Sector Announcements for week ending 27 March

Secretary of State letter to local authority commissioners of adult social care (PDF) – 19 March – Department of Health and Social Care

Letter from SoS Matt Hancock to chief executives. £1.6bn of funding to go to local authorities to help respond to COVID-19 pressures across all services.  The funding is unringfenced and is intended to help councils address the specific pressures they, and providers, are facing in response to the pandemic.

Free car parking for NHS and social care staff – 26 March 2020 – GOV.UK

Critical key workers will be able to use council parking bays without time restriction or charge. All NHS Trust parking will be free to NHS staff. More here.

Ethical framework for adult social care – 19 March 2020 – GOV.UK

This framework intends to provide support to ongoing response planning and decision-making to ensure that ample consideration is given to a series of ethical values and principles when organising and delivering social care for adults.

Digital Social Care – use of technology

Digital Social Care is sharing information on how technology can be used to support care staff and the people who use services. Read more here.

Infection prevention and control – updated 23 March 2020 – GOV.UK

Range of guidance outlining infection control for healthcare providers assessing possible cases of COVID-19. It includes guidance on which PPE to use, when to use it and how to use it.

​Translated information on coronavirus – Doctors of the World and British Red Cross

Download translated NHS information in multiple languages. Useful for all staff, suppliers, service users and carers on Covid 19 and what to do.​

Easy read: Guidance on protecting people most likely to get very poorly from coronavirus (shielding) –24 March – GOV.UK

Easy read guidance is for people, including children, who are at very high risk of severe illness from coronavirus because of an underlying health condition, and for their family, friends and carers. It is intended for use in situations where the extremely vulnerable person is living in their own home, with or without additional support. This includes the extremely clinically vulnerable people living in long-term care facilities.

Translated guidance for households with possible coronavirus infection – updated 24 March 2020 – GOV.UK

Stay at home guidance for households with possible coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. Includes easy read version, and translated versions.

Digital tools to support care providers – Digital Social Care

Information on how technology can be used to support staff and people who use care services. Includes accessing NHSmail, free MS Teams for video conferencing, use of Capacity Tracker for care homes, lists of free apps and technologies which can assist with recruitment, wellbeing and information sharing. Visit the website and follow on twitter.

Free, open access to COVID-19 e-learning programme – Health Education England

Free e-learning programme for the UK health and care workforce. More content will be added. No HEE login needed.

Another HEE resource, SCRIPT e-learning, is now freely available to anyone with a NHS email address.  For more information visit www.safepresciber.org, email info@safeprescriber.org and or follow @safeprescriber on Twitter.