Last month, the Department of Health and Social Care launched an open consultation seeking your views on making vaccination a condition of deployment in older adult care homes, to protect the people most at risk in our communities. The consultation remains open until Friday 21 May 2021. Many of you have contributed, but we still need many more views to help us make the best informed judgment possible for care home staff and residents.
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.
Pop up care homes? Is that a thing? It is now! Tim Baverstock, Deputy Director for Adult Social Care at Somerset County Council, explains how collaboration, goodwill and the determination to get things done created additional resources to cope with increased demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
NHS staff are described, rightly, as members of the country’s frontline defence against coronavirus. That frontline is populated by another group of equally dedicated men and women: care workers. Paul Jenkins, Covid -19 Senior Briefing Officer here at the Department of Health and Social Care, explains the support provided to date and signposts services available to keep them well in mind and body.
Since the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, much of the world's shared anxiety and worry has focused on how, when and where the virus is transmitted. This worry has been no less acute in our country's care homes. Jeremy Richardson, Chief Executive of Four Seasons Health Care, explains why his business is one of the many care home providers participating in a new research study to determine how outbreaks occur in residential care settings - and could be prevented.
As the UK’s coronavirus lockdown continues to cautiously ease, it remains just as important to protect ourselves and others from the risk of infection. Helen Donovan, RCN and Chair of the Self Care Forum and Dr Knut Schroeder, GP and CE of the Self Care Forum explain why they believe self care should lie at the heart of society's response to the pandemic.
This week , SCIE (the Social Care Institute for Excellence) publish a set of products from phase 2 of the Department Health and Social Care funded social care innovation network. SCIE's Chief Operating Officer Ewan King reveals how 24 organisations, including local authorities, innovative organisations and locally engaged citizens of people with lived experience have been exploring how best to support innovation to flourish.
Over a month ago, our Joint Chief Social Workers for Adults, Fran Leddra and Mark Harvey, used their Social Work With Adults blog to highlight the importance of maintaining human connections during the coronavirus pandemic.
It remains important for the care and support workforce - as well as NHS colleagues and our communities - to foster resilience in the midst of these challenges. The publication of new health and wellbeing guidance for care and support professionals is therefore hugely welcome at this time, as they explain...
Care and NHS colleagues have rightly been celebrated for their amazing dedication, kindness and bravery during this health crisis, but we must show the same appreciation and support for the thousands of unpaid carers across the country. Recently published guidance on GOV.UK is just one part of that...
Right now, in the heart of a coronavirus pandemic, we are all feeling vulnerable. But even now, when we all need protection, people receiving social care services are often seen as being at additional risk. SCIE's Hugh Constant returns with a timely blog considering the challenges of maintaining familiar safeguarding processes in an unfamiliar situation.
