All unpaid carers, care home and homecare workers are being urged to get boosted now against COVID-19 to protect the most vulnerable this winter. This follows the publication of the Vivaldi 3 study, which adds further evidence to the importance of a booster vaccine for both carers and care home residents. All carers and recipients of care are being offered priority access at vaccine sites. Where operationally viable, NHS England has requested that vaccination centres offer priority access for frontline staff, including unpaid carers and social care staff, which includes access to queue management and priority lines. This makes it as easy as possible for anyone who is receiving or giving care, whether paid or unpaid, to get their booster this winter. Staff may be asked to show a valid ID for priority access. Unpaid carers can use a letter issued to the care sector as proof of ID. Vaccination sites are also making reasonable adjustments for pregnant women, the clinically vulnerable, including those with learning disabilities and autism and severe mental illness, as well as for their carers. Announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/carers-urged-to-get-covid-19-booster-now Book vaccination www.nhs.uk/covidvaccination Many...

Care Act Easements As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, the government has made provision for councils to temporarily ‘ease’ certain social care responsibilities if necessary, to help manage any extreme pressures. This would allow the council to respond to a major increase in requests for urgent social care support and a corresponding reduction in the availability of social care staff. Easements must only be triggered if it becomes absolutely essential, as local authorities must do everything possible to meet their existing duties under the Care Act without taking these new measures. What does this mean in Dudley? At the current  time we are at level 2 and do not need to trigger easements to our existing responsibilities under the Care Act. Services continue to be delivered albeit in some cases in a different way. For example face-to-face visits may have been replaced by phone calls and we have had to close some of our facilities Our services are being closely monitored to ensure we continue to meet the needs of local people. We will continue to adapt services as required to ensure we minimise any potential risks in providing our social care services....

If you use the Dudley Council internet to make payments, or access services, please be aware the website www.dudley.gov.uk will not be operating on Sunday 15 October due to essential statutory testing. This closedown should not affect any service you receive from our social care team and resilience measures have been put into place.  ...

Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) is running a survey that asks how much of a difference the Care Act has made in the experience of people with care and support needs, and carers. There have been many Care Act surveys, but this one will be the first that specifically seeks their views. The results of the survey will be used to help the Department of Health identify problems and find solutions to inform future work on the Care Act.   Find out more about the TLAP Care Act survey. The closing date is the 4th October.  It should take about 10 minutes to fill in and participants can enter a prize draw to win £100 of shopping vouchers.   For more information about Think Local Act Personal, visit their website.      ...

Carers UK has just launched the Digital Resource for Carers, a solution that combines their own digital products and online resources with links to local information and support, providing a comprehensive online tool for carers which can reach them – … Digital tools creating real networks of care Source: Department of Health...

Autism – plugging gaps in service provision and improving the healthcare experience ‘Although awareness of autism has increased in recent years, there are still considerable gaps in health and social care provision in the UK and elsewhere in the world’, explains Dr Silvana Unigwe, The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)’s Clinical Support Fellow for Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Read more Young Carers – tell us what you need It’s a fact of modern life that many of us will become carers at some point. For many young people that responsibility has come much sooner than anticipated. Read more New Making it Real guide for supported housing launches The launch of a new guide supporting the provision of supported housing fits that bill. Read more Effective support for carers must be built on trust and understanding ‘Caring can be a mixed blessing’, says Fatima Khan-Shah, Chair of Investors in Carers, as she introduces a Carers Charter – an initiative designed to help carers and organisations understand each other in the pursuit of improved support for carers, their families and friends. Read more It’s the little things that count – supporting great social work with carers With over 6.5 million carers across the UK, Lisa Smith, Research and Development Manager at Research in Practice for Adults (RiPfA), believes we need to make supporting this unpaid workforce a priority. Read more How to support, engage and enthuse our volunteers Chief Executive of the third sector Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) Rhidian Hughes considers how organisations can recognise the three million plus volunteers supporting health and social care providers across England. Read more Source: Department of Health – Social Care...