictable weather it is great to have the gardening club up and running again albeit with social distancing restrictions still in place and protective masks on. The chance to get outside a little and back in touch with the world of nature is uplifting for us all.”

Resident Tony Ithell enjoys gardening and said he greatly missed the gardening club when it wasn’t in action.

“It made me sad not to be able to help as much with the planting,” he said.

Andrew said the best way to eat summer tomatoes is picked just after they have been ripened by the sun, straight from the plant when their flavour is unbeatable.

“Perfect”, he said. “It is one of the best flavours in the world.”

Andrew added: “We have had some lovely crops of new potatoes here in past years, great hot with melted butter on.”

Andrew has been with Pendine Park seven years and enjoys it immensely.

He heads up a professional team of four gardeners tending the nine acres grounds of Pendine Park’s Summerhill-based homes as well as looking after the gardens at the organisation’s sister home, Gwern Alyn and Hillbury on the other side of Wrexham.

He said: “Not only are the grounds a pleasure to work on but I do enjoy the chance to chat with the residents and get their take on the gardens, discover what they like and don’t like about raising plants and growing in general.

“I have even learned one or two cultivation tips from them as well as the other way round! It’s been a real pleasure for me leading our little gardening club over the years. I am glad it is back.”

Jenny’s Market Day Revival Takes Care Home Residents ‘Down On The Farm’ A care home waitress surprised and delighted one of her residents by tracking down a children’s board game they invented nearly half a century ago.

Jenny Mitchell-Jones, who lives at Colten Care’s Chichester home Wellington Grange, was one of five friends who devised and launched a game about farm life in the run-up to Christmas 1974.

Market Day featured 33 miniature plastic animals, including cows, sheep and chickens, which players collected for points as they journeyed to and from market.

Having lunch at Wellington Grange recently, Jenny happened to mention the game during a conversation with waitress Sue Milton.

Sue was keen to find out if any of the 5,000 games produced were still in existence 47 years later.

Sue said: “After many hours of hunting I managed to track one down on eBay. It had the board, all the animals, the dice and counters, and the hazard and benefit cards, so I bought it to surprise Jenny with.”

Jenny said: “I couldn’t believe it. When I saw an actual game again, with its original box and all the bits and pieces, I was delighted, over the moon, and straightaway wanted to share it with everyone.”

Companionship staff at the Broyle Road home arranged for Jenny to give a talk about how Market Day came to be made. She then demonstrated how to play it and, of course, was only too happy to have a friendly game with fellow residents.

Companionship team member Sarah-jane Willis said: “It was fascinating to hear how Jenny and her friends took an idea for a family game

from conception into reality.

“We enjoyed hearing about how she travelled to London to source the miniature plastic animals and how she and her friends converted a barn into a production line for making and filling the boxes.

“Jenny was a little concerned that she wouldn’t remember the rules but it all came flooding back as soon as we had a run through.

“The residents who attended loved hearing all about it and the actual playing of the game was a huge amount of fun.

“We were all so impressed and inspired at what Jenny and her group

of women friends had achieved.”

Back in 1974, Jenny and her friends Diane Sawday, Barbara Bennett, Anne Kendall and Diane Flemming were all living near to each other on separate West Sussex farms.

The five were members of a small investment club that was showing little success on the stock market so, to gain some income and have fun at the same time, they invented Market Day. Aimed at children aged seven to 12, and designed for two to six players, the game was marketed as a mail-order Christmas gift for the princely sum of £3.50. Orders were made to Holdfast Enterprises on a farm near Sidlesham, south of Chichester.

Under the rules, players progressed around the board ‘collecting’ the plastic animals – a bull, several cows, horses, sheep, pigs, turkeys and chickens. Each type of animal scored different amounts of points.

If a player landed on a hazard square, the relevant card they had to pick up might read something like, ‘Horse has colic, miss a turn’. On the other hand, a benefit card might say, ‘Good lambing season, take a sheep’.

As Jenny recalls, the five friends already had a captive audience to try the game out on before it was launched to the public.

She said: “We were all mums and had 20 children between us so there was no problem to have it thoroughly tried and tested.

“One thing we made sure of was that it could be played in just half an hour. That way the children didn’t get bored and mums and dads didn’t get fed up waiting for the game to finish before bed time.”

DO YOU KNOW THE CARER’S NEXT UNSUNG HERO? Regular readers will know we here at the Carer have been awarding an Unsung Hero each Summer and Christmas since 2016!

Now, in these unprecedented and testing times we are Say hello looking for another to some Unsung Hero! previous (How we wish we could winners! reward you all!)

Care Home urst of Cloverfield Marion Brockleh

Thelma O’Leary of Fern hill House Care Home

A Super Deluxe Luxury Hamper for the lucky winner! ro r last Unsung He Martyn Davies, ou

Tina Higginson of Sam brook care home

A no-frills, no glitz or glamour competition - all we ask is for you to send us a paragraph or two nominating your Unsung Hero from any department with a brief description of how they've gone that extra mile and deserve to be recognised.

✓ Do you know our next Unsung Hero?

Email your nomination to us by July 9th 2021 at

nominate@thecareruk.com

PAGE 18 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

Backing Up MP Warning - Independent Study Reports UK Healthcare Workers Feel Unvalued and Like A ‘Disposable Resource’ On the back of the report from MPs that NHS and social care staff burnout has reached an "emergency" level, an independent study has unveiled the extent of the problem.

It shows that over half (59%) of health and social care employees in the UK have considered quitting because of an unhappy working environment. And of these, over two thirds (68%) say this is because they believe they are merely a ‘temporary or disposable resource’ in the eyes of their employers.

Workforce Management Solutions provider Quinyx, polled 1,500 key workers in the UK about how they have fared in their jobs, as part of its State of the Deskless Workforce 2021 report.

The findings from health and social care workers include: • Just 55% of health and social care workers feel valued in 2021, falling sharply from 72% during the height of the pandemic • 64% have gone to work sick because they couldn’t afford to take time off • 71% have experienced understaffing at work • 58% have missed out on social events or holiday celebrations due to work schedules or an employer request.

Respondents complained of a high-pressure environment, with last minute changes to work schedules and difficulty in swapping shifts if they felt sick or unwell: Nearly three quarters (74%) say they are contacted by bosses by call or text ‘out of hours’ Half cited feeling pressured into taking a shift they didn’t want 53% complained they did not have access to a tool or mobile app to make swapping shifts easier Quinyx found that over 1 in 3 (37%) have left a job because their employer did not provide schedules with enough advance notice – making it impossible for them to balance work and personal life.

With pay a hotly debated topic, interestingly 30% state they would prefer a flexible schedule over higher pay.

Toma Pagojute, Chief HR Officer at Quinyx, said: “Our research echoes that of the health and social care committee, showing the extent to which these workers feel neglected. Sadly, despite the efforts made to recognise their contribution during the pandemic by the public, it seems there was no lasting legacy for these frontline heroes in terms of flexibility or work-life balance. These factors are crucial for retaining talent within the industry.

“Not only do inflexible schedules cause headaches for healthcare workers, but last-minute changes have a huge impact on job satisfaction, affecting stress levels and morale.

“Employee engagement can be improved by respecting frontline workers, understanding them, and showing a duty of care. They deserve to benefit from effective management, flexible working schedules and a good work-life balance. Managers can do this by giving them the right tools for smooth shift swapping and the autonomy to make their own decisions. For all companies, including those within the health and social care sector, it's increasingly important to make staff satisfaction a priority.”

Tom Lyons is Managing Director of the Black Swan Care Group, a network of 20 care homes across the east of England, with over 700 employees. He added: “The report from Quinyx highlights the current issues facing the sector at large, with care staff feeling undervalued,

under pressure and disillusioned, and many leaving the industry citing poor work-life balance and lack of job satisfaction.

At Black Swan Care Group we’re taking positive steps to tackle these issues, boost morale and improve engagement. This includes initiatives such as ‘surprise and delight’ rewards for the team such as treat baskets, to a ‘You Matter’ display for staff and residents, and establishing new ways to maintain a dialogue with employees so they can communicate any concerns they have. Better communication is fundamental to staff engagement, so it’s important to explore new tools that can embed this into operations.

“The reality is that it’s challenging to bring on board new employees amid a backdrop of COVID that has put enormous pressure on the whole care system and on its lifeblood, the staff. We’re currently recruiting for 40 vacancies and, as an industry, we need to change the face of caring so it is viewed as an attractive profession to enter. Especially considering that the number of adult social care jobs is expected to increase by 32% by 2035 to meet the needs of the UK’s over 85 population and adults living with disabilities.

“While the statistics in this report are disheartening, it should be a wake up call to the sector to explore what we can do to effect positive change.”

Quinyx’s study explores the current employment environment of UK health and social care workers, including to what extent they feel valued, their skills and progression, health and wellbeing, issues around swapping shifts and flexibility and pay and working conditions. Read more here.

The State of the Deskless Report surveyed over 10,000 people across the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.

Gosforth Care Home Set To Support Nine-Year-Old’s Captain Tom 100 Challenge The Manor House Gosforth is taking part in an exciting ‘Captain Tom 100’ challenge being organised by an enterprising nine-year old.

Heather Bryson, who lives with Dad Gary and Mum Deborah in Kirkintilloch, Scotland aims to have 100 care homes across the world taking part in a live social media exercise class on June 11th.

With aspirations to be the Joe Wicks for the older generation, Heather has hit the headlines with her desire to engage with older people, particularly those with dementia, through exercise.

She has already signed up a number of care homes in the UK, US, India, New Zealand and Australia and will be holding three classes on her You Tube channel to cater for the different time zones – 7am, 4pm and 7pm.

Staff and residents at The Manor House Gosforth are planning to take part in the chair-based classes, which Heather has designed with expert help. Mum and Dad have also learnt new skills to support Heather; Deborah managing social media and emailing care homes to get involved and Gary filming and editing the sessions.

Heather lost her grandmother to Covid-19 and struggled with lockdown,

but the project has given her a new lease of life with Deborah describing her as ‘a mini whirlwind of energy’.

Suzanne Mason, home manager at The Manor House Gosforth, said: “As soon as I heard from Deborah, I knew this was something we had to get involved with in. Heather is a fantastic girl who is determined to learn more about older people, dementia and bridging the generation gap.

“Our residents will love the online class and will undoubtedly fall in love with Heather. I’d encourage other homes to contact Deborah and join us on 11th June and have a lot of fun!”

Deborah Bryson said: “Gary and I are so proud of Heather and everything she is achieving. Lockdowns and the loss of her grandmother really hit her hard, but we’ve now got our bright and bubbly daughter back and she’s also making a real difference to the lives of people in care homes or caring at home for a loved one.

“As a family we are learning new things every day through this project but there’s are two really important things; treating people with dementia with love and respect and Captain Tom’s mantra that there is always hope and tomorrow will be better.”

Exemplar Health Care Launches Ground-Breaking Training on Sexuality and Intimacy for Care Home Residents Exemplar Health Care is launching a training programme for its colleagues to help normalise discussions around sex and disabilities within care homes.

With the aim to empower and support people to express their sexuality and have a range of relationships, as well as changing perceptions around sex and disabilities, Exemplar Health Care colleagues will be given the ‘know-how’, so that disabled people can exercise their right of sexual expression in a safe and legal way.

In 2019, the care home provider partnered with Leeds University to

carry out a research study to understand to what extent residents’ needs were being met around sexuality, intimacy and sexual expression.

Following the research, Exemplar Health Care partnered with Enhance the UK, a charity that aims to change the way that people view disabilities, to design bespoke training for the 3000-strong workforce.

Julie Booth, Head of Quality at Exemplar Health Care, said: “We are all sexual beings – we all want to be loved and we all crave intimacy at times, and that shouldn’t be any different for people who live in care homes.

“However, it isn’t just about sexual relationships – it’s also about platonic relationships. We all have friends and people we like to be with and interact with, we want to give the people who live with us the same opportunities.

“At Exemplar Health Care, life is all about choice. We want to encour-

age and support people to feel comfortable and confident expressing their sexuality and sexual needs as they wish, and in seeking and exploring relationships of all kinds, in a way that promotes their choice and dignity, and ensures their safety.

“We know that some people find these conversations uncomfortable and difficult, which is why we have a team of clinical experts who are committed to supporting the programme and ensuring that we make real change for the people we support.”

The study conducted by Exemplar Health Care highlighted that many people living across its 33 homes have low self-esteem as a result of their disability. It also revealed that many people wanted a friend who was there through choice, rather than someone who was there because they were doing their jobs.

PAGE 20 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

Taking A Proactive Approach To Virus Sanitisation Whilst ensuring the cleanliness of all environments has consistently been crucial to supporting successful infection prevention and control, the last 18 months has placed significant importance on this area of cleaning to not only provide the highest levels of safety and hygiene, but ensure service user confidence.

Here Zac Hemming, Founding Director of ICE Cleaning, explores the importance of incorporating additional virus sanitisation and maintenance plans into existing cleaning routines to ensure maximum protection for care providers and their residents.

Adequate infection prevention and control are essential to ensuring individuals who use health and social care services receive safe and sufficient care, in accordance with the Department of Health’s Code of Practice on the Prevention and Control of Infections and The Care Quality Commission’s corresponding legislative requirements.

Whilst delivering effective prevention and control of infections has always been included within cleaning plans to ensure the delivery of a service that meets all required standards, the pandemic has highlighted

the necessity of adopting supplementary sanitisation schemes in addition to daily cleaning routines to ensure maximum protection.

However, as the aim of care homes is to provide a place where individuals feel at home, these additional virus and bacteria prevention measures should not feel intrusive or overly disruptive to the residents to help foster independence within a safe, secure and homely environment.

It’s therefore crucial that care home providers adopt proactive virus and bacteria sanitisation plans that supplement traditional cleaning routines and only have to be carried out at certain times.

For example, the rapid advancement in cleaning technologies is supporting the industry in successfully fulfilling these aims through the use of new chemicals and dispensing systems that only have to be applied once every 28 days, depending on specific site requirements.

Whilst traditional fogging machines may be used to apply relevant chemicals to help mitigate against the spread of bacteria and viruses on surfaces and key touchpoints, latest progressions in electrostatic technologg have created a dispensing system that, when combined with best in class chemicals, achieves a longer dwell time on surfaces.

This enables the chemicals to effectively ‘wrap’ around surfaces to guarantee protection against viruses for up to 28 days, eliminating the opportunity for the cleaning chemicals to drip off high frequency touchpoints, such as door handles, which may potentially occur with other methods of application.

As a result, the electrostatic technology effectively destroys 99.9% of traces of coronavirus and other bacteria and viruses on surfaces within the dedicated environment. This protective barrier is achieved by the positively charged electrostatic particles attaching themselves to negatively charged particles found on solid surfaces, whilst simultaneously counteracting any negatively charged particles within the atmosphere.

Due to the chemicals being non-toxic and non-abrasive, they do not cause any damage to physical surfaces or human health, which enables each room or environment to be back in use just 15 minutes after the cleaning services have taken place.

As part of the Code of Practice, providers must also be able to demonstrate all possible steps have been taken to ensure the risks associated with infections are at a minimum, with the processes implemented to achieve this clearly documented and supported by clear policies, procedures and associated evidence.

By undertaking additional virus decontamination and sanitisation plans every two to four weeks, dependent on frequency and usage requirements, care providers can demonstrate due diligence and compliance with the regulations outlined in the code of practice as a decontamination certificate is supplied after each decontamination procedure.

This provides a physical and digital audit trail that demonstrates that all surfaces are adequately protected for the allotted time.

By incorporating virus sanitisation and maintenance plans into established cleaning plans, care providers can ensure they are not only successfully fulfilling their Duty of Care to all residents and employees, but also provide peace of mind that all surfaces are adequately protected against viruses and bacteria.

For more information, visit www.icecleaning.co.uk or call 02039 932940.

Hotel Group Partners With Respitality Scotland Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels has pledged its support to Shared Care Scotland’s Respitality initiative – which coincides with Carers Week 2021.

Coordinated by Shared Care Scotland since 2014, Respitality facilitates complimentary leisure breaks for unpaid carers. The initiative sees kind and passionate businesses in the hospitality, leisure and tourism sector donate breaks, which are then passed onto unpaid carers by carers organisations across Scotland.

Respitality provides a welcomed short break from routine for unpaid carers which has proven to be vital for both their physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels is supporting the project by donating bed and breakfast stays at all eight hotels in its portfolio, 50 family passes to Glen’s Adventure Park at Crieff Hydro Hotel and a group two-hour Gin School experi-

ence at 1881 Distillery in Peebles.

Nic Oldham, Head of Customer and Commercial at Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels, said: “We are proud to show our support for Shared Care Scotland and their fantastic Respitality initiative.

“Thanks to the geographical spread of our properties, we can reach and support families across Scotland with a variety of breaks. We hope our donation will allow many unpaid carers the opportunity to take time for themselves and recharge.”

Funded by the Scottish Government and supported by local businesses, the project currently operates in 19 local authority areas in Scotland. Since launching the initiative, Respitality has facilitated breaks for over 3000 carers with the support of over 350 businesses.

To find out more about Respitality and Make A Carers Day, and ways businesses can support, visit www.sharedcarescotland.org.uk/respitality for full details

National Resource Consortium (NRC) and Anenta Come Together to Manage We Care Group Healthcare and Clinical Waste Services Across 16 Locations in the North and Northwest England The UK’s leading network of independent waste operators, National Resource Consortium (NRC), has announced that it has joined forces with independent healthcare waste management company, Anenta, to oversee and manage the healthcare, clinical waste and disposal services for nursing and care home operator, We Care Group.

The partnership between both waste management companies is helping the nursing and care home group achieve savings of over 14% on their waste services from the offset, with further savings to come as services are standardised across all 16 locations in the North and Northwest of England.

The resource management network, NRC, combines expertise from the UK’s leading independent waste firms to deliver unrivalled waste collection and processing capacity for We Care Group. Acting as contract manager, NRC takes responsibility for the group’s volume waste management with all services provided by their network of local members.

Through centralised contract management, NRC has already consolidated We Care Group’s existing waste contracts with various waste providers into one single, reliable point of contact across eight locations, with eight more to come. Through the ability to mobilise a national network of providers, NRC offers a single rate solution with 100% UK coverage and the flexibility to meet all We Care Group’s local needs. As a result, We Care Group is already benefitting from a 1/7th saving on its waste costs for the on-boarded care homes, thanks to a simple and transparent pricing schedule.

The three-year fixed-term contract with We Care Group com-

menced in January 2021. All 16 locations are set to be under the single agreement by mid-2022.

Commenting on NRC’s appointment Paul Jackson, Director of NRC, said: “We Care was buying waste services locally, individually, site by site, and not benefiting from the cost, waste and recycling efficiency of consolidating their estate into one contract.

“Both NRC and Anenta offer compliance and service-based packages at competitive rates under a single agreement. This provides customers, like We Care Group, with greater transparency, control and peace of mind over their healthcare and clinical waste management, which is an essential service for any care provider.”

We Care Group operates 16 Care and Nursing Homes in Liverpool, Blackpool, Southport, Leeds, Hull and surrounding areas across North and Northwest England. Specialising in residential, palliative, end of life, dementia, bariatrics and young mental health care, We Care Group pro-

vides all 735 residents with happy, safe and homely environments in which their care, wellbeing and comfort is of prime importance.

With Anenta’s dedicated, online contract management platform ‘Vector’, NRC will be able to deliver service efficiencies and identify savings that will be implemented across the group’s 16 locations.

Anenta’s cutting-edge, real-time smart technology, ensures that the We Care Group receives effective contract management against existing specifications. Going forward Anenta’s integrated solution, which ensures that services are correctly specified, will provide NRC with the data needed to offer We Care Group complete transparency and the ability to proactively manage their environmental services, all in one place.

Graham Flynn, Managing Director at Anenta, commented: “Anenta is delighted to be working in partnership with NRC to provide healthcare and clinical waste services for We Care Group. By consolidating multiple contracts, each of which has different end dates and varying prices, into one standard contract with uniform pricing, our real-time smart technology will provide We Care Group with vital savings worth many thousands of pounds each year.”

Working for more than 8000 customers, Anenta simplifies the process of healthcare waste management, collectively saving clients millions of pounds each year. Over the past five years, Anenta has saved its clients over £5.6 million.

Bernie Suresparan, Chairman at We Care Group, commented: “We selected NRC after reviewing all of our waste requirements with our procurement partner. We needed to gain control over our contracting process and to find savings – NRC offered us a centralised, managed process with initial savings – we are looking forward to developing our relationship with NRC and identifying future benefits.”

Find out more about NRC and Anenta by visiting www.uk-nrc.com and www.anentawaste.com.

PAGE 22 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

The Clock is Ticking on EU Settlement Scheme Applications

By Shabana Muneer at Walker Morris (www.walkermorris.co.uk)

The Home Office is very clear that there is no obligation to conduct retrospective right to work checks on existing EEA staff and no authority to oblige them to prove their status under the EUSS, whether before or after the 30 June deadline for applications.

Further, until 30 June, new recruits can volunteer to evidence their status under the EUSS but cannot be compelled to do so without risking allegations of discrimination. From 1 July, any new EEA recruits will need to provide evidence of EUSS status or an alternative right to work e.g., sponsorship or a partner visa.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE CARE INDUSTRY? Brexit is having a significant effect on employers in the care industry that want to recruit from the EEA. The sector has already suffered severe cuts in recent years and employs around 250,000 non-UK nationals, accounting for 16 per cent of the workforce .

When free movement ended for EEA and Swiss ("EEA") nationals at the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, EEA citizens who had entered the UK by this date were given a six month "grace period" until 30 June 2021 to secure their longer-term residency rights by making an application under the EU Settlement Scheme ("EUSS"). The end of the grace period is now less than a month away and, not surprisingly, many employers in the care industry are wondering what they can do to ensure their EEA workers continue to have the legal right to work in the UK beyond that date.

In this article Shabana Muneer, Director at leading law firm Walker Morris, seeks to address some of the common concerns and provide some practical tips on the steps employers in the care industry can take in the final few weeks to protect against the risks associated with employing illegal workers.

SHOULD THE CARE INDUSTRY BE ASKING CURRENT EEA WORKERS TO PROVE THEY HAVE SECURED THEIR STATUS?

HOW DO WE KNOW NEW RECRUITS WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO WORK FOR US BEYOND 30 JUNE? Guidance is clear that employers are not expected to distinguish between EEA nationals who first arrived in the UK before 31 December 2020 (and are therefore eligible to make an application under the EUSS) and those who arrived after this date (who may not be). Demanding evidence of this will be discriminatory, therefore employers are in a very difficult position when it comes to knowing whether EEA workers they take on before 30 June will continue to have the right to work. A sensible precaution would be to have a gentle conversation and sensitively encourage candidates to volunteer information regarding their status or eligibility to apply for it, e.g., in the context of offering to assist with any application that may be required.

HOW CAN EMPLOYERS IN THE CARE INDUSTRY ENCOURAGE EEA WORKERS TO MAKE THEIR APPLICATIONS IN TIME? The key tool at employers’ disposal in these final weeks before the deadline expires is communication and making sure that EEA workers who haven't yet made their application are aware that the clock is now ticking. In the run up to the 30 June deadline, employers should therefore think about: • Auditing their workforce to assess the proportion of EEA workers and

whether this is likely to be a significant issue for them; • Sending gentle reminders along with links to the latest government information for EEA nationals on making applications in time; • Raising awareness of the fact that individuals who don't apply in time will (in all but very limited circumstances) lose their legal right to remain in the UK, access healthcare, rent property etc. Careful thought will need to be given to the tone of such communications; • Given that the timeframe for making applications is now relatively tight, it would also be worth considering offering any individuals who disclose that they have not yet made an application assistance with the process if they require it; and • In the longer term, assisting those who obtain time limited pre-settled status to track when their application for settled status will become due.

The Home Office has confirmed that applications will be considered after the 30 June deadline only where there are "reasonable grounds" for the application not having been made in time, e.g., where a person lacked the digital skills to make the application, or where a parent has failed to make the application on behalf of a child. There is still much uncertainty around when late applications will be entertained, and therefore this should not be viewed as a safe fall-back position.

The Home Office guidance is due to be updated in advance of 1 July to provide further details regarding the specific right to work processes that will need to be followed for EEA recruits from this date. We will publish further updates when more information becomes available.

It is in the interests of employers in the care industry to ensure EUSS applications are submitted by their staff in time. The Walker Morris Business Immigration team is here to assist with any queries on the employment of EEA nationals and questions about the recruitment of EEA citizens from 1 July 2021. If you require assistance on any of these issues, please contact Shabana Muneer: shabana.muneer@walkermorris.co.uk

European Elderly Care Investment Market Poised For Growth Despite COVID-19 The European elderly care property investment market remained buoyant despite the challenges posed

by Covid-19 as investors remained confident in the long-term opportunities presented by the elderly care market with €7.2 billion of transactions last year, according to research from global property adviser Knight Frank.

This comes as the number of Europeans over the age of 65 is projected to grow by 50% within the next 30 years, from 100 million at present to 150 million. This is anticipated to drive demand for elderly care beds, particularly for full-time nursing care delivered in specialised facilities. Investors seized upon this trend, as well as the increasing consolidation of European markets which has taken place over the last decade, to invest a record €8 billion in elderly care and senior living in the four quarters to March 2020.

Given these demographic and market factors, an increasingly wide array of investors is seeking out the opportunities presented by elderly care. The market, which has historically been state-controlled across the continent and has suffered from decades of underfunding by successive governments Europe-wide, has, in recent years, become increasingly dominated by private sector ownership, led by mature markets including the UK and Germany. This has addressed funding

and investment shortages across Europe and transformed many domestic healthcare markets into pioneering systems, as is the case with the Netherlands’ specialist memory care services.

Alongside increasing private ownership, the investor profile in panEuropean healthcare markets has become more international in recent years. While domestic buyers still lead the line in countries whose competitive environments favour local players, such as the UK, France and Belgium, overseas buyers have accounted for 43% of European transactions since 2016, spearheaded by specialist listed investors such as the French and Belgian REITs. The combination of COVID-19, increasing globalisation and major demographic shifts has highlighted the profound disparity in healthcare investment between European markets. Germany and the UK, the continent’s largest and most accessible healthcare markets, remain fragmented with the top 5 operators holding only a 12-13% market share in these countries. Meanwhile, universal elderly care is a less developed concept in some Southern European countries such as Spain or Italy.

However, with the over-80 population in Spain set to double by 2050 and Italy set to have the world’s second highest proportion of over-80s (12.8%) by the same point, international operators and real estate investors are beginning to cut into these markets.

Julian Evans, Head of Healthcare at Knight Frank, said: “Demand for elderly care across Europe has remained high throughout the past few years, driven by demographic shifts and changes to domestic and international markets. Undeterred by the pandemic, investors have

helped to address critical funding shortages across the continent and have transformed the landscape for European elderly care. An ageing population, the increased globalisation of elderly care and the spotlight shone on the importance of elderly care by the pandemic have all contributed to an increased appetite for healthcare assets, a trend set to continue going forward.

“The years ahead will undoubtedly bring challenges as investors tackle the post-COVID landscape, but confidence in the sector remains high and we expect to see a continued reweighting of investors’ portfolios toward alternative real assets. The sector’s potential for strong returns is attracting a broad church of investors, and favourable trends taking hold across Europe are likely to increase this interest.”

The trend toward greater internationalism in healthcare provision, which has been brought into especially stark focus by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to renewed attention to European healthcare.

Demand is high and only set to grow in the coming years. An ageing pan-European population and a pandemic-induced step change in the value placed on global healthcare provision are to create a fertile market for both domestic and international real estate investors.

Knight Frank expects that after showing resilience in the face of the pandemic and notching near-record investment volumes in 2020, private sector investors in European elderly care are likely to maintain their momentum going forward, expanding in domestic and international markets to satisfy the need for high-quality and future-proof healthcare assets.

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PAGE 24 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

City & Guilds Group Calls For Major Culture Shift To Solve Growing Skills Shortages The pandemic has accelerated change in the UK’s labour market, leading to a shift in the type of jobs available and exacerbating the growing gap between the skills people have, and those sought by employers.

That’s according to the new Skills Index report from City & Guilds Group and Emsi, which analyses the present and future shift in demand for skills in the UK. As a result, City & Guilds Group is calling for individuals, education organisations, businesses and Government to adopt a more jobs and skills-first focused mentality when it comes to education and training. This will better match skills supply with demand, and drive a stronger, faster economic recovery after the pandemic.

The report unveils some growing mismatches between the skills people have, and those sought by businesses today and in the future – suggesting that businesses’ productivity and ability to succeed is at stake.

Analysing data collected by the British Chambers of Commerce, the research found that only just over half 54% – businesses state that their organisation can recruit the skilled individuals it needs, and over half (56%) face some kind of barrier to meeting their skills and talent needs – with 28% citing the mismatch between skills they need, and the skills people gain through education.

Meanwhile, the research found that three in five (61%) working age adults (equivalent to more than 22 million people[1]) don’t feel they are equipped with all the skills they will need to unlock new opportunities over the next five years. This points to potential future barriers for individuals looking to progress their careers, access well paid roles – or simply remain employable.

Worryingly, 30% (equivalent to 11 million people) have not received formal workplace training in the last five years and, highlighting the pandemic’s impact on training budgets, nearly two thirds (64%) have not received any training in the past year. But this need to constantly retrain is not going away any time soon, with 41% of employers saying changing customer behaviours or expectations are the most likely factor to

change the skills they need in the future.

Kirstie Donnelly MBE, CEO of City & Guilds Group, commented: “Covid-19 has radically disrupted the labour market displacing almost a million people from their jobs, yet paradoxically employers are telling us that skills gaps remain a chronic issue for them. Meanwhile, with a majority of working age adults not confident they have the skills they need for the near future, and just a third not having taken part in any workplace training for at least five years, it’s clear that employers and employees may both struggle to keep pace with the rapid changes in skills needs being driven by factors such as AI and the move to net Zero.

“Solving this skills mismatch requires a shift in mindset from the individuals themselves as well as employers and the UK Government. It is no longer possible to leave full time education at 18 or 21 and never reskill again, we will require people and businesses to upskill and reskill throughout their working lives.”

Andy Durman, Managing Director at Emsi UK: “The Skills Index highlights the need to rethink skills from the perspectives of people, employers and education providers, and how we will have to join these three together in far more intentional ways than ever before if we are to get national and local economies back on track. Not only do we need to help people to understand the skills they possess and those they need to develop, but we also need to help employers understand the skills they need to succeed, and help education providers understand which skills they need to teach to prepare people for a changed labour market. Skills are the foundation blocks of our future, so it is time for us to rethink, reimagine and rebuild the labour market upon them.”

By examining the current supply of skills and employer demand, the research also pinpoints a number of areas where demand is set to outstrip supply within the next three years. Unable to recruit for these immediate skills needs from a talent pool restricted by Brexit and new tighter immigration policies, it may be up to employers to develop them in house either with existing staff, or people displaced from other industries.

Demonstrating this skills mismatch, half (53%) of employers say they will need industry or job specific skills in the next three years – however, just a quarter (24%) of working age adults are confident they have technical skills related to their role. Meanwhile, as digital transformation gathers pace, a fifth (22%) of employers say they will need advanced digital skills in the next three years, but only 9% of working age adults are confident they have these skills.

In analysing the shift in demand for skills in the UK from 2019 to 2020, the Skills Index additionally paints a clear picture of how the pandemic prompted demand for skills to soar in key areas such as health & social care and digital/tech roles.

RISING DEMAND FOR HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE SKILLS As healthcare, sanitation and hygiene came to the fore due to the pandemic, job postings in health and social care increased by a fifth (22%) from April 2020 to April 2021, with demand for Nurses (up 328%), Physician Assistants (up 275%) and Caregivers (up 246%) seeing the greatest growth.

Health & social care skills also dominated the overall list of top 10 technical skills in the Index, with the most in-demand skills including: nursing, mental health support, personal care (ability to support with personal and private hygiene and toileting), learning disabilities support and knowledge about using PPE.

A LEAP TOWARDS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION With the pandemic leaving businesses with little choice but to pivot operations online, demand for digital skills also surged. Job postings for digital and tech saw a 21% increase from April 2020 to April 2021, with the biggest growth in postings for Cybersecurity Technicians (up 19,222%), Full Stack Engineers (up 312%) and Cybersecurity Engineers (up 292%).

High level programming and software skills also featured among the most highly sought-after technical skills – including Python (programming language), Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure (cloud computing platforms).

SKILLS INDEX RECOMMENDATIONS The Skills Index outlines four key recommendations to help address the issue of skills shortages, these include: · Five-decade careers mean we need a more radical approach to lifelong learning – incorporating more bite-sized learning and a Government campaign to convince people of the benefits of training throughout their lives · Employers, individuals Government, all to play a part in funding lifelong in the future · Better use of data to enable government, employers and individuals to plan for future skills needs and a commonly understood language of skills to be introduced · Making the skills system more accessible to smaller businesses To view the recommendations and report in full, download the full Skills Index report here: http://www.cityandguilds.com/skills-index

Bedside Buddy From The Fremantle Trust Scoops Two Awards Mandy Horne, Bedside Buddy at Icknield Court care home in Princes Risborough, scooped not just one but two awards at the recent Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Awards.

Mandy won both the Care Home Worker Award and the Dementia Carer Award in recognition of her contribution to the care and support of people living at Icknield Court care home, one of the 11 Care Homes within The Fremantle Trust.

The ‘bedside buddy’ scheme was introduced by the Trust to support residents who are alone in their rooms. The scheme includes providing companionship, oneto-one stimulation and activities which are adapted to engage people in different ways. Bedside Buddies also help facilitate regular video calls, so people can stay in touch with relatives who are unable to visit in person.

Upon winning the awards, Mandy commented: “I am absolutely over the moon to

have won these two awards. I feel lucky to have found a role that is not only making a difference to people’s lives, but also one that I love.”

Mandy’s philosophy is that ‘no one should be left alone’. This attitude, together with her continued commitment during a very challenging year is what resulted in Mandy’s nomination.

The colleague who nominated Mandy said: “Mandy is an inspiring role model who other members of the team turn to. The moments of joy that Mandy brings to people’s lives are priceless to all involved.”

Mandy was one of three colleagues from The Fremantle Trust nominated for the awards. Also shortlisted were Luke Bowyer, Deputy Manager at Sir Aubrey Ward House in Marlow and Rohit Daniels, a Care Worker also from Sir Aubrey Ward House.

Social Care Charity Honoured At Pride of Table Tennis Awards A unique training programme that promotes table tennis in social care has collected ‘The Inclusion Award’ at the Pride of Table Tennis Awards.

The social care charity Community Integrated Care developed the training platform www.CareToPlay.co.uk to inspire support workers and families to promote this accessible, adaptable, and socially distanced sport. It offers a series of bitesize training videos, which in just 13 minutes, teach those who provide care and support the fundamentals of enabling people to enjoy table tennis.

The project and Community Integrated Care’s overall efforts to engage people who have disabilities in playing the sport saw Table Tennis England bestow the charity with their prestigious ‘Inclusion Award’. This honour recognises an organisation that “has championed outstanding volunteering and engagement with under-represented groups”.

Community Integrated Care is one of the UK’s biggest and most successful social care charities. Over the past two years, it has promoted table tennis in a range of settings – from activity sessions in specialist dementia care homes and learning disability supported living services, through to utilising it in mental health talking therapies.

The ‘Care To Play’ video series shares many of the key principles that it has discovered in delivering the sport across 200 social care services.

It not only teaches people the fundamental skills of how to assist people to play table tennis, but also provides creative ideas on how to adapt

the game to promote wider health, confidence, and social outcomes.

The resource has been developed by Community Integrated Care’s internal specialists in person-centred support, alongside professional athletes James and Teddy Chapelhow. The pair, who are Ambassadors for the charity and play for rugby league side Newcastle Thunder, are life-long table tennis players.

John Hughes, Director of Partnership and Communities at Community

Integrated Care, says: “We are delighted to receive this honour from one of our key partners, Table Tennis England.

Hundreds of the people supported by Community integrated Care now enjoy table tennis as a regular hobby. We have found that this sport offers a uniquely inclusive, engaging, and low-cost activity, which is perfect for many social care settings.

CareToPlay.co.uk was created to extend this impact beyond our charity, ensuring that any support worker or family member can easily assist people to enjoy the sport. We have been astounded by the response to this free resource and the impact that it has made on so many people.

I’d like to congratulate the team at Community Integrated Care and James and Teddy Chapelhow, who worked tirelessly to create this brilliant platform.

Special thanks must also go to Table Tennis England, for their incredible backing in helping us to introduce the sport across our charity. We are excited to further this partnership in the years ahead.”

Colin Eley, Partnerships Manager at Table Tennis England, said: “We’ve been proud to work with Community Integrated Care, particularly in their creation of www.CareToPlay.co.uk. This website has given hundreds of people who work in social care core ideas and creative solutions to engage people in the sport. I want to thank the charity for its continued support of table tennis and helping us to reach members of the community who otherwise may not be able to enjoy the sport.”

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 25

Loneliness Awareness Week Launches For 5th Year A charity dedicated to raising awareness of loneliness is getting ready to launch its 5th Loneliness Awareness Week, to encourage people to talk openly and honestly about loneliness. Loneliness Awareness Week has a theme of acceptance this year and will take place from the 14th – 18th June. This year’s initiative will see a collaboration with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and The Great Get Together, as well as businesses like Direct2Florists, who’s 900 members will be offering ‘lonely bouquets’ free to the public during the week.

June 14th – 18th marks the fifth Loneliness Awareness Week, hosted

by The Marmalade Trust, which has collaborated with many partners including, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and The Great Get Together to raise awareness and help remove the stigma of being lonely, whilst also promoting ways for communities and individuals to build more social connections.

The theme of this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week is acceptance.

Marmalade Trust is asking everyone to make this the year loneliness is finally accepted as a natural part of being a human being, by supporting the ‘we get lonely’ campaign. A clever play on words, using the word ‘get’ creates a double meaning – ‘do you get lonely?’

Events such as the ‘Lonely Bouquet’ campaign organised by Direct2Florists will take place during the week, which will see 900 florists leave a bouquet outside every day of the week, to be picked up by a member of the public so they can give it to someone in their thoughts.

Last year’s Loneliness Awareness Week saw almost 20,000 organisations, individuals and companies get involved with the campaign. It reached 271.5 million people, with conversations about loneliness taking

place every two seconds online on the first day of the campaign.

National figures such as Boris Johnson and the Royal Family expressed their support, along with organisations like the Royal Mail, which printed a Loneliness Awareness Week postmark on all stamped mail during the week.

For more information on the campaign visit: https://www.marmaladetrust.org/law The Marmalade Trust is committed to creating a society where people freely acknowledge that loneliness can exist, and will actively support those experiencing it to increase their social contact and make new

friendships. The Trust offers a vital link between lonely people, communities and resources that can help them, as well as raising awareness of loneliness all year round to help make positive changes within their own lives and communities.

Amy Perrin founder of The Marmalade Trust said, “There remains so much stigma and shame around talking about loneliness, yet loneliness is a very natural emotion that we are all likely to experience at some point in our lives. After the last year, we have all seen or directly felt more loneliness than ever before – let’s make this the year we finally accept that loneliness exists and support a positive discussion to increase our understanding.”

Minister for Loneliness, Baroness Barran, said, “It’s a privilege working with Marmalade Trust for this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week.

Feeling lonely can affect all of us, and social connections in local communities can play a huge role in reducing loneliness.

“As we emerge from lockdown, we need to remember that some people will still feel isolated, and loneliness will not simply go away.

This is why it remains a priority for us to continue to address the loneliness that has blighted so many lives in the past year.”

Su Moore, CEO of The Jo Cox Foundation, said, “We’re delighted to partner with the Marmalade Trust for this, the 5th Loneliness Awareness Week. At the Jo Cox Foundation, we believe in the power of connection as one way to reduce loneliness, and our annual Great Get Together will once again begin during Loneliness Awareness Week. We hope that people around the UK use this as an opportunity to come together as we emerge from lockdown, build new connections and support people who may be lonely in their communities.”

Community Spirit Sends Care Residents To Infinity… And Beyond!

Amateur astronomers at Belong Crewe have been exploring the wonders of the universe from the comfort of their care village – all thanks to the generosity of local people. The launch of the dementia care specialist’s Astronomy Club was made possible after the people of Crewe donated a telescope and binoculars to the worthy cause.

The new club aims to ignite Belong residents’ senses and indulge their space exploration ambitions through stargazing, arts and crafts, and virtual tours at Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre to visit renowned landmark, The Lovell Telescope. To encourage reminiscence – a proven approach in helping to slow the progression of dementia – residents also enjoy NASA documentaries, topical discussions and sharing personal memories, transporting them back to the space race era.

Jess Butler, experience coordinator at Belong Crewe, provides more detail: “Engaging our residents in activities that inspire their interests is key to our ethos at Belong. When we found out a number of them

were keen astronomy enthusiasts, we set to work planning an Astronomy Club and asked the people of Crewe for their help.”

To raise funds for the project, last year, residents at the CQC outstanding-rated care village on Brookhouse Drive posed as real-life models to recreate some of the world’s most iconic portraits for a calendar, including works by Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Van Gogh. When news of their efforts spread, Belong colleagues and residents were overjoyed as a high-spec telescope and binoculars were donated by members of the public, launching the project to success.

Expressing her appreciation, Kathryn Farmer, general manager at Belong Crewe, added: “Our Astronomy Club has got off to a great start and it’s down to the generosity of our community that our residents have the tools to enjoy learning about outer space. For that, we are grateful to everyone who donated – their kindness is truly out of this world.”

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PAGE 26 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

HYGIENE & INFECTION CONTROL

Seconds Save Lives: Clean Your Hands Skin and surface hygiene specialist, GOJO Industries-Europe Ltd, supports the WHO’s annual ‘Save Lives: Clean Your Hands’ campaign

Skin health and surface hygiene expert, GOJO Industries-Europe, is proud to be part of the global movement to improve hand hygiene and is once again supporting the World Health Organization’s annual ‘SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands’ campaign. Its worldwide advocacy day falls on 5th May, and this year it is focused on achieving appropriate hand hygiene action at the point of care. Its ‘seconds save lives – clean your hands!’ slogan reinforces the message that taking a little extra time to practise hand hygiene makes all the difference.

To achieve this, healthcare workers should have access to good-quality alcohol-based hand rub products, clean water, soap, single-use towels and an adequate number of functioning sinks within patient zones. This enables hand hygiene practise at the five key moments: before touching a patient, before clean/aseptic procedures, after body fluid exposure/risk, after touching a patient, and after touching a patient’s surroundings.

2021 has also been designated the ‘International Year of Health and Care Workers’, so focusing on their protection is just as crucial. The PURELL brand’s focus on ‘formulation without compromise’ means that products in the range have been proven to maintain skin health and have high antimicrobial efficacy. In fact, in scientific tests, PURELL Advanced Hygienic Hand Rub was found to kill 99.99% of the most common germs that may be harmful, including Coronavirus, with a contact time of just 30 seconds.

Chris Wakefield, Managing Director UK & Ireland, GOJO IndustriesEurope Ltd comments, ‘As a founder member of the WHO Private

Organizations for Patient Safety group, we are strong advocates of making hand hygiene second nature to everyone – this past year has shown how this is more important than ever. We hope that this year’s campaign encourages everyone to do their part, as it takes commitment from all for

hand hygiene programmes to be successful.

‘We strongly encourage everyone in the healthcare industry to unite in support of hand hygiene improvement. As well as healthcare workers cleaning their hands, IPC practitioners need to continue mentoring and championing the act, facility managers must ensure that supplies are available at every point of care, and policy makers should invest now to enable hand hygiene for all. Everyone, the general public included, must make clean hands a habit. It protects us all.’

Backed by a wealth of scientific expertise, and specialist formulations, GOJO has the technology and experience to work in partnership with healthcare managers to implement effective hand and surface hygiene regimes, and promote hygienic and compliant hand hygiene behaviour.

Assets, such as posters and product placement guides are available to download from GOJO’s dedicated ‘Hand Hygiene Day’ page at www.gojo.com/WHO-May-5 from mid-April.

Free advocacy toolkits to support the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign are available on the WHO website: http://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/clean-hands/en/ WHO invites everyone to use the hashtags #CleanYourHands #HandHygiene #InfectionPrevention on social media to ensure Save Lives: Clean Your Hands posts are picked up by the campaign.

For more information, call +44 (0)1908 588444, email infouk@GOJO.com or visit www.GOJO.com

Take Maximum Control of Washroom Hygiene, Efficiency and Sustainability New from Kimberly-Clark Professional is the Scott® ControlTM Mini Twin Centrefeed Toilet Tissue system designed to deliver maximum hygiene, efficiency and sustainability in healthcare and hospital washrooms. Just launched, the new dispenser is the most hygienic in the marketplace1 and is the highest capacity centrefeed toilet tissue system available.

Launched as part of the Kimberly-Clark Professional 360 Hygiene & Protection programme, the new twin system provides the healthcare sector with optimum hygiene, with a one-wipe-clean dispenser that is designed with no shut lines or key holes.

“In the healthcare sector, hygiene plus the safety and wellbeing of staff and patients, is the highest priority as it copes with the ongoing pandemic,” says Richard Millard, EMEA Senior Category Manager, Bath Tissue, Kimberly-Clark Professional.

“The pressure on Healthcare Facility Managers and cleaning staff to deliver hygiene without compromising efficiency is higher than ever. This system is designed to reduce hygiene risks and refill events, enabling cleaning staff to be deployed to other more critical hygiene duties.”

Designed with fully enclosed, protected rolls for touchless dispensing, the new system avoids cross contamination as users only touch the sheet to be used. Controlled single sheet dispensing reduces paper usage for exceptional cost in use and maximum efficiency.

A never-run-out twin design delivers 100% tissue availability and reduces the need for refills for improved efficiency of staff and provides guaranteed dispensing reliability – every time.2 Fewer refills means less chance for cross contamination keeping staff, patients and visitors safe and confident that facilities are well stocked and managed for their comfort and convenience.

The most hygienic and highest capacity toilet tissue system ever from Kimberly-Clark Professional, the Scott® ControlTM Twin Centrefeed Toilet Tissue System is ideal for busy washrooms in high footfall environments. It has 1,666 sheets and a total of 408 metres of tissue per fully loaded dispenser which means it has 82% more metres and 426 more sheets than other twin centrefeed systems.

A full dispenser provides sufficient tissue for a huge 408 visits versus typically just 72 visits with a competitive

single bulk pack folded toilet tissue system. Compared with uncontrolled, toilet tissue systems, the new twin centrefeed dispenser provides up to 378 more visits than a small roll toilet tissue and up to 285 more visits than a 2x200 metre competitive jumbo toilet roll.

“Using a controlled toilet tissue system is the future for delivering maximum efficiency. The wastage generated from jumbo roll and small roll formats makes them not the preferred choice for high traffic environments”, adds Richard Millard.

In today’s world, hospital and healthcare facilities must ensure that heightened hygiene risks are managed with no concessions for efficiencies and sustainability targets. Meeting sustainability KPI’s is crucial for Healthcare Facility Managers with responsible and recycled products increasingly in demand.

Meeting such a demand, the new Scott® Control™ Twin Centrefeed Toilet Tissue is produced from 100% recycled FSC certified fibre, with roll packaging also 30% recycled and 100% recyclable. Additionally, the controlled dispensing of the new system reduces paper use and reduces the need for storage and transportation of supplies.

Washroom waste is avoided with this highest capacity system which has a roll change indicator to alert staff when supply is running low.

Domestic Managers need worry less about the hygiene and maintenance headaches of toilet blockages. The Scott® branded quality toilet tissue has excellent paper disintegration avoiding disruptive blockages.

“The Scott® Control™ range offers a complete washroom solution for the hospital and healthcare sector, delivering increased hygiene without compromising on washroom efficiency or sustainability,” adds Richard Millard. “As with all our washroom systems, the Scott® ControlTM Twin Centrefeed Toilet Tissue system delivers unmatched market leading hygiene and efficiencies, so our customers can provide facilities that support the safety, health and wellbeing of staff, patients and visitors during these challenging times now and uncertain ones ahead.”

To register your interest for a trial or find out more, visit https://home.kcprofessional.com/uk/scottTwin To see the system in action, watch our video here https://youtu.be/D1re4N1Bc_E

Angloplas Dispensers Help Reduce the Risk of Cross Infection Angloplas are a UK manufacturer who specialise in producing dispensers for the health and hygiene industry.

Although these are designed to keep the workplace tidy and uncluttered they are, more importantly, built knowing the control of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) are a priority for healthcare providers, and who are employing a combination of infection prevention and control strategies, including hand hygiene, cleaning, training and the adoption of new technologies, to tackle the problem.

As a result, a wide range of infection control products and technologies are emerging on the market, including antimicrobial technology.

Angloplas’ range of dispensers are produced in the world’s first proven Antimicrobial PVC with

Haigh Engineering Resident and patient waste is a day to day practical matter that simply cannot become a problem for frontline carers and nursing staff. With the raised awareness of cross infection risks, the proven reliable waste disposal systems from Haigh are recognised more than ever as being a key part of the toolkit for ensuring that human waste is effectively and efficiently removed as a source of risk, day in day out, without the risks and complications of either washing pots or manual bagging waste for collection.

The team from Haigh have been working hard to support this beyond just the manufacture of the Incomaster and Quattro waste disposers here in the UK, but also developing innovative and safe

silver ion technology and which is exclusive to Angloplas. This helps reduce the risk of cross infection by stopping the growth of bacteria and mould and works continuously for the lifetime of the product, reducing levels of bacteria such as MRSA, E Coli, Legionella, Salmonella and mould by up to 99.99%.

For non-clinical environments Angloplas has recently launched its new Budget Range of products which are made to the same exacting standards as the antimicrobial protected ones but with lower price tags.

You can order Angloplas products directly from its website by going to www.angloplas.co.uk and clicking Hospital, Health and Hygiene or by using the Quick Response code.

methods to enhance the servicing provisions that are available to customers. The recently launched allinclusive rental proposition has proven particularly effective and popular with new and existing customers alike, not least as it reduces the operational, maintenance and financing headaches from sites which have more critical matters to address.

For more information about incontinence and bedpan waste disposal please feel free to contact the Haigh team on 01989 763131 or info@haigh.co.uk

Please Please mention mention THE THE CARER CARER when when responding responding to to advertising. advertising.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 27

HYGIENE & INFECTION CONTROL CleanRite, Proves Efficacy of Hypochlorous Against SARS-CoV-2 to Offer New Generation of Alcohol-Free Sanitisers Launching in the UK CleanRite sanitisers, a new dermatologically advanced solution to keeping surfaces and hands guarded against COVID-19 is launching in the UK in April 2021. CleanRite is a new generation disinfectant range to ensure surfaces, the air in areas such as care homes, as well as hands - are all protected from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

THE ‘WONDER’ OF HYPOCHLOROUS The CleanRite range of sanitising products are Hypochlorous-based (HOCl) which is an anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial solution, proven to kill 99.9% of germs on contact.

Specifically, Hypochlorous has been proven effective against SARS-CoV-2 in an independent lab test carried out by Richard Stanton, a Reader in Division of Infection & Immunity at the School of Medicine at Cardiff University. Fully regulated and child-friendly, CleanRite, which dries quickly and leaves no sticky residue, is perfect for use in care homes - as well as being dermatologically tested and suitable for use from birth.

Caroline Fogarty, Managing Director, CF Pharma, said, “In laboratory tests we were able to show that the Hypochlorous ingredient in CleanRite killed the SARS-CoV-2 virus within 30 seconds. Hypochlorous is a ‘wonder’ ingredient because not only is it free of alcohol and harmful chemicals, it is hypoallergenic and skin friendly. It is as natural as water and doesn’t need to be rinsed off. So not only is it people-friendly, but it is planet-friendly too.

“I believe that Hypochlorous is the future of everyday sanitisation. As we learn to live with the need for heightened sanitisation even after lockdown is eased, choosing something that is gentle on your skin, eyes, lungs and even the environment makes CleanRite ideal for long-term usage.”

CLEANRITE – BOTH POWERFUL AND SAFE CleanRite is an alcohol-free hypoallergenic sanitiser. It is highly effective without dehydrating, irritating, stinging or damaging skin or eyes making it perfect for all skin types, including sensitive skin.

CleanRite is highly effective on multiple surfaces and equipment including kitchen worktops (since it is food safe). And unlike most alcohol-based products, CleanRite is non-flammable.

Clare Hughes (MPSI BSc PHARM), Founder, CF Pharma said, “The advanced CleanRite formulation based on Hypochlorous, makes this ‘nature’s powerful disinfectant’. Indeed, Hypochlorous, which is produced naturally by the body’s white blood cells to support the human immune system in fighting infection and bacteria, has been used in wound-healing for decades.”

Caroline Fogarty said, “It looks like we are going to be living with the need for increased sanitisation for some considerable time. So being able to offer a sanitisation range that has a skin friendly pH for family use, from birth, makes CleanRite an essential tool for everyone as we navigate the new normal.”

AVAILABILITY CleanRite is manufactured in various sizes from 60ml to 4500ml with convenient 60ml and 150ml finger sprays for travel available, which are for sale on Amazon For further information, to view the full range of products or to place an order for your business, visit CleanRite CF Pharma http://cleanrite.ie

Fellowes Aeramax Pro Air Purifiers Certified to Remove 99.9% of Airborne Coronavirus and H1N1 Flu Leading commercial air purification manufacturer, Fellowes, is pleased to announce its AeraMax Pro air purifiers have shown a 99.99% airborne reduction of a coronavirus surrogate within 60 minutes of operation.

With the recent, intensified focus on the reduction of airborne transmission of viruses, a number of worldwide bodies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ASHRAE, as well as ‘healthy building’ scientific advocates, have recommended that portable air cleaners using HEPA filtration can help in the protection against SARS-Cov-2. This is particularly key for settings such as care homes, where occupants have an increased level of vulnerability to the spread of disease and therefore require this additional protection.

In response to this, air purification expert, Fellowes recently arranged for its AeraMax Pro purifier, which has a four-stage TRUE HEPA filtration system, to be independently tested for efficacy in the reduction of two of the most healththreatening airborne-transmitted contaminants seen in recent times – coronavirus and the H1N1 virus.

UK Care Homes Use Groundbreaking Health Technology to Maintain Clean Air and Surfaces

Care home owners have been among the first customers to purchase air and surface sterilisation products from Medklinn, the international health technology company, which recently launched in the UK. Following confirmation from scientists from Fujita Health University in Japan, that low concentrations of ozone gas can be used to neutralise coronavirus particles without causing harm to humans, UK care homes have an alternative method to sterilise the air and surfaces in their premises without the use of chemicals.

According to the university research, low-level ozone gas in concentrations of 0.05 to 1.0 parts per million (ppm) could be key to neutralising the spread of coronavirus in healthcare settings such as examination rooms and waiting areas.

Medklinn International, the health technology company that has pioneered research and development into negative ionisation and ozone in the sterilisation process, already provides air and surface sterilisation solutions in ASIA, the USA, Canada, Australia and Germany. Now the business has launched in the UK. Daniel Lu, chief technology and innovation officer of Medklinn International, said: “We are pleased to be bringing our health technology to the UK. The announcement from the team at Fujita Health University in Japan further demonstrates that ozone sterilisation technology is a viable alternative to the use

of chemicals for disinfection.”

In addition to the latest breakthrough in neutralising coronavirus particles, Medklinn products are also proven to be effective in: • Killing 99.9% of harmful microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria, mould and fungi by destroying their RNA and DNA structure • Eliminating volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including those with adverse health effects • Neutralising allergenic organic compounds such as pet dander and the protein in the faeces of dust mites, which are often the cause of allergies Steve Jones, Brand Manager Medklinn UK, said: “We’re really excited to be launching Medklinn UK. Our products are already used by some of the leading global brands in the healthcare, travel and tourism, retail, education, F&B and hospitality sectors, including Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental and Singapore’s Changi Airport. We believe that they will be particularly useful as we make gradual steps towards easing restrictions and reopening the UK following the lockdowns over the past 12 months.”

Medklinn UK offers a consumer range of products suitable for the home and for use in vehicles.

It also offers a range of air and surface sterilisers designed for business use including: • Permanent units for spaces up to 1,000 sq ft such as hotel guest rooms, washrooms, offices and classrooms • Permanent units for large spaces of 3,000 sq ft or more such as hotel corridors, washrooms, restaurants, halls, offices, exhibition centres, supermarkets, food processing and manufacturing plants • Portable units for ad hoc treatments of indoor odours recommended for hotel guest rooms, restaurants and facilities management It will also offer ozone water systems (for washrooms, industrial kitchens, food processing factories) and integrated sterilisation systems (for public washrooms, food processing and F&B outlets and supermarkets).

For further information about Medklinn UK please visit uk.medklinn.com or contact medklinn@tunnelight.net.

Certified by Shanghai WEIPU Chemical Technology Service Company, Fellowes AeraMax Pro air purifiers demonstrated effectiveness in reducing the aerosolised airborne concentration of Human Coronavirus 229E in a test chamber, reaching 99.99% airborne reduction within one hour of operation. As it is not yet possible, or ethically responsible to aerosolise Sars-CoV-2 for airborne testing in the current climate, the coronavirus 229E was used as a surrogate to SarsCoV-2.

Furthermore, AeraMax Pro air purifiers have also been proven to remove 99.9% of the H1N1 virus within 35 minutes of operation, as certified by Airmid Health Group Limited in Dublin, Ireland. When installed in a care home environment, AeraMax Pro therefore offers outstanding protection against the transmission of coronavirus 229E and the H1N1 virus between staff, visitors and vulnerable residents.

For more information about Fellowes AeraMax Pro air purifiers, visit www.aeramaxpro.com/uk

PAGE 28 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

CATERING FOR CARE

Dysphagia Call to Action

By Sophie Murray, Head of Nutrition and Hydration, Sunrise Senior Living (www.sunrise-care.co.uk)

In the industry we know that the numbers are rising for those who have swallowing problems and the skills required to modify foods are greatly needed in some sites as catering staff need much more than an ability to use a blender to break food down. This is as a result of the safety framework which ,many of us know called IDDSI, standing for International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative which has been built upon research of swallowing to be able to give very precise levels which comprise of very specific food and drink test to deduce if it is safe for the Level. Most foods can be modified but not all and the modification process requires equipment, techniques and knowledge. As foods themselves vary in texture, it is not as simple as adapting a recipe – a banana or an avocado are 2 examples of foods which can vary greatly in their ability to be soft enough to push a fork through with little pressure, and other foods such as white fish do not blend smoothly to a puree so may need to be replaced with an oily fish for a person who requires a pureed diet There are publicised cases of fatalities such as in 2017 when a care home was prosecuted and closed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), after a resident choked on porridge twice in one day and died.

Protocols and processes between care and catering teams needs to be watertight so that only those trained correctly modify the foods and this includes all snacks too – careful management to ensure safety as well as choice are prime considera-

tions – in itself this has challenges as a persons may have recommendations for Care homes seeking to buy in ready modified food need to ensure that this matches the menu properly and meets needs and choices so that there aren’t There IS only one qualification that can formally train and accredit Chefs called the Level 2 Award for Chefs in Healthcare but there are few providers offering this due to poor uptake and awareness https://www.cthawards.com/qualifications/culinary-programmes/cth-ioh-level-2-specialist-award-chefshealth-social-care/ There is also a framework for care teams called the Inter-professional Dysphagia Framework (IDF) which sets out the knowledge and skills care staff require to do safely care for a person with swallowing problems. The IDF should be implemented in every care home to ensure residents receive safe and effective care but in reality care homes don’t all know about it and it needs translating to a workable process with solid training although it is written with good clarity.

Speech and Language Therapists are a great source of knowledge and support for care teams as they are the identified professionals who can diagnose a swallowing condition and recommend appropriate IDDSI Levels.

IDDSI has set up a UK reference group so that best practice can be shared across the UK and organisations such as the NACC can provide support to care homes needing traning and awareness When risks are fatalities as a result of poor practice, there is much to do to ensure amazing food and choice is offered and residents are safe from harm as a result of choking or aspiration.

The high risk is choking and aspiration.

Are You in Need of Dysphagia Training ? *

*This training is intended for healthcare professionals only.

Did you know that between 50-75% of nursing home residents suffer from dysphagia1? Nutricia has a training solution for you, a FREE e-learning covering the fundamentals of dysphagia management using Nutilis Clear.

The training is divided into 4 sections and has been specially designed for busy health and social care staff caring for people living with dysphagia. It takes 60 minutes in total to complete, however you can complete one section at a time.

HOW CAN THIS TRAINING HELP YOU? • Easy & convenient online solution to dysphagia training • Visibility to track progress in your care home • Raise the quality standard of dysphagia care in a consistent way The quality standards aim is for all new health and social care staff members caring for patients with Dysphagia to complete the modules as part of their induction pro-

gramme. Existing health and social care staff members should also complete the learning to support their continuing professional development.

There is a certificate that can be downloaded once the training has been successfully completed.

Use the camera on your phone to scan the QR code to access the e-learning and get started!

For any questions contact your local Nutricia sales representative or our Resource Centre at resourcecentre@nutricia.com.

Nutilis Clear is a Food for Special Medical Purposes for the dietary management of dysphagia and must be used under medical supervision.

Reference: 1. O’Loughlin G, Shanley C. Swallowing problems in the nursing home: a novel training response.

Dysphagia 1998; 13, 172-183.( https://www.rcslt.org/speech-and-language-therapy/clinical-information/dysphagia)

Coping with Food Refusal

By Jane Clarke, Dietitian and founder of www.nourishbyjaneclarke.com

activities, leading to a reduction in wellbeing and quality of life. They will become weaker, increasing risk of falls, confusion and infection. Recovery from illness or surgery will take longer. If they are already vulnerable or living with a health condition, they may deteriorate faster.

But there are strategies that can help break the cycle of food refusal and encourage someone to begin eating again, while at the same time treating them with dignity and respecting their right to choose not to eat certain foods – after all, we all have our favourite flavours, as well as tastes and textures we can’t easily stomach. Here are some ideas…

MAKE EVERY MOUTHFUL COUNT If portions are small, it’s essential they contain as much nourishment as possible. Enriching foods with additional vitamins and minerals, protein, carbohydrates and calories can be as simple as adding extra vegetables to a tomato sauce, grating some Cheddar cheese into mashed potato, or adding extra lentils and a swirl of cream to a soup.

DON’T SIT AT THE TABLE From childhood to old age, the rhythms of our day tend to revolve around mealtimes – and that doesn’t change once we move into a care setting. Breakfast, lunch, teatime and supper bring residents – and carers – together around the table, and can provide precious moments of sociability, fun and connection, as well as healthy food to help maintain strength and resilience.

That changes when a person refuses to eat, or is reluctant to have more than a few mouthfuls. There are lots of reasons for this – living with a condition such as dementia; feeling unhappy in a new setting; grief or illness. As a carer it’s important to tackle food refusal as soon as possible, because the less a person consumes, the less their body and mind seems to feel a need for food.

Without the nourishment their body needs, an individual’s health will suffer. They will have less energy to be engaged in physical and social

This sounds controversial and I am a huge advocate for the pleasure of shared mealtimes, but they can feel overwhelming for some people and this is when the habit of refusing to eat can set in. Instead, try serving a small plate of food on a tray while they watch TV or listen to the radio. It can take the pressure off having to ‘perform’ at the table, and you may find they nibble more than expected.

SERVE A NOURISHING DRINK A ‘meal in a mug’, like a cup of soup, a fruit-filled smoothie, or an allnatural meal replacement Nourish Drink, is a good option for anyone who feels overwhelmed when a full plate of food is put in front of them. You’ll have the reassurance that the person you are looking after has had the equivalent nutrients of a complete meal but in a form that slips down more easily than a plate of cooked food. You could try this mid-morning or mid-afternoon, instead of the usual tea and biscuit.

SWAP MEALTIMES AROUND

If the person you care for has a bigger appetite in the morning but feels too tired to eat later in the day, then provide a more substantial breakfast and take the pressure off the evening by providing a smaller snack for supper. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to having dinner for breakfast or lunch at 4pm – it’s what works best for the individual and their appetite.

EAT TOGETHER Some people don’t like to eat alone. If some meals take place in a resident’s own room, rather than a dining room, try to take the time to sit and chat with them while they eat rather than getting on with a job elsewhere.

It can make meals feel a lonely, challenging time for the person you are caring for, and you may find they eat more when you are with them, rather than you returning to a plate of uneaten, cold food.

If residents do sit at the table together, place the reluctant eater next to someone with a heartier appetite, as it may prompt them to follow suit and eat more.

FOLLOW THEIR CUES We all have favourite foods so it’s worth trying to find out the dishes a person really loves. Even if they’re no longer able to enjoy the same meal, you could capture the flavours in a more accessible alternative – a roast chicken soup instead of a roast chicken dinner, say. Depending on the cognitive abilities of the resident, you could try creating a food and memory moodboard together, with photos of foods that remind them of happy times – ice cream on the beach, roast dinner on a Sunday, kippers for breakfast… It’s a great way to tempt the appetite and spark conversation.

BE ENCOURAGING If you ask a reluctant eater if they’d like potatoes or a pudding, the answer is likely to be ‘no’. Instead, respectfully cajole them to eat by saying, ‘Let’s try a potato, or a spoonful of ice cream…’ By encouraging a few mouthfuls, rather than giving a yes or no option to a meal, it’s amazing how many people will be tempted to take a bite, and then another, and before you know it, a good portion will be eaten.

PAGE 30 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

CATERING FOR CARE Activities & Ideas For Your Vegetarian Care Home Residents Charity Vegetarian for Life (VfL) has plenty of inspiring ideas to help you cater for your vegetarian or vegan (veg*n) residents and celebrate their lifestyle choice.

Even if you don’t have veg*n residents at present, it's always a good time to introduce new foods. You’ll likely find your residents are happy to try some meat-free options.

Here are VfL’s top tips: Host a vegetarian supper club, planning and serving a three-course meal. Here’s a suggested menu: Starter: Carrot, Ginger & Orange Soup (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/recip es/budget-recipes/carrot-gingerand-orange-soup) Main: Mushroom, Nut & Cranberry Wellington (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/recipes/main-meals/mushroom-nut-cranberrywellington) Dessert: Sticky Toffee Pudding (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/recipes/cakes-and-puddings/sticky-toffee-pudding) Run a veg*n food tasting session: e.g. vegan ice cream, vegan cheese, plant milks, faux meat products, tofu, or hummus and veggie dips. You could even make score cards and pick a winner at the end.

Experiment with more unusual ingredients, such as banana blossom ‘fish’, or jackfruit curry. You might even use silken tofu to make a mousse, quiche, or scrambled tofu. Play ‘guess the ingredient’ first, and let residents suggest what you might make with it – a great way to start discussions and share experiences.

It’s also a good sensory activity because people can see, touch, smell and taste the different foods.

If the weather is good, why not host a vegetarian picnic or BBQ? Here are some recipe ideas: Black Bean Burger (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/recipes/main-meals/black-bean-burger) Sandwich Platter (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/recipes/soups-and-sandwiches/sandwich-platter) Coronation Chicken Pastries (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/recipes/lighter-meals/coronation-chicken-pastries)

Whether vegetarian or not, many people have a favourite meal that just happens to be meat-free. Those that do consider themselves veg*n will likely enjoy being able to reminisce and share why they follow this lifestyle. Print photos of common vegetarian products from years gone by or find old vegetarian cookbooks to encourage conversation. Here’s an example of some products that one older vegetarian misses.

Visit VfL’s website (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk) for some suggested questions/conversation starters.

Invite a VfL chef to deliver a virtual or in-person cookery demo for your residents. They’ll take the pressure off your chefs and activity co-ordinators, and deliver a themed demo for you.

Here’s what recent participants have said: “It was brilliant, well presented, and the demonstrator was very likeable and did a great job.”

“I’ve taken part in lots of video cook-alongs recently and have found them quite stressful. However, this one was really informative and easy to follow.”

For a novel activity for residents, VfL runs a ‘virtual vegan lunch club’ on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

It’s open to vegetarians, vegans and meat reducers, aged 65+.

Recipes are sent in advance. Buy your ingredients, and cook the dishes on the day ready for the Zoom chat at 1pm.

Talk cookery, recipes and more, and meet likeminded people from across the UK. For residents that are less tech savvy, but keen to connect, VfL runs a veggie pen- and phone-pals scheme (https://vegetarianforlife.org.uk/pages/pen-andphone-pal-scheme). The scheme has linked tens of like-minded people from across the UK, and many lasting friendships have been forged.

One member said: “I love it, I really do. It’s the best thing I’ve done in a long, long time. I speak to a few people from the scheme and I’m delighted with how well it’s going” Caterers can get ahead of the curve with VfL’s accredited training. Topics include what veg*ns eat; plant-based nutrition and fortification; meal planning; and alternatives to meat and dairy. Each bite-sized module includes easy-to-follow recipe videos and fantastic, tasty recipes. What’s more, it’s British Dietetic Association accredited.

Carrot, Ginger and Orange Soup

Serves: 4 Dietary requirements: Dairy-free, Egg-free, Halal, Kosher, Vegan Ingredients Good glug of olive oil 4 small onions, chopped 4 garlic cloves, chopped 2–3 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely grated Zest and juice of 2 oranges 8 carrots, peeled and sliced 1 litre water with vegan stock or 4 tsp vegetable bouillon Couple of pinches of cayenne pepper or chilli powder (optional) Sea salt and pepper to taste To serve Coconut yoghurt or vegan crème fraiche (optional) Chopped coriander leaves Instructions • In a saucepan, gently cook the onion in the olive oil until softened.

• Add the garlic, ginger and orange zest. Cook for a minute or so and then add the carrots, stock, and cayenne pepper or chilli powder (if using).

• Simmer until the carrots are tender.

• Using a hand blender, blend the soup until smooth.

• Add the orange juice and season with salt and pepper.

Blend again briefly to mix.

• Reheat gently. Serve with optional dollop of coconut yoghurt or crème fraiche, and a sprinkle of chopped coriander on top.

LAUNDRY SOLUTIONS Forbes Delivers a Streamlined Solution for National Care Groups A national care group needs to know that they are delivering a consistently high standard of care and in order to do this they need to ensure that they are working with service partners that they can trust. When it comes to laundry provision, centralised procurement and management teams want to know that they will have access to a streamlined process for all on-going account and service management.

Forbes Professional offers a nationwide delivery of a localbased service, with the security and reliability that comes from being a long-established company. Our expansive network of depots and field engineers enables a highly responsive service and maintenance response, which is mobilised via a dedicated hotline at our head office. We work closely with clients to devise the solution best suited to their requirements; conducting comprehensive site-surveys, offering detailed CAD designs and always specifying the most

appropriate, industry compliant machines. We choose our manufacturers extremely carefully to ensure that we are offering the highest quality of both product and service. For the care sector, hygiene is always of paramount importance and our commercial laundry equipment fully adheres to the relevant WRAS and CQC guidelines for infection control.

All of our laundry equipment is available for rent, lease or purchase with maintenance.

Our Complete Care rental solution gives access to premium equipment without upfront capital outlay and with no repair or replacement bills for the life of the contract. National care groups are always assigned a dedicated account manager who remains their point of contact, centralising all account management for a highly efficient process that keeps things simple for both procurement teams and care management staff. www.forbespro.co.uk info@forbes-professional.co.uk 0345 070 2335

Cash’s Labels- “The Name Behind the Name”

At Cash's, we aim to capture, reinforce and communicate our clients’ brand equity through quality and innovation, from design to distribution.

Our product range fully caters for the needs of both small and large retailers and brand owners alike comprising of woven and printed labels, woven badges, care labels, branded and promotional swing tags, garment accessories, packaging and barcoding.

Our ground breaking labelling and security technologies are also able to provide an unrivalled level of protec-

tion to our customers' brand by assisting to combat counterfeiting and grey market activity.

Our industry leading eCommerce system is designed to reduce cost, improve efficiency and streamline supply chain management and will fully protect the integrity and accuracy of critical business data. The order entry process is very simple meaning suppliers and vendors can spend their valuable time on tasks other than ordering apparel labelling and accessories.

See the advert this page for details.

PAGE 32 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Burlington Uniforms Burlington Uniforms are proud to provide healthcare uniforms to a variety of Healthcare professionals.

With our friendly, dedicated Team always ready to help, their combined wealth of knowledge within the Healthcare sector covers everything from your first enquiry right through to managing your account after despatch and beyond.

Supplying high quality garments to our customers is our passion, in an array of colours and sizes, our extensive healthacre ranges can provide everything you need, making us your one stop shop. We can also take care of personalisation through our talented embroidery team, giving you a final look you'll be proud of.

We can cater to the public and private healthcare sectors, so our collection of healthcare uniforms has been expertly designed with all medical settings in mind. Offering comfortable scrubs, dresses, tunics and coordinated trousers, our medical workwear is suited to every area of your industry.

Designed for comfort and flexability, these garments ensure staff enjoy ease of movement and are unrestricted throughout their shifts.

Besides our extensive stock service, our experience in manurfacturing and our wealth of textile expertise allows us to also provide end to end bespoke solutions for our customers, contact us for more details about working with us on bespoke requirements.

Call 08707 300 150 Sales@burlington-uniforms.co.uk www.burlington-uniforms.co.uk See the advert on page 11.

Yeoman Shield Fire Rated Door Edge Protector When specifying for a structure, it’s important to be aware of the level of wear and tear a door can be exposed to in a public building.

Door edges, in particular, can be easily damaged or worn down by regular use – which can then render them non-compliant for fire safety regulations. To ensure that a project remains compliant, an architect can specify durable door edge protectors to add durability and longevity to doors.

Not only will specifying edge protectors increase the longevity of doors, they will enhance the cost efficiency of a project by reducing maintenance demands and the possibility of having to replace unsafe fire doors.

Yeoman Shield fire rated Door Edge Protectors are unique with a 2.0 mm Vinylac outer and a specially formulated 9mm PVCu reinforced core. They are FD30 (1/2 hour) and FD60 (1 hour) rated

with intumescent seals that are in accordance to the fire door’s specification. Fire rated Door Edge Protectors are suitable for commercial applications such as residential blocks, schools and hospitals etc.

Door Edge Protectors can also be specified with different fire seals, from a plain intumescent fire seal to a brush, fire and smoke variant.

Of course, for doors that are non-fire rated in an architect’s project Yeoman Shield also provide quality edge protectors without seals to enhance durability and reduce wear.

Source a full range of door protection panels and kick plates from a single supplier by choosing Yeoman Shield. Our door protection panels and kick plates offer the same lasting durability and quality as our door edge protectors.

Visit www.yeomanshield.com for details.

Mendabath UK uses high quality bath resurfacing and bathroom repair products that are trusted all over the world. Aligned with our expertise, we offer a service that is simply unparalleled in the UK. Our experienced team is comprised of experts that will deliver a service that will exceed your expectations. From minor cosmetic repairs to bringing an old bath back to life, we can restore any suite. We offer resurfacing and repair services for baths, sinks and showers for care homes, private residences and commercial properties across the UK. Commercial bath repairs and resurfacing Discoloured and damaged baths can be resurfaced with a turnaround time of just twenty four hours, keeping lost occupancy days to a minimum.

This is more environmentally friendly than replacing your bath and will save you both time and money.

Slip resistant application We apply slip resistance the day

after the bath or shower tray resurfacing. This works well in busy hotels, where there is a strong duty of care to customers yet time is of the essence. For this process the room will be out of commission for a further twenty four hours while the surface cures and hardens.

Basin repairs and resurfacing We can repair and resurface cracked, stained and chipped basins, making them look new again.

Cosmetic bath and basin repairs Sanitary ware with minor chips and scratches can be cosmetically repaired. Our technicians fade-in each repair so that they are almost invisible to the naked eye.

Shower repairs and shower tray resurfacing We can fully restore any stained and cracked shower tray, giving it a fresh, new look.

See the advert on page 9 or visit www.mendabath.co.uk

CareZips Dignity Trousers Bath Resurfacing and Chip Repair ™

CareZips™ preserve dignity and privacy of people receiving care during diaper changes.

CareZips™ make diaper changes easier and faster, reducing workload, saving efforts, and saving time!

CareZips™ help to deliver better standards of care!

Fitted with unique 3-zip fastening system, the CareZips™ make changing of incontinence diapers more dignified and comfortable for the patients and easier and faster for the carers.

CareZips™ feature 3 strategically positioned zips, 2 of which run from the waist to the knees on both sides of the body. The 3rd zip goes from the inside of one knee up to the crotch and down to the second knee on the inside of the other leg. This zip facilitates total opening of the trousers at the crotch during diaper changes. The 3-zip system ensures fast and easy access to the abdomen and crotch without having to undress the patients or pull their trousers down.

CareZips™ are suitable for men and women. They

are available in 7 sizes for perfect fit. CareZips™ are soft and wrinkle resistant with stretch and give for extra comfort. Practical, durable, washable and noniron, the CareZips™ trousers are the perfect choice for daily use.

Contact Win Health Medical Ltd - 01835 864866 www.win-health.com

Spotta’s Early Warning System Prevents Bed Bug Infestations Smart pest monitoring system marks one year of real-world operations, detecting bed bugs in 94.2% of cases

In its first year of operation, Spotta’s monitoring and detection system identified bed bugs in 94.2% of cases, significantly reducing the number of encounters between bed bugs and residents in multi-room properties.

The ‘always-on’ monitoring service uses advanced recognition technology to identify insects and provide real time alerts. Spotta enables multi-room properties such as sheltered and residential housing accommodation and their pest control partners to identify occurrences of bed bugs and treat the problem early, limiting the damage caused and spread of the pests.

In its first year of real-world deployment in customer properties Spotta serviced over 91,000 room nights. Of

the detections made by Spotta, over half (52.2%) were in rooms with no recent history of bed bugs, proving the system’s effectiveness as an early warning against new infestations. Repeat detections in rooms help property managers assess whether extermination treatments are successful or if further, more extensive treatment is needed.

“For accommodation providers, most of the overall financial impact of bed bugs comes from contact between the occupant and pests, which leads to complaints, disruption and high treatment costs,” says Robert Fryers, co-founder and CEO of Spotta.

During the Bed Pod’s first year, 94.2% of cases were successfully detected by Spotta, with room residents reporting bed bugs accounting for just 3.3% of cases and staff identifying the remaining 2.5%.

Fryers continues: “The first year results of Bed Pod show we have a credible, proven solution with realworld efficacy. This represents a transformative step for pest controllers, accommodation providers and property managers by allowing them to proactively monitor for bed bugs, rather than just reacting when problems are reported.”

Find out more at www.spotta.co See the advert on page 15.

Jolly Trolley Brings Therapeutic Activity and Entertainment to Patients That Are Isolating The Jolly Trolley® is an essential for any care establishment as it promotes social interaction between the service users and their carers. This innovative system is fully mobile and battery operated, allowing residents who may be unable to leave their rooms to also be included with ease.

The Jolly Trolley® comes complete with its own videos, quizzes, karaoke and other content, but personal music, photos and films can then be added from a USB stick to really bring out the magic!

Don’t just take our word for it here are just some testimonials from our very happy Health and Social Care clients:

Chester Park- Megan Allan, Activities “The fact that we can upload what is relevant to the specific Individual is so meaningful for that person and I can assure you we have shed some tears being able to be part of that residents memory journey. It has been an amazing addition to our care home – from staff and residents – thank you.”

Pennine NHS Trust - Beech Ward“we have been able to provide therapeutic activity & entertainment with ease to patients that are isolating” To see what the Jolly Trolley® can do for you, call us for a free demonstration on 0800 093 8499.

See the advert on page 6.

Adaptawear Iona Nightie: Full Opening-Back Nightie Ideal for those bed-ridden, struggling with mobility or needing palliative end of life care - the Iona nightie from adaptawear.com has been specifically designed with these people in mind.

This unique product comes with a fully opening back, shoulder openings on both sides, and easy poppers, which fasten quickly with limited effort. As the nightgown opens up completely flat, it can be put on from a lying or seated position, ensuring less stress for both the wearer and carer. The open back function with a generous overlap also ensures dignity when toileting and a quick drying cotton fabric is

comfortable and practical.

As well as the Iona adapted nightie, Adaptawear have a range of other back opening nighties, including their popular Petal Back range, and also fully front button nightwear. Their men and women's ranges feature a full range of adaptive daywear, including front fastening bras and comfortable cotton underwear; with a customer recently sharing they had ‘regained their independence with such helpful items.’

All items can be found at www.adaptawear.com or call 0800 051 1931 for more info. Don’t forget to use code CR10M at checkout for 10% off your order.

Evaness 100% Biodegradable Consumables Range EVANESS is the only full range of biodegradable products for the care and health sector, from various sizes and strengths of bin liners, to clingfilm and food/freezer bags. EVANESS is a derivative from the word ‘Evanesce” meaning to vanish and the technology used in the biodegradable range is scientifically proven to degrade the material if it gets into the open environment and then facilitate the secondary process of biodegradation, without causing micro-plastics.

New recent additions to the product range include compostable bin liners which are manufactured to EN13432 certification for home and industrial composting, and the UK’s first ANTI-VIRAL Grip Seal bag, which although are non-biodegradable are specifically designed to combat the transmission of viruses and bacteria.

The pandemic brought about many concerns over how to store and handle a range of items, which were handled by many a person to avoid the transfer of viruses

and bacteria. Consumable Supplies created a Grip Seal bag which incorporates an advanced British technology D2P by Symphony Environmental, which provides protection to the surface of the Grip Seal bag against microorganisms or viruses for the lifetime of the bag and offers a 99.9% Anti-Viral reduction after 1 hour of contact.

Although the bag can be used for the storage and handling of any items you wish to protect, such as medicines, PPE equipment, laboratory samples, cash, keys etc, as the product is Food-Safe, it also offers its use to storing food. The initial bag size offered is 150mm x 200mm, so useful for smaller items and can form part of your existing health and hygiene protection routine.

Consumable Supplies strives to offer unique quality environmentally friendlier products at reasonable prices with a great no-quibble customer service. Free delivery on any order.

See the advert on page 21 or visit www.consumablesupplies.co.uk

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 33

NURSE CALL AND FALLS PREVENTION

A Digital Future of Care in a Post COVID-19 Era The New Year brings good news and light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel with the roll out of vaccination programs, despite this the UK has been forced into stricter lockdown regulations. Health and care sectors are acutely aware of their responsibilities and the importance to look after technology that is fundamental to caring for the vulnerable and their carers.

Should systems fail, technology suppliers should provide help and assistance remotely with telephone support and using remote diagnostic tools. At Courtney Thorne we find that most issues are resolved over the phone, where this proves difficult and further checks or reconfiguration is necessary this is done by remotely accessing systems and running diagnostics. 95% of the service inquiries we receive are resolved this way reducing the need to physically attend the site.

Inquiries that cannot be rectified remotely will require an engineer to visit. To ensure the safety of residents, staff and the engineers themselves, service providers need to adopt stringent policies with rigorous clarification processes concluding with written

The New MPCSA11 from Medpage Medpage is a family ran company, with a huge heart and resources gathered over our 35- year trading history. The majority of the technologies we design, manufacture and distribute originate from enquiries received from healthcare professionals and personal family care observations. Our product portfolio provides a wide variety of care solutions for epilepsy, dementia, senior care, special needs and sensory loss.

Our latest innovation, currently in use in

several Hospitals, presents an effective fall monitoring, detection and reporting solution.

The MPCSA11 is a complex software driven sensor monitor made to be user and operator friendly. This device has already proven successful in hospital and care home trials by reducing patient falls while also reducing false positives from a safe patient. The device can monitor and interact with up to three sensor products: bed and chair occupancy pressure pads, PIR movement detection sensors and proximity signal products.

In use, a patient or resident rising from their bed would be considered a falls risk, but what if they are simply moving to sit in a chair close to their bed? A standard bed monitor would raise an alarm alerting care staff, who would arrive to find the person safely seated. The MPCSA11 would only generate an alarm if the person was out of their bed or chair for a selectable time duration. Learn more www.easylinkuk.co.uk/mpcsa11 Or see the advert on page 15.

confirmation that there is no COVID-19 on site or where there is, that those suffering are suitably isolated. In the case of Courtney Thorne our process includes asking authorised care home management to fill out a questionnaire prior to our engineer turning up.

We also insist that our staff are regularly checked, including logging daily body temperature. Finally equipping field staff with necessary PPE, making sure it is always used and includes a hand washing regime before, during and after any site visit. Courtney Thorne provides our field-based engineering staff with overalls, gloves, face masks and plenty of hand sanitiser.

By diligently observing these protocols, and despite our staff visiting care homes and hospitals on a daily basis throughout the pandemic, not one of them has developed any COVID-19 symptoms at any time.

For further information visit www.nursecallsystems.co.uk or see the advert on this page.

Andy Bridgewater Expands Alarm Radio Monitoring's Team

Market Leading manufacturer of wireless nurse call and staff alarm systems, Alarm Radio Monitoring Ltd (ARM), has announced the appointment of Andy Bridgewater as its new Head of Sales & Marketing.

Former Royal Engineer with Her Majesty’s forces, Andy joined the business in late April, having over 15 years experience within the sales and engineering industry.

Andy’s appointment to the senior management team comes at an exciting time for ARM with numerous new products and systems being launched throughout the year, none more so than the Bed Angel, an innovative wireless bed occupancy monitor.

Stuart Ibbs, Operations Director for ARM, said: “We are delighted to welcome Andy to lead our sales team during what is an exciting period of growth for the business. With numerous new products entering the market over the coming year, his appointment is a big part of the company’s commitment to provide high quality products to the care and staff alarm industry” “Andy’s drive and passion for team management will strengthen our sales division, he will be crucial in mentoring our sales team to roll out the new products we are due to roll out” Andy’s role as head of Sales & Marketing will see him lead sales growth for ARM as their product range continues to expand throughout the UK. The Bed Angel, new monitoring software and 7’ touchpad display are either currently available or due to enter the market shortly.

Andy commented: “I am delighted to join ARM at such an exciting time as it continues to grow throughout the UK and innovate within the Health Care industry.

He continued : Alarm Radio Monitoring’s focus on people development and working as a team is something I firmly believe in, and I am looking forward to working with the sales team to exceed targets whilst continuing to deliver the outstanding customer service that ARM is renowned for” See the advert on page 31.

www.nursecallsystems.co.uk

PAGE 34 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

NURSE CALL AND FALLS PREVENTION

NURSE CALL

IT’S NOT OBSOLETE UNTIL THE OPERA LADY SINGS

EDISON TELECOM LTD (IN BUSINESS SINCE 1984)

have spares, enhancements and expertise for wired and wireless systems abandoned by the original manufacturer, whoever they are.

Call us on 01252-330220 We can give most systems a new lease of life and maintain them into the future.

www.edisontelecom.co.uk Please Please mention mention THE THE CARER CARER when when responding responding to to advertising. advertising.

Nurse Call from Edison Telecom We here at Edison Telecom Ltd have been providing specialist solutions to your call system requirements tailor-made to each customers needs for over 25 years, says director Bob Johnson.

Is your current Nurse Call “legacy”, obsolete, so full of software bugs or commercially not viable for your current supplier/maintainer to maintain?

We may have just the part and

expertise that you are looking for to give your nurse call a further extension to life, adds Bob, “Edison will treat your nurse call with the same compassion that you give to those in your care. There will come a time when your equipment is beyond repair but Edison are experts in extending the life of obsolete systems.” www.edisontelecom.co.uk

Fall Savers - Affordable Fall Monitoring Solutions Fall Savers®, are an experienced market leading healthcare provider of resident safety solutions for over 15 years.

FALL SAVERS ® WIRELESS MONITOR Eliminate all cables with our new generation falls management solutions!

Upgrade your falls programme with the latest technology from Fall Savers®. The NEW Fall Savers® Wireless eliminates the cord between the monitor and sensor pad. This results in less work for nursing staff, improved safety for patients and reduced wear and tear on sensor pads. Wireless advantages include the ability to use one monitor with two sensor pads simultaneously and support for many new wireless devices.

Benefits include: Safer for patients; less work for staff Bed and chair pads available One monitor works with two sensor pads Integrates with most nurse call systems A variety of options, including: Call button Pager

Floor sensor mat Wireless door/window exit alerts

TREADNOUGHT ®FLOOR SENSOR PAD The TreadNought® Floor Sensor Pad is built to last with a durable construction that far out lasts the competition. Our antibacterial floor sensor pad is compatible with most nurse call systems or can be used with a portable pager to sound an alert when a person steps on to the sensor pad. Caregivers typically place the sensor pad at the bedside, in a doorway or other locations to monitor persons at risk for falls or wandering. An optional anti-slip mesh reduces the potential for slippage on hard surface floors.

Features include: Connects directly to most nurse call systems High Quality anti-bacterial Floor Sensor Pad Large Size Pad: Measures (L) 91cm x (H) 61cm Options (sold separately): Anti-slip mesh for hard surface floors See the advert on this page for further details.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 35

NURSE CALL AND FALLS PREVENTION Make Your Nursecall Data Work For You and Your Residents Using your ‘Call Bell’ data can help improve the care you provide and even aid in getting an “outstanding” CQC rating. Yet, quite often this data is only used to help investigate an incident and ignored for the rest of the time. A lot of care homes still rely on a printer to record event logs making data analysis time consuming and difficult.

KAM Systems Limited have launched their Kloud Care Home data logging service. Kloud can be connected to any existing nursecall system using a Kloud shuttle that has a printer or paging interface.

All events are logged by the Shuttle & synchronised with the Kloud on any internet enabled device. The service then analyses the data into an easy to understand report which can even be automatically emailed to a home manager’s inbox.

The data can include KPI’s such as Average Response Time, Top Five Rooms that ‘call’ the most, Busiest Hours In The Day, No. of Night Checks and much more.

Longer response times during certain hours may indicate that not enough staff are on duty. The data can also show that a resident has started to ‘call’ for help much more than usual and this can be investigated and appropriate measures put in place.

Users can login from any connected device to access the Kloud and create custom reports or investigate a specific incident if required. Care Group administrators have a dashboard of all their care homes in one place making it simple to manage.

Harpal Momi - Managing Director says “When we asked our customers about Nursecall Data logging most of them said that it was too difficult to analyse or they didn’t have the time. We developed Kloud to help them deliver better care based on the data analysis.

The ease in which it can be implemented and the simple subscription model makes it suitable for anyone”.

Contact 0330 321 1040, info@kamsystems.co.uk or visit www.kamsystems.co.uk

Alarm Radio Monitoring Alarm Radio Monitoring (A.R.M) is a UK based manufacturer of wireless Nurse Call and Staff Alarm systems; offering a comprehensive range of Nurse Call, Staff Alarm, Fire Alarm, and Door Access bespoke systems. With over 30 years experience in the design & development of wireless Nurse Call & Staff Alarm systems, A.R.M has established itself as a key player within the wireless solutions market to the public and private healthcare sectors.

Wireless solutions are ideal for environments which do not lend themselves to running cables, for example listed buildings or busy environments. Wireless systems can be fitted while your home remains operational, so you do not have to close rooms off and they offer greater flexibility and ease for future expansion.

Care Homes choose A.R.M nurse call systems because they: • Are quick and simple to install.

• Make it easier for staff to identify the source of calls

because they give full text descriptions.

• Give management the tools they need to monitor and control best practice. The system provides a full audit trail of which buttons are pressed and response times.

• Failsafe eg alerts you in the event of a system fault or batteries are running low.

• Carry a year’s guarantee.

• Are supported 24/7, 365 days a year by specialist engineers over the telephone or online.

No matter how demanding your environment, A.R.M believes everyone – whether you’re a customer in a care home or team member – should be within safe reach.

Whether you need a combination of a Nurse Call, Staff Alarm, Fire Alarm, Door Access system, we have a team to help design a package that will meet your requirements.

For further details call 01568 610 016 or email sales@arm.uk.com

Please Please mention mention THE THE CARER CARER when when responding responding to to advertising. advertising.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 37

TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE Reliant Care Solutions Ltd WHY SHOULD CARE HOMES MOVE FROM PAPER TO ELECTRONIC TIME SHEETS

The industry is under considerable financial pressures. An efficient electronic booking on/off system that will schedule, provide budgets, calculate hours worked, overtime and absence such as sickness and holiday entitlement will save Time and Money.

HOW IS TIME AND MONEY SAVED BY DOING THINGS ELECTRONICALLY?

Collecting payroll information from paper timesheets can be slow, prone to errors, and very labour intensive.

Staff rosters can be produced as far in advance as practical and accurate within budgeted hours. Staff book on and off-duty electronically, thus eliminating any time errors.

Wage queries are virtually eliminated and immediate checks can be made without wading through reams of paper which invariably are inaccurate, misfiled or even 'lost".

THERE ARE MANY SYSTEMS ON THE MARKET WHY FACIAL RECOGNITION IS IMPORTANT AND HOW IT WORKS

Some systems use tokens, which can be lost or left at home, requiring management involvement in the booking on/off procedure. Fingerprint systems can be beaten and Social media is awash with ways to copy fingerprints. Face recognition combined with a staff PIN is simple to use and manage using touch screen technology and web cams. Staff see their image displayed immediately when booking on or off and confirms their identity visually. It provides the best deterrent available as it builds a greater 'image knowledge’ of each employee, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Eliminates 'buddy punching' where employees can book colleagues on/off duty using someone’s tokens, swipe card or even fingerprint.

HOW IS DATA PROTECTED? With the correct security setup computer systems provide more data protection than paper-based records which can be easily removed or stolen. GDPR covers all data including paper records and therefore the chances of infringing the rules and incurring fines is greater with paper.

For further information visit www.rcscare.net or call 03333 444 562.

WristPIT from Pinpoint The WristPIT from Pinpoint,is a bespoke patient call transmitter designed to be worn on the wrist.

This wrist-worn personal infrared transmitter (WristPIT) is easily accessible and allows patients to activate a call for even if they are away from their bed or a fixed call-point.

Pinpoint’s renowned PIT technology (usually worn by staff for personal safety) has, for the first time, been designed around patient use. The WristPIT can withstand showering and brief submersion in water and also incorporates antimicrobial product protection, reducing the ability for bacteria to grow.

According to figures published by the National Reporting and Learning System, around 250,000 incidents where patients required assistance in hospital were reported in 2015/16. In many cases, nursing staff remained unaware that a patient had had a fall for quite some time.

Pressing the clearly labelled call button on the WristPIT notifies the personnel on duty that a patient is requesting help and informs staff exactly where the patient is. The call button is recessed and surrounded by a bump guard to prevent false alarms.

Pinpoint Alarm Systems are installed in thousands of medical facilities throughout the UK and USA. The new WristPIT is backward compatible and easily integrated into existing Pinpoint Systems.

A green LED indicates the WristPIT is ‘activated’ with good battery level. When the battery requires changing, the LED flashes red until the battery is changed and the device has been retested.

In addition to being water-resistant, the WristPIT has been designed to withstand harsh environments and user tampering, meaning suitability for facilities where service users may be at risk of self-harm.

Please Please mention mention THE THE CARER CARER when when responding responding to to advertising. advertising.

PINPOINT WRISTPIT The WristPIT is a wrist worn Personal Infrared Transmitter designed exclusively for patient use.

The latest call button is recessed and surrounded by a bump guard to prevent false alarms. It is also backward compatible, allowing seamless integration into existing Pinpoint Systems.

DID YOU KNOW? Biomaster Technology is incorporated into all surface areas of the product during manufacture, inhibiting the growth of contaminating bacteria 24/7 for the lifetime of the product.

www.pinpointlimited.com

PAGE 38 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE Care South Invests In Ground-Breaking Care Planning Technology A not-for-profit charity in the South of England is the latest UK care provider to invest in ground-breaking technology proven to boost operational efficiency, reduce errors and dramatically improve care delivery.

Care South, which provides residential, nursing and dementia care to residents across its 16 care homes, also help people to live independently in their own homes.

Working with service users and their families, Care South tailors personal solutions in which all parties can feel secure and confident, with the dignity of those needing care central to the charity’s goals. To ensure that the highest levels of care are maintained, Care South’s care home portfolio benefits from ongoing investment and in-depth training programmes all year round.

Care South’s latest investment will see staff go paperless, using Person Centred Software’s award-winning Mobile Care Monitoring to evidence and monitor care interactions in real-time, in a move that will also save each carer up to 3 days per month on paperwork.

The gradual rollout will see Care South’s Sussexdown care home receive the software first, with the wider plan being to onboard up to two locations per month until all services are fully equipped with the software.

Using Person Centred Software, Care South will be able to make the

most of its unrivalled ecosystem of partners, which includes electronic medication management.

Discussing their reasons for adopting Mobile Care Monitoring, Aaron Whitehead, Director of Residential Care at Care South, said: “We first heard about Person Centred Software through word of mouth and, upon doing our research, it seemed the perfect solution for us. Being fully mobile and icon-driven, the software is incredibly easy to use and saves our carers time that had previously been spent completing paperwork.

“We’re delighted with the benefits that the software has delivered people living and working within our homes so far. We look forward to working directly with Person Centred Software as we complete the software roll out over the coming months,” Aaron concluded.

Having launched in Australia in 2018, Ireland in 2019 and the Netherlands in 2021, Person Centred Software’s innovative technology is improving systems used in social care globally and has won numerous prestigious industry accolades. In 2020, Person Centred Software was placed on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 and top 10 SME in Digital Leaders 100, and the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 list in 2019. Furthermore, its new coronavirus-specific features were recognised at the Health Tech Digital Awards 2020 for Best COVID-19 Software Solution.

For more information about the benefits of moving to a digital care management system, please visit www.personcentredsoftware.com

First Installation of Game Changing Software for the Care Industry Installed at Nyton House in Chichester The first intelligent tech system that helps both carers and residents has been launched to market by Arquella and successfully installed at cutting edge care home Nyton House in Chichester.

Sheffield based Arquella was founded in 2019 –and provides innovative digital solutions for the care industry allowing the focus to be on the care of residents.

Combining modern nurse call equipment with advanced software they have created a higher quality of care and improved reporting system to help raise CQC ratings.

Paul Howell and Reuben Timoney are the very passionate and entrepreneurial drivers behind the care home gamechanger that is Arquella. CEO and COO respectively, they met by chance in 2018, changing their futures and the future of care home tech.

So, what is the digital system?

AIDA Assist is an advance nurse call system, a digital care reporter and a whole lot more!

The new system is a link between call-logging and care plan software with the most comprehensive automated compliance reporting available.

Most nurse call manufacturers use pagers to alert carers to a call on their system. Arquella’s wireless nurse call systems integrate with smartphones without the need for extra equipment to be installed. This allows carers to be alerted to call location instantly. So long pagers!

On top of that it can be used to provide evidence for care cost adjustments and supply in-depth specific and overall care analysis during an investigation. In conjunction with good quality home management, it provides unambiguous compliance data that shows the care home is doing

The Carer Digital Now Available Weekly thecareruk.com/backissues

more than just meeting the regulatory requirements.

Paul Howell, CEO of Arquella says: ‘It is not enough to be exceptional at looking after the needs of vulnerable people anymore. Alongside the hands-on care, you need to keep detailed care plans, compliance reports, in-depth care analysis, day by day monitoring of care delivery, accident and incident trend analysis, KPI monitoring against performance standards and so much more. The job of recording care is now so complex that some care facilities employ full-time compliance officers, a luxury that many other care homes don’t have. Our goal is to build a fully integrated digital world of care that helps the care homes take control.’

Arquella believes that their system will also help care homes with their CQC ratings which are often rated lower because of the recording of care, rather than actual performance.

Howell says: ‘To achieve a rating of ‘good’ or higher is not a matter of simply meeting the standards of the regulator. We all know how a classification of ‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires Improvement’ can damage a facility’s reputation and income. It gives potential clients the perception that the level of care being provided is somehow substandard. However, the reality is that more often than not, it is the recording of care that has broken down.’

Along with care plan information, AIDA Assist provides global information for the care home. Average response times for each shift pattern, average staff attendance times and frequency and time of emergency calls. The data can be easily mined quickly for patterns and trends and key point indicators can also be entered into the system.

Harvey Hillary is a second-generation care home owner and owns Nyton House in Chichester, the first care home to have the system installed. After a successful career as Head of High Performance & Innovation for the British Sailing Team he came back to work with the family business and is a huge advocate of the Arquella system.

‘The vision at Nyton was to provide a ‘home-like’ experience by encouraging a ‘freedom to roam’ and for residents to spend less time isolated in their rooms and more time in communal areas. Arquella enables us to provide location-based calling from unique user pendants.

How to enhance your rresidents esidents experience -!

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Exercise Physically - Exer cise for the elderly online coordination, increased classes, hand eye coor dination, incr eased around large movement to move hands ar ound a lar ge screen.! scr een.!

Emotionally - Reminiscence tours on Google present YouTube Earth, past and pr esent clips on YouT Y ouT Tube of ! interests, eligious services and hobbies or inter ests, rreligious Group Gr oup ZOOM calls to loved ones who cant get person!!! to visit in your rresidents esidents person! ! w,, “We now, “W We use it daily and would not be without ut it now even the rresidents esid nd it easy and fun to use. esidents find Registered Manager, Thank you!” Sandie Evans, Register red ed Manager r,, Oakland’s Oakland’ ’s Care Car Ca arre e Home, Crickhowell

Inspir Inspired ed Inspirations have been working dir directly ectly with car care e homes in developing their interactive touch scr screen een activity tables over the last few years, to pr provide ovide a range of scr screen een sizes and units to suit every car care e setting. setting.!!

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Just think of a giant Andr Android oid tablet built into a solid oak surr surround, ound, on a base that houses a lar large ge battery to allow you to use it all day long and smooth running wheels for easy movement between rooms rooms in your care care home. !

“This amazing bit of technology is making a huge di!erence di!e !errence to ou our ur rresidents” esidents” Melanie Dawson, Manager, Manager r, The Lawns L at Heritage Manor The screen screen is 5mm temper tempered ed glass for your residents ingress residents safety and sealed against fluid uid ingr ess meaning a spill of a cup of tea won’ won’tt ruin your ! equipment. It also means an easy clean solution to stop cross cross contamination using any normal surface cleaner.! cleanerrr..!

‘Removing the clinical feel was one step but removing the triggers of challenging behaviour was a key focus. Our Coach House unit has been designed around people with Dementia and removing Nurse Call Alarms was a massive win. Arquella allows us to notify staff of a ‘Call’ using a mobile device and for a staff member to accept the call and then cancel the call once they have attended to the resident.

‘A huge frustration for me as a care provider was the inability for Nurse Call systems to inform care planning. Most systems can provide a list report of time and frequency of calls and the response time from staff.

From my perspective, this is a very limited data set that is missing the most obvious opportunity for the carer to log the ‘reason for call’.

Working with Arquella we are developing a carer input screen that will code all alarms and enable us to identify trends and inform care plans.

This will be followed by a Task scheduling functionality for prompting medication, pressure areas care, night checks and fluids. Using API exports, we hope to streamline the point of care records keeping that is recorded in or Electronic Care Planning system.

‘As a care home, ultimately, we all want to achieve an outstanding rating from the CQC, but it’s often the accuracy of recording the data that lets us down. This takes time, is labour intensive or has us juggling platforms when we have more important things to do! That is all solved with the Arquella system and we’re thrilled to have it in Nyton.’

The modern call units can be wall mounted or portable for maximum freedom and have been designed with practicality and user-friendliness in mind.

Key benefits include…

Call alert to mobile Nurse Call Panel Fall sensor Nurse call reporting dashboard Reports, CQC and Call logs For more info. see the advert on page 13 or visit the Arquella website: www.Arquella.co.uk Or call: 0333 242 7505

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“We’ve didn’tt “W We’ve noticed ed that quieter rresidents esidents who didn’ interact too much with others have suddenly more more been mor re e active ctive and mor re e vocal.” Lindsey Manager, Davies, Home e Manager r,, Cwrt Enfys

See the advert on page 32 for details.

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THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 41

TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE StackCare UK Expands Offering with Launch Of Two New Client-Monitoring Systems – One for Care Homes CARE VISION and One for Home Care Professionals

StackCare UK, the market leading homemonitoring system provider, has expanded its product range with two new systems for the professional care industry - StackCare Pro and StackCare for Carers. Building on the original StackCare @home system that was launched earlier this year, the new systems provide care home managers and professional carers with up to the minute details on their clients’ wellbeing and activity levels, offering unrivalled extra levels of detail and resource to care packages.

Managers and agencies can monitor their clients both centrally, in their office using an online dashboard, and/or through an app on carers’ mobile phones. The systems allow staff to view the status of multiple clients, and, as with StackCare @home, managers and carers can monitor activity levels and data including the number of bathroom visits the client makes, room temperatures and sleep patterns, with alerts sent if a client’s behaviour patterns change.

Door sensors and help buttons are also available as optional add-ons to both systems for clients who would benefit from extra monitoring and /or a direct communication link to their care team.

FLEXIBLE, COMPREHENSIVE CARE SOLUTION

Care Control Systems Care Control Systems Ltd is proud to create the UK's best Care Management Software designed for use within all standard, niche and complex care settings. Care Control has been in constant development since 2010 and was made commercially available in 2016. Since then we have expanded across hundreds of providers within the UK and are well recognised as leaders in our field.

Care Control is used by over 15,000 care professionals daily across the UK in multiple service types ensuring their services have live, up-to-date essential information. Located in Tavistock, Devon our expert team is comprised of numerous industry specialists with many years of direct, hands-on care experience.

This is one of our key USP’s.

Our Managing Director, Matt Luckham started the creation of the original Care Control Software in 2010

Developed in Silicon Valley, and using enhanced AI and machinebased learning, both the StackCare for Carers and StackCare Pro systems use discreet wireless smart motion sensors placed in key locations around the client’s home, or care home room. There are no cameras or microphones, thereby ensuring privacy for clients. A central hub gathers the data from the sensors which is analysed and reported back to the carer / agency. The data is anonymised and held in line with GDPR rules.

The founder of StackCare UK, Noel Verbruggen, commented, “These StackCare systems give care providers an unrivalled resource that brilliantly compliments existing care packages. The cutting edge technology means carers can know that their clients or residents are OK even when they can’t physically be with them.

“We all know that carers often can’t be with their clients for as long as they would like to be, and for busy carers and care homes time pressures are a real issue. It’s here that our smart tech comes into its own. Having instant access to StackCare’s data essentially gives carers an extra pair of hands and gives reassurance to carers, clients and clients’ families”.

StackCare is offering agencies the option to partner with them to promote the use of the system to clients as an addition to the agency’s care package offering.

To learn more about StackCare UK’s solutions visit www.stackcare.co.uk with the aim to provide essential, accurate information for Spring House Care House in Devon. Matt had purchased Spring House in 2010. Matt developed the software and then spent 6 years proving its functionality within Spring House. It soon became apparent the software could add real value to other service providers and after numerous requests we decided to commercialise the software.

In 2016 Care Control Systems Ltd was founded and since then has gone from strength-to-strength with exponential growth.

We now have an exceptional team of more than 20 staff who have over 70 years of direct hands-on care experience between them. On top of this our team of Software Developers are experts in their field and are constantly developing our products to ensure they offer everything our customers expect in what is a particularly complex sector.

2020 has been a record year for Care Control with record numbers of customers choosing us, office expansion, overseas sales and an ever growing team to name just a few things. We are so excited for the future!

Visit www.carecontrolsystems.co.uk

At Care Vision we believe care may never be the same again. Outstanding care truly is at the heart of everything we do, with a clear purpose of Less Admin, More Care.

Growing up and working in a family owned care home, Rishi Jawaheer saw at first hand the main needs in the care sector; to cut down on the burden of manual paperwork while maintaining good practice and to encourage people to become more involved in care.

Using his experience as a registered manager, with some of the smartest minds in tech, Rishi was driven to create Care Vision, an all in one cloudbased care management, system incorporating all your care and admin into one easy to use system.

Presently the care industry has our work cut out to keep in line with statutory and legislative compliance in addition to the essential everyday tasks of looking after our clients.

Care Vision acts as a bridge which uses technology that organises care work, ensures a safer, better and more intimate experience for every member of the community, from administration, the carer to family, friends and the people we care for.

Care Vision provides An easy to use system for carers, managers, relatives; bringing care and admin into one platform; to manage time, attendance, rota, HR, housekeeping, maintenance and much more An E-mar system, fully compliant with NICE, reducing medication errors and keeping people safe An intuative daily notes section that can be completed at the point of service quickly and accurately A pictorial food order system that allows the individual to choose from a menu even if they forgot what a meal looks like Daily reminders in the form of care routines which reminds staff of key aspects of care for the individual

Care Plans / Risk assessments/ Life stories which allows you to customise care plans to specifically suit the person’s needs. Reminding all about one’s history and who Is important in one’s life A family app that allows families to keep track of their loved one’s wellbeing through videos and pictures, which has been essential during the pandemic.

Care Vision gives you the freedom to access it using mobile, tablet, laptop, or pc in real time whilst safely securing and storing data. within the platform.

Built flexibly to adapt to services of any size, large or small, Care Vision’s structured, interactive features engage carers in sharing information with the end-user and their family.

Registered manager and director of Summerhayes Care says “The carers have taken to Care Vision like a duck to water and the information that we are gathering is streets ahead of the previous system we used we are very impressed. They make it easy to understand and nothing is any trouble.

I highly recommend taking a look at this system if you are wanting to meet your quality standards and CQC requirements”.

Nationally our data has shown that working with homes Care Vision can save 2-4 hours every week per carer by reducing tasks that could be better spent with the people we care for.

As both carers and developers, we are unique in our focus on developing software that benefits the care sector.

This allows us to continually develop and update software for our clients.

The Care Vision team would love to talk to you about what the system can do for you, come and join us, we believe the future of Social care is in good hands with “Care vision” Contact us at info@care-vision.co.uk or call 0208 768 9809

PAGE 42 | THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56

RECRUITMENT & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Five Employment Law Changes Care Providers Should Be Aware Of Last month saw the introduction of a raft of new changes to employment law, including some crucial details that Care Providers should keep in mind when it comes to minimum wages and contracting.

Alison Gill, HR Manager at advo outlines the employment law changes which Care Providers need to be aware of:

NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE The National Living Wage now applies to those aged 23 and over.

Previously this was for those aged 25 and over.

Workers aged 23 and over: From £8.72 an hour in 2020, increased to £8.91 an hour (National Living Wage) Workers aged 21-22: From £8.20 per hour in 2020, increased to £8.36 an hour Development rate for workers aged 18-20: From £6.45 an hour in 2020, increased to £6.56 an hour Young workers rate for workers aged 16-17: From £4.55 an hour in 2020, increased £4.62 an hour Apprentice rate: From £4.15 an hour in 2020, increased £4.30 an hour

FAMILY FRIENDLY STATUTORY RATES OF PAY Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) - First six weeks – 90 per cent of employee’s average weekly earnings. Remaining weeks at £151.97 (was previously £151.20 in 2020) or 90% per cent of earnings if lower.

Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) - First six weeks – 90 per cent of employee’s average weekly earnings. Remaining weeks at £151.97 (was previously £151.20 in 2020) or 90% per cent of earnings if lower.

Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) – paid for two weeks. £151.97 (was previously £151.20 in 2020) or 90 per cent of employee’s weekly earnings if this is lower.

Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) - £151.97 (was previously £151.20 in 2020) or 90 per cent of employee’s weekly earnings if this is lower.

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) - £151.97 (was previously £151.20 in 2020) or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, whichever is lower

STATUTORY SICK PAY (SSP) The same weekly SSP rate applies to all employees. However, the amount you must actually pay an employee for each day they’re off

work due to illness (the daily rate) depends on the number of ‘qualifying days’ they work each week. The current rate is £95.85 per week since 6 April 2020 and is set to rise to £96.35 from 6 April 2021. The lower earnings limit in relation to eligibility to statutory payments is to stay the same at £120 per week.

ET COMPENSATION AWARDS AND RATES It has been confirmed that employment tribunal compensation rates are set to increase from 6 April 2021. As of this date, the maximum week’s pay for redundancy pay purposes will increase from £538 to £544. However, statutory guarantee pay will be staying at £30.

This is important for the purposes of tribunal claims because it means that the maximum statutory redundancy pay, as well as unfair dismissal basic award pay, will both now be £16,320. The unfair dismissal compensatory award, which is set to compensate the claimant for past and future lost attributed to the dismissal, is a maximum of 52 weeks’ pay, subject to a new maximum of £89,493.

The maximum amount of additional award for unfair dismissal, set to compensate claimants when employers fail to adhere to a tribunal instruction to re-engage them, taking into account average weekly earnings, will rise to £28,288.

FAMILY LEAVE The weekly rates of statutory family leave – eg Maternity/paternity leave, etc. – will increase by 77p per week on 4 April 2021, from £151.20 per week to £151.97 per week.

IR35 The IR35 legislation, which aims to ensure that contractors are paying the appropriate amount of tax, is also changing for some private sector businesses.

The majority of contractors are required to determine their own status as employee or contractor. From 6 April 2021, this liability will pass to medium and large-sector clients. Smaller clients will be exempt from this obligation and the contractor remains liable for determining their own tax status.

Lucy Pearce, Commercial Director of advo comments: “There are many changes for Care Providers to adjust to from April 2021 onwards and they should seek further advice if they are unsure on any aspects of the new employment legislation.

“To help employers understand each element of these new changes and to ensure full compliance with employment legislation, we have launched the UK’s first, fully integrated platform – advo-one - which enables employers to control their payroll, HR and employee benefits, through a single, secure login.

“Unlike many self-service employer portals, every advo-one client journey is fully supported by advo people. advonians are experts dedicated to providing advice and guidance across the range of services, every single step of the way.

“Care providers can access detailed reporting for HR and payroll, including contract reviews; easy-to-use online holiday and sickness reporting; and essential news and legislation updates. “advo-one also features BACs approved payroll software compliant with HMRC, RTI and auto enrolment. It helps employers to fully manage furlough claims submissions; calculates pension contributions and auto enrolment; gives employee access to online payslips through advo-one; and provides access to detailed payroll reporting. advo-one is supported by dedicated payroll experts on hand to provide support and guidance. “advo-one can be accessed anytime from anywhere and care providers can have their own portal, company branded, supported by access to advo experts. There is also a huge choice of benefits on offer, including employee perks, health insurance and wellbeing, which make managing staff simple, connected and effective.

“The advo platform is designed for the modern workplace - it’s a hire-to-retire people solution.”

“The advo platform is designed for the modern workplace - it’s a hireto-retire people solution.” advo-one is more than software as it features qualified advice built in, providing employers with support in areas that they need it. The platform also offers simplified access for employees – a single login to see HR docs, Payslips, P60’s, P11d’s, available benefits and staff discounts.

Designed to increase efficiency and employee engagement, advo-one provides the expert support and software needed to manage each service individually, or together.

Since 1997, advo has focused on quality of service and advice and has grown to be one of the UK’s largest independently owned advisory firms, providing all-encompassing services to support employers, throughout the employee lifecycle. With Payroll and HR added to the firm’s expertise, advo can now deliver all the essential employee support services. advo currently manages staff benefits and payroll for just under 1,500 employers and the health insurance needs of countless individuals. Over the years, advo has developed a reputation for cost control and customer service excellence, leading to the firm being recognised as the UK’s ‘best’ advisory firm by peers on numerous occasions.

For further information, please visit http://www.advogroup.co.uk or telephone 01622 769210.

Should Care Home Professionals Be Concerned About Criminal Liability In Respect Of Covid-19 Cases?

By Jonathan Grimes (Partner) and Sophie Wood (Senior Associate, Barrister) in the Criminal Litigation team at law firm Kingsley Napley LLP (www.kingsleynapley.co.uk)

In late February 2021 it was reported that a care home worker had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after a patient died of COVID-19. Then in March, two further care home workers were arrested on suspicion of wilful neglect following a COVID outbreak at a care home in Sidmouth, Devon.

Should those working in care homes be concerned about criminal liability in respect of COVID-19 cases and on what basis can care home workers be prosecuted for incidents involving COVID-19?

THE APPLICABLE LEGISLATION There are three separate offences which may be relevant to such a situation.

1) Under section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

(“HSWA”) care home staff are required to take reasonable care for the health and safety of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions. Failure to do so is an offence punishable up to two years’ imprisonment.

2) If a resident dies, in rare circumstances a care home worker may face prosecution for ‘gross negligence manslaughter’. This may arise where the death is considered to have resulted from a breach of the worker’s duty of care towards the deceased. The worker will only be liable if they breached that duty of care through a negligent act or omission; at the time of the breach there was a serious and obvious risk of death, which was reasonably foreseeable; and the negligence, which caused or significantly contributed towards the death, was so bad that it amounted to gross negligence and therefore requires criminal sanction.

3) Following the Mid Staffordshire Inquiry, new legislation was enacted making it an offence for care workers to ‘ill-treat or wilfully neglect’ an individual in their care (section 20 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015). ‘Wilful neglect’ means deliberately neglecting to do something which should be done in the treatment of a patient. It is no defence for a worker to argue that even if they had administered the treatment, it would have made no difference to the patient’s health. ‘Ill-treatment’ means deliberate conduct which can be described as ill-treatment (irrespective of whether it actually damaged, or threatened to damage the health of the patient). The worker needs to appreciate that they were illtreating the patient, or to have been reckless as to whether they were acting in that way. If found guilty, a person can be sentenced up to five years’ imprisonment.

ARE WE GOING TO SEE MORE ARRESTS OF CARE HOME WORKERS RELATING TO COVID-19?

Potentially yes. At the beginning of the pandemic the understanding of how COVID-19 was transmitted and what could be done to protect residents was limited. One year on however, there is a better, albeit not perfect, awareness of how staff can help safeguard against outbreaks and deaths. For example, if a care home worker recognises a number of now-known signs of COVID-19, and fails to call a doctor, they could be accused of wilful neglect. Equally if that worker, after recognising the symptoms, fails to isolate that patient, they could be accused of a section 7 HSWA offence.

Due to this improved understanding of the disease, it will increasingly be possible to measure behaviour against a common standard. It will be easier to establish what was reasonable for the care worker to be doing at the time and/or demonstrate a causal link between the acts or omissions of the worker and the illness/death.

The arrests so far indicate that law enforcement no longer sees COVID-19 as a novel disease about which the risks are not fully understood. They suggest there is a confidence about what standards care home staff should be meeting when managing COVID-19, and where those standards are thought not to have been met, allowing an assessment of where criminal liability comes into play. Therefore irrespective of whether these arrests lead to successful prosecutions, they indicate a change in approach by law enforcement and so care home staff and their employer organisations should expect more enforcement action in this area in the future.

THE CARER DIGITAL | ISSUE 56 | PAGE 43

RECRUITMENT & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Supreme Court Rules Sleep-In Shift Workers Not Eligible For National Minimum Wage

By Hollie Watkins, Banner Jones Solicitors (www.bannerjones.co.uk) To the dismay of employees, but a decision arguably welcomed by employers, the Supreme Court has recently ruled in cases Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad and another (T/A Clifton House Residential Home) that sleep-in shift workers are not ‘working’ when they are asleep. This in turn means that care workers should only be paid the National Minimum Wage hourly rate on sleep-in shifts when they are awake for the purposes of actively working.

Here, Hollie Watkins of Banner Jones Solicitors, discusses the case and its implications in more detail.

The ruling brings to an end a strenuous four-year legal battle which centred around Mencap, a UK based charity working with people who have learning disabilities. The case threatened to leave care providers with a potential £400 million back-pay bill that would have potentially jeopardised the care of the most vulnerable people in the country.

The cases were brought by two care workers who were sleep-in workers. This means that as part of their shift, they were permitted to sleep either at work, or at a place near work, in case they were required to assist. Whilst working at night, the care workers were to be present in case of any emergencies and provide assistance when required.

In relation to the case of Tomlinson-Blake, The Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), found that she was working throughout the entirety of her shift regardless of the number of hours spent sleeping. Therefore, it was confirmed that each hour of her sleepin shift were to be included in the National Minimum Wage calculation when calculating her pay. However, in the Shannon case the Tribunal and the EAT dismissed the claim.

Further appeals in both proceedings were heard by the Court of Appeal, which held that neither was entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage for all the hours of their respective sleep-in shifts.

The Government now faces pressure to reform care laws following the Supreme Court ruling which has caused unrest and disappointment amongst care workers. Whilst Mencap is relieved not to have to pay the huge back payment that could have crippled the charity, Edel Harris, Chief Executive of the Royal Mencap Society, stands with employers who demand the Government ‘do a thorough and meaningful review of the social care workforce’.

Whilst the ruling has provided some sort of clarity for employers and

has mitigated the potential huge costs payable in relation to back payments, employees now face uncertainty as to their pay. In the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, this has added extra pressure to care workers across the UK. If you are an employer or an employee who would like guidance on sleep-in shift work, please contact the Banner Jones Employment Law team.

Care Home Finance from Global Business Finance

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Considering A Career In The Care Industry?

Here's What You Need To Know...

With a wealth of experience recruiting for this sector, Jon Mason, Recruitment Manager at Maria Mallaband Care Home Group fills us in on what you need to know when considering a role in the care home industry.

WHAT ROLES ARE ON OFFER IN THE CARE HOMES SECTOR? Whilst direct care is the key purpose of course, care homes are also mini communities where there really is something for everyone. There are plenty of creative, practical and management roles in the team too, with positions in catering, wellbeing and social activities, administration, housekeeping, management, maintenance, quality control, and even transport.

DO YOU NEED SPECIFIC QUALIFICATIONS? Whilst there are some roles that do need specific qualifications there are many that don't. In fact, in many cases getting hands on experience whilst studying can be a much more effective way to learn plus some employers actually value the opportunity to align your learning to their own methods and practices.

For example, Maria Mallaband currently has a number of Trainee Nurse Associates studying with universities across the UK alongside their current roles. Being able to earn and learn like this gives them the opportunity to become fully qualified nurses without having to worry about funding.

ARE THERE ANY PARTICULAR SECTORS THAT ARE WELL SUITED TO A CAREER IN A CARE HOME? With the pressures of the ongoing pandemic on

certain industries, many are needing to look elsewhere for reliable employment. We've seen more applications for those who want to completely change their career path and are now looking to build a long-term future in the care sector. Many of our most recent hires have come from completely different sectors, including project management, children's activities, hotels, and even personal training.

Those within retail, customer service and hospitality have developed great interpersonal skills and are able to work as part of a team. In sectors that are struggling, people are now considering where those skills could be applied elsewhere, and care homes have a lot to offer.

WHICH ARE THE RELEVANT SKILLS THAT YOU WOULD LOOK FOR? One of the most important skills you can bring to this field is passion! After all, it might be your place of work, but it is home for those who live there. It’s also important that people who choose this career are confident communicators and empathetic, whether they engage directly with those living there or not.

Those within retail, customer service and hospitality often cultivate great communication skills and have learnt to work well as part of a team.

As well as customer facing roles I have already mentioned, there are plenty of other roles that could provide relevant skills. Experience in the food industry could lead to a career in the catering team, or perhaps a role co-ordinating hobbies and activities for those with creative or artistic inclinations. More practically minded individuals may be well-suited to general maintenance, cleaning or transport positions.

A passion for people and companionship as well as the work you do can make such an impact on your role and those around you. With each home operating as its own community accommodating every need for those who live there - the possibilities really are endless.

assist at every stage of your business expansion.

Every proposal is individual and deserves to be treated that way, so we hope you will allow us to be of assistance to you and call us to chat through your plans and requirements, I am sure we will be able to tailor a facility to your requirements.

Call us on 01242 227172 or e-mail us at enquiries@globalbusinessfinance.net