Cornwall Partners in Care News

Cornwall Partners in Care hold weekly briefings with Cornwall Council and Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation trust. These meetings involve Jonathan Price (Joint Director Adult Care and Health for Cornwall Council and NHS Kernow), Mary Anson (CPIC Chair), representatives from the CPIC Committee, and occasionally colleagues from the Council.

Daily update - 21st January 2022

The meeting today included Jonathan Price, Val Smith, and Carolyn Montgomerie, along with Mary, Phil, and Richard from CPIC. We discussed; 

• Vaccination rates were discussed with a particular focus on Dom Care providers who will fall under the new requirement for all staff to be vaccinated from April 2022.
  • For Care Homes, the data is: 97.19% with 1^st vaccination, 95.96% with 2^nd vaccination, and 45.65% with their booster
  • For Home Care, the data is 92.15% with 1^st vaccination, 85.41% with 2^nd vaccination, and 43.2% with their booster
  • There were also a few self-certified and a few with Covid exemption certificates.
  • The total numbers are probably slightly lower than actual figures as some providers may not have updated the capacity tracker. The total number for Care Homes, ought to be very close to 100%, other than the exempt and some staff that may be on maternity or long-term sick leave.
• The Council is in the middle of a 45 day consultation on restructuring. This is due to complete on the 21^st February and will review the structure of the whole department.
• We discussed contracts and uplifts, however Kate was not present to give an update. This will be discussed further at next week’s meeting.
• The Home Care Night Rover project to provide 24 hour support across the county seems to have shrunk from 24 hours and 6 double handed cars being available to 2 cars covering nights only. Jonathan offered to look info this as any project like this needs to be ambitious in its plans.
• Problems with unpaid invoices, particularly for one provider who has significant sums outstanding and is struggling to get purchase order numbers or information from the finance team. Val offered to look into the situation.
• Around 50 homes are showing in outbreak, but for some the situation is easily traced and manageable, where two residents or staff have tested positive but are not connected (eg staff caught covid outside of the care home and haven’t been in since). Providers can ask for their situation to be reviewed if the provider is prepared to accept the risk and undertake full risk assessments with the DPH.
• A discussion took place around accommodation options such as Haus, Bunkabin, and the facilities that are available at the Eden project. Each have their merits and cost implications. We also discussed cheaper options such as mobile homes, although their may be issues around insurance and restrictions of letting units above a certain age. Jonathan suggested that a proper plan for this needs to be drawn up as accommodation will be the main currency to draw new staff into Cornwall. It was suggested that CPIC could canvas providers at the next Forums to see who might be interested in taking part in an accommodation scheme for key workers as some capital may be available to help.
• Social workers do not need to be vaccinated to visit people in their own homes but must be vaccinated to visit care homes.  Jonathan was asked how this would work out if social workers have to limit work in care homes and other regulated settings.  Jon accepted he was short staffed and that this is something they are working on. The Council are looking into this and the general view is still to push everyone to get vaccinated.

The next scheduled meeting will take place on the 28^th January 2022.