The following statement is on the Southampton City council website, under the banner Southampton Budget.
I have deleted most of it – but the following statement will be of interest to all Southampton Providers…………

“To balance the books for next year the council has had to find more than £8 million of savings.

The council is plugging the gap by becoming leaner and meaner than ever before.

Some of savings the council is proposing include:

• Cutting around 120 jobs, some of which are already vacant.

• Reducing the cost of home care and residential care by providing a much more efficient service.

• Reducing the number of council meetings to cut costs and freeze councilors allowances reduce bureaucracy.

• Cutting the number of issues published of the council’s magazine from 10 to 6, and freezing councillors’ allowances.

When will it all be finally decided?

The budget will go before Cabinet on February 1, and those recommendations will then go to full Council on February 17 for a final decision.

Please email your comments to the Hampshire Care Association.

Dear Member

We have now experienced the first formal piece of work toward Registration commencing April 1st 2010.  This being the letter requesting services to contact Teleperformance, or not!, to check information held about your service.

It is clear that for the majority this has been something related to a crystal maze, from a telephone number that seemed permanently engaged, and an answer phone that seemed permanently full.  Or if you were lucky to get through, you probably were not registered or recognised as a service provider!  Many wisely had taken the step of contacting CQC directly to inform them of the difficulty in contacting the organisation Teleperformance,  and so many differing versions of advice being given.  It is incredulous given the perceived gravity of this request, leading to the Registration process, and the potential outcome of failing to comply with pre registration requests that this has been such an obvious and blatant example of mis -administration.  A proverbial cock-up!!

I advise all providers to keep a well documented diary of events from this point forward.  Contacts made, date and time, names of people spoken to and advice received. Open a dedicated file and keep updated until the day you eventually receive your new registration certificate.

Information and Guidance

You should all ensure you have copies of the following, available from the CQC web site.  You can order as publications, from the publication section of the CQC web site, with the exception of the “Summary of regulations, outcomes and judgemental framework”.  Or download from the following links: 

Essential standards of quality and safety. http://www.cqc.org.uk/publications.cfm?fde_id=13512    

Judgement framework http://www.cqc.org.uk/publications.cfm?fde_id=13511

Summary of regulations, outcomes and judgemental framework. http://www.cqc.org.uk/publications.cfm?fde_id=13510 

The above comprise the knowledge and guidance to registration.  Once you have read these publications you should be clear of what you need to do.  You should be clear that all we have known before will become redundant in the form we have been used to.  National Minimum Standards will be redundant, BUT, are mostly embodied in the Essential standards of quality and safety.

With common sense and a structured approach you will realise that you may have already by default have been making inroads to the evidence required for registration.  The absolute key is the service has to be built around the individual and for the benefit of the individual.  If you are medicating a resident, prove why.  Involve the resident, the next of kin, POA or advocate in the care planning process, get these people to sign the care plan, especially the resident if possible, to the effect they have had the care plan explained and understand it and are happy with it.  Consult with stakeholders, GP’s, district nurses, social services and prove via quality assurance surveys etc, that this is a continuous process.  Remember if it is not written down, it has not happened.  These are the evidence trials.  Activities take photographs, dated and keep as a log with names of participants and notes of their individual involvement. 

HCA will keep providing bite size information to help the understanding of the registration process and will monitor frequent requests for “help”.  This if there are enough common questions we will turn into a page of FAQ’s and post on the web site. 

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or queries.

Neil Sykes

Chair, HCA

Dear Member

As Chair of HCA I am personally urging you to join in the 1000 Voices project which aims to make sure the voice of 35,000 adult social care employers and 1.5 million workers are heard in the government's Big Care Debate.

This is the response from Skills for Care to the Big Care Debate launched by the Government to find out what the adult social care sector really thinks about the 'Shaping the Future of Care Together' Green Paper announced in July'.

Skills for Care decided to launch the 1000 Voices project so they can find what employers have to say about the Green Paper.
There are a number of questions to answer and I hope you will take a few minutes to answer as many of them as you can or feel you have an opinion about.

There is no doubt in my mind that this Green Paper is a hugely significant document for our sector and we want to make absolutely sure our voices are heard!
SfCneed your response back by Thursday 22 October to give them time to collate your contributions.

As  a home owner myself I fully realise how busy you are but this is a major opportunity to influence government thinking about the shape and funding of adult social care in the future.

I would urge you to support the Big Care Debate by filling in this 1000 Voices questionnaire

Neil Sykes - Chairman

(if you have any problems downloading or accessing the questionnaire please cont the HCA office)

02380 255794

office@hampshirecare.org

Flu Pandemic  

Due to the latest news concerning the flu pandemic HCA recommend the following advice: 

All homes should ensure that they discuss with their staff the action to be taken to minimize the spread of the flu and how to deal with an outbreak if it should happen.

Discuss staff cover and how it may be required and utilised at short notice. Contact agencies who are able to provide additional cover in the event of high staff sickness.

• Communicate with relatives.
• Support for service users (each should be risk assessed with the most vulnerable identified.)
• Staff, relatives, visitors, and service users wash their hands regularly.
• Maintain the home to a high standard of cleanliness.

All staff should be made aware of Government Guidance which can be found at

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Swineflu/DG_177831?CID=SFlu&TYPE=sponsoredsearch&CRE=2 

There are also a number of useful resources at:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/Introduction.aspx 

The attached document may be of use to help plan your emergency procedure.....click here