News and updates

5 January 2021 
Review Date: 29 January 2021

West Sussex under national lockdown

Residents in West Sussex should now follow national  restrictions. This means you must stay at home. You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary.

On GOV.UK, you can find a full breakdown of what you can and cannot do.

4 December 2020 
Review Date: 29 January 2021

Flu vaccinations

All adult social care workers who are in direct contact with patients and service users are entitled to the free flu vaccine.

For more information please see the Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) page.

4 January 2021
Review Date: 28 January 2021

Care home vaccination programme

The programme for vaccinating care home staff is now under way. Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are starting to offer vaccinations to specific care and nursing home settings. This is a gradual process as limited amounts of vaccine and appointments are being released at a time.

When vaccinations are available to your care or nursing home setting, you will receive an email inviting staff based at your location to book an appointment.

Please don’t worry, everyone will be given access to the vaccination in turn and you will be contacted when vaccinations are made ready for your care home.

Further messages relating to other areas of the care market will be sent in due course.

14 January 2021
Review Date: 28 January 2021

Free FFP masks and gowns now available via the PPE portal

Please see the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) page on the provider zone for more detail

14 January 2021
Review Date: 28 January 2021

Whole Home Testing Webinars

DHSC are continuing their regular care home testing webinars.
You can sign up for the webinars on the Webcast.

These webinars last 90 minutes and give detailed information about all aspects of care home testing and include all the information you need about both PCR and LFD testing.
The session will include a live Q&A with representatives from the national care home testing team, who will be able to answer your questions and address any concerns in the session.

If you miss any webinars, you can sign up via the above links and a recording of each session will be made available to you after the webinar has been completed.

14 January 2021
Review Date: 21 January 2021

Benefits of digital care survey

The local NHS is looking at how Multi-Disciplinary Team working between care homes, the NHS and other partners can be better supported by increased use of digital tools and services.

The Enhanced Health in Care Homes Directed Enhanced Service, which is being introduced by the NHS this year, facilitates a proactive model of care centred on the needs of individual residents and their families and care home staff, delivered through collaborative Multi-Disciplinary Team working. Effective use of digital technology is a key enabler of this approach.

Providers are being requested to complete this 10 minute survey to help inform planning and support for improved digital services.

17 January 2021
Review Date: 21 January 2021

Funding to support care homes with Lateral Flow Device (LFD) testing.

The DHSC have announced an additional £149m of funding to support care homes with the increased lateral flow device (LFD) testing.
The money can be used for care home providers to set up safe testing areas, provide staff training and contribute towards staff time spent on administering and receiving the tests.
DHSC and local authorities are rapidly working to get the funding out to the sector as soon as possible, and further details on allocations, and how care homes can access the funding will be provided soon.
The county council has no further details at this stage but will update you as soon as we do.

14 January 2021
Review Date: 21 January 2021

Delays in Lateral Flow Device re-ordering and supplies

On 23 December all care homes in England were notified of a change in care home testing policy, requiring all care homes to conduct additional regular staff testing using lateral flow device (LFD) tests provided by The National Testing Programme.
There is unfortunately a widespread issue with LFD re-ordering. DHSC are experiencing an increase in demand nationally and are working hard to resolve the situation. Because of this, homes may experience delays in delivery of test kits.
The first route to addressing these issues is through calling 119, while attempts are made within DHSC to resolve the problem. If your care home is currently experiencing a COVID outbreak please mention this to the call advisor to ensure the request is escalated accordingly.

14 January 2021
Review Date: 21 January 2021

Infection Control Fund Round 2 - Reporting point 3

Please be aware that the template document (reporting point 3) for care providers to report on their spend of the Infection Control Fund up to 31 December 2020 will be shared on Monday 18 January.

The deadline for us to receive these back will be Friday 22 January 2021.

14 January 2021
Review Date: 3 February 2021

Upcoming webinar agenda: Care Homes Wellbeing Project

The Care Homes Wellbeing Team are a small team from an older people’s mental health background, running a project until the end of March to support care home communities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They will be working mainly with staff but are concerned with the wellbeing of the whole community – staff, residents and their families. 

This poster provides a summary of their upcoming webinars and links to book onto them. 

Please note this poster might not be suitable for users with assistive technology. If you need this information in another format, please contact contracts@westsussex.gov.uk

14 January 2021
Review Date: 21 January 2021

Skills for Care contingency planning webinars

The Skills for Care website contains a list of registered manager webinars covering a range of topics to support managers and their services and have been developed since the start of the pandemic. 
You will see two around contingency planning listed along with some additional resources.