Information sharing
The roll out of new vaccines has offered a ray of hope during this challenging time. Deborah Sturdy, our Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care is delighted so many care home staff and residents have now been offered their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Deborah emphasises just how vital it it that everyone who can take up the offer of vaccination does so when their turn comes. She received the first dose recently and will be taking up the second in the next few months.
Skills for Care launched its monthly podcast series ‘The Care Exchange’ in November 2020. In each edition, its hosts talk to social care leaders and managers and invite them to share their experiences and learning, inspiring other managers and reassuring them they are not alone in the challenges they face.
In the current situation, opportunities to network with other managers are scarce, but listening to their podcast conversations is easy. Taking time to listen might also help your wellbeing - find out more!
Tough as it is, the lockdowns have not stopped social care professionals, organisations and services finding ways to provide amazing support. The restrictions have been hard for everyone involved in social care, but they have also brought opportunities and innovations which have inspired and supported others. SCIE's Ewan King explains more...
When it became apparent that coronavirus was a real and present danger to our communities – and that our health and care workers were on the frontline of the battle to contain it – we knew effective protection for these amazing people would be among our top priorities. The provision and distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a vital part of our strategy to keep care staff safe – especially those in care homes and other restricted care settings. Here's our update on how we're doing exactly that.
As we approach a festive season that will be very different for all of us, Fran Leddra and Mark Harvey, our Chief Social Workers for Adults, offer their hopes, thoughts and heartfelt thanks for the support of health and care colleagues this year. Their message is simple: look after your own mental and physical health as much as those around you. You deserve as much support as anyone else.
After so many months of challenge, set against a nonetheless undimmed determination to endure, the care sector has received some much needed good news.
Coming quickly after the emotional boost generated by the resumption of care home visits, supported by testing, the news that Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine has been authorised by the MHRA - and care home staff are among the first priority groups to get it - means we can look ahead to the prospect of a safer, healthier, post-pandemic future.
After months and months of restrictions, continued uncertainty around work, education and our general health, and the shared anxiety about the future course of this pandemic, we are now in the unusual position of receiving some cautiously optimistic news. Michelle Dyson, our Director General for Social Care, considers what the news of potentially effective COVID-19 vaccines means for the care sector - and the country as a whole.
Anyone working in the care sector – and in residential care settings in particular – knows how vital infection prevention and control is in keeping residents, staff and visitors safe and well. The continued prevalence of COVID-19 in our communities only heightens our collective awareness of this essential line of defence. Back in April, Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England, issued a call to action to CCGs tasking them to deliver ‘train the trainer’ sessions on infection prevention and control to all care homes by the end of May.
This week, the Department of Health and Social Care published a new PPE (personal protective equipment) strategy, which sets out how PPE will be delivered to the health and social care frontline until the end of March 2021. This is a good opportunity to firstly thank the health and care workforce for everything they do - and have done - during the exceptional circumstances we all find ourselves in.
One of the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic has been how to deal with the massive amounts of information and guidance being produced by the government and across the whole social care sector. At the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), their approach has been to reach out and engage the social care sector to find out what they need in terms of good practice guidance and support.
