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A collection of stories about care, communities and leadership during the pandemic
How do you demonstrate leadership, caring support and a sense of community through unprecedented times? David Young from Community Integrated Care went weeks without any face-to-face interaction with his family, moving into his greenhouse in order to minimise the possibility of passing on infections from his care home to his family. Surrey Choices supported disabled and autistic people in developing vital employment skills through Zoom, creating bespoke meetings that included guest speakers from different industries. So many care organisations have stories of almost daily donations being made to homes, from fish and chips to pizzas, cleaning products and PPE as well as gift bags for every care worker.
Quality Compliance Systems (QCS) and the National Care Forum (NCF) produce exclusive guidance to help providers tackle a ‘double-whammy’ of flu and Covid this winter. The National Casino Forum is a board member of the European Casino Association and our chief executive is the Vice-Chair of the ECA; the NCF is a member of the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling and an active participant in the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board’s advisory group.
The experiences of the care sector during what has been a relentless and sometimes-thankless task of caring and supporting some of the most vulnerable in our communities during the pandemic deserves to be recorded as an important record of social history. The National Care Forum (NCF), the leading membership association for not-for-profit social care providers, today launches ‘Caring in COVID’ – a collection of stories about care, communities and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. This piece of social history records and highlights the incredible response from NCF members, brought together as a collection of real-life stories in an ebook.
The compendium details how, during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing restrictions, NCF members and the communities they serve, came together and rose to the challenge to support those who needed it most. Not only will the ebook become part of the British Library collection for future generations, it also acknowledges the legacy of 2020 and the role care providers played in the fight against COVID-19.
Vic Rayner, Executive Director of the National Care Forum said:
“Through the collection of Caring Heroes stories, the reader peeks behind the closed doors and experiences what it was really like for care staff, residents in care homes, and people needing support in their own homes during lockdown. This book is more than just a nod to social history; it demonstrates how people’s lives are enriched by the role of those working in the care sector through their creativity, dedication and passion, and through their many skills and talents.”
As a run up to the launch, NCF has been sharing sneak preview of some of the stories in the ebook in the NCF Advent Calendar a daily reflection of the stories during advent.
To bring these stories together the NCF has been supported by its Annual Partners; Quality Compliance Systems (QCS), Marr Procurement and Person Centred Software.
Simon Bunegar, Director of Sales & Marketing at QCS said:
“2020 has put renewed focus on the hard work, dedication and above all compassion of all those caring professionals who put others before themselves time and again. From its inception QCS have been delighted to be able to support Caring in COVID in every way that we can. These stories are a wonderful glimpse into the beating heart of social care.”
Christoph Marr, Managing Director of Marr Procurement said:
“Marr Procurement is delighted to be a part of this incredible project. The National Care Forum consistently shines a light on the care industry and this ebook serves to specifically highlight the amazing dedication and creativity that was shown by so many staff during the pandemic. We hope this remarkable piece of social history will result in a wider public recognition of the outstanding work that happens every day in the social care sector.”
The Caring in COVID ebook consists of five categories. A story from each category has received a Highly Commended Award, judged on reader impact, impact on the person receiving care, originality and value to the social care sector. The Highly Commended Award winners are:
- Stories from the Frontline: Sanctuary Care ‘Leaving family to care for residents’
- Community and Volunteer Voices: Cornwall Care ‘Mia’s story amazing journey to John O’Groats’
- Keeping It fun: WCS Care Group ‘Dancing at Drover’s House’
- Keeping the connection: Accord Housing Association ‘Amber Wood Dementia Centre of Excellence keeps everyone connected’
- The many faces of leadership: Pilgrims’ Friend Society ‘Care Manager Rachel is an “Absolute rock”’
Jonathan Papworth, Co-founder and Director at Person Centred Software said:
“2020 has been a difficult year for many but social care has had the toughest time than most. Nevertheless, these stories show the amazing work that carers provided day in day out to the elderly and vulnerable people they care for. We are proud to support the National Care Forum in creating this resource for future generations to experience the impact that individuals have had on the people they care for.”
Vic Rayner, says:
“Caring in COVID is now available to download from the NCF website. We are proud to dedicate this ebook to everyone whose life has been touched by care during the pandemic and hope these stories of pain, challenge, hope and humanity will resonant with many, to show how truly exceptional the care sector has been in responding to the challenges of this pandemic.”
A Press Briefing was held on 18th November @ 9am on Zoom led by NCF’s Vic Rayner, with guest speakers Jane Ashcroft CBE from Anchor Hanover, Zoe McCallum from Brendoncare and Phil Orton from Making Space. The full slide presentation can be viewed here and a recording of this Webinar can be viewed here.
The National Care Forum (NCF) is the leading member association of social care providers for the not-for-profit sector. Together with market research agency Information by Design, the NCF conducted a comprehensive Pulse Survey to provide in-depth analysis of how adult social care providers are operating in a COVID-19 world and the second wave of the pandemic.
The survey was completed by care providers operating 1,240 care and support services throughout England, employing 35,124 staff and supporting 28,810 residents/clients. The data looked at the period 1st – 31st October 2020 and used key themes to provide a snapshot of some of the issues affecting care providers, including whole home testing, access and supply of PPE, care home visiting, the care workforce and impact on provider finances. The results of the survey provided a mixed picture, showing some areas of positive achievements and also identified key issues to be resolved.
Whole home testing
The findings showed that there had been very high levels of compliance by NCF respondents who provide residential care homes with COVID-19 whole home testing across services, with 99% of care homes taking part in this programme when eligible. Of the providers responding to the survey there is a low incidence of testing failure with only 2% of tests returned for retest and 1.2% not returned. Importantly, the speed of obtaining test results remains an issue, with only 24% of the providers in the survey receiving test results within 48 hours. However, tainting these positive results is the shocking evidence that only 1.3% of supported living services or extra care housing schemes operated by NCF members responding to the survey are getting access to the single round of testing promised by the government. We call on the government to build on the success of the whole home testing initiative in care homes and to widen the rollout of testing across other care settings, to include supported living and extra care housing. Improvements are still needed to increase the speed of getting back test results to make sure testing remains an essential part of the fight against COVID-19.
Care home visiting
Despite the guidance on visiting in care homes only being issued a few weeks ago, the survey highlights the commitment of not-for-profit care providers in uniting residents of care homes with their relatives and loved ones. NCF respondents reported that 94% of their care home services are actively taking steps to facilitate family and friends visits during the period of the survey by using a variety of different initiatives to make visits possible. On average, our respondents are spending around £4,000 per care home to make visits possible. This is an additional cost that is currently being covered by care providers as the Infection Control Fund is not sufficient to meet the demands currently placed on the fund.
We welcome the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s commitment this week to facilitate family visits in the Christmas countdown. This is an ambitious goal and one that urgently needs a clear, deliverable timetable with sufficient funding to support care providers to make meaningful visits a reality.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
The supply and access to personal protective equipment (PPE) gives a mixed picture. On the one hand, we see that 100% of NCF respondents who are eligible to register on the PPE Portal have registered and were predominately using this method to source PPE, which is an excellent result. However, the survey found that the allocation of PPE through the Portal was only meeting an average of 48% of the providers’ COVID-19 PPE needs and responsibilities. 99.9% of respondents were having to purchase additional PPE themselves in order to meet their requirements. Providers are unable to stockpile to create a buffer in the case of an emergency and the zero rate VAT on PPE was removed at the end of October thereby exacerbating the financial pressures of accessing PPE to providers.
The care workforce
Between the period 1st – 31st October, the average level of vacancies reported by NCF respondents is 10% and the average absence rate is 7%. The data also shows that 9% of their staff currently work in other care or health care settings. The government consultation on regulating to restrict the movement of staff raises a number of concerns. Care workers are already low paid with limited terms and conditions and any measure that sets to penalise care workers fails to understand the seriousness of the issue. Given that the country is experiencing a second wave of COVID -19 and the current vacancy and absence levels reported here and the fact that 9% of staff also work in other care or health settings, proposals to regulate and enforce measures relating to staff movement seem very ill-timed.
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Funding – occupancy
95% of respondents thought there would be an impact to their financial performance in the next financial year 2021-2022, with over 80% forecasting a decline in revenue and almost 95% forecasting an increase in costs. Furthermore, care home providers had seen a decrease in occupancy to an average of 85% from an industry average of 89% – 90% in 2019.
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Note to Editors:
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- The National Care Forum brings together over 130 of the UK’s leading social care charities, representing large numbers of care providers, offering thousands of services across the country, which are not for profit and always at the heart of community provision. Collectively, these charities deliver more than £2 billion of social care support to more than 167,000 people in 9,200 settings. The NCF membership body collectively employs more than 95,500 colleagues.
- The survey referred to is the Pulse Survey of NCF members conducted in November 2020. It was commissioned by The National Care Forum (NCF) and conducted by Information by Design (IbyD).
- The survey asked NCF members to provide information for the period 1st to 31st October 2020. Data was collected from a census of members of all organisations on the NCF members’ database with members invited to take part by completing an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was hosted online using the SNAP software.
- The sample of organisations who completed the survey is broadly representative of all members in terms of the number of services provided.
- More information is available on the National Care Forum at www.nationalcareforum.org.uk. @NCFCareForum @vicrayner @NCF_Liz
- For enquiries, please contact Edna Petzen ([email protected]).