By no means too early to plan
It’s not even autumn (though you’d be forgiven for pondering in any other case, given the changeable climate) however already, ideas flip to winter and our readiness, as care and well being professionals, to ship the assist our communities want as service pressures mount.
I’m happy to say winter may be very a lot on the forefront of minds within the Division of Well being & Care too. Helen Whately, Minister for Social Care, has written to care colleagues and local authorities, reinforcing the essential “steps wanted in order that grownup social care programs are resilient and in a position to present folks and their carers with the assist they want this winter.”
To be doing this in the summertime months is, I hope, reassuring to all of us eager to be on the entrance foot this yr. A lot of you’ll already be drawing up winter capability plans. For social care nurses particularly, it is going to be helpful to grasp how NHS organisations will work with care suppliers to ship the healthiest outcomes. It’s additionally gratifying to see the emphasis on a holistic method, which I and others within the sector have lengthy espoused. Because the Minister level out in her letter:
“It’s important we take a ‘complete system’ method to supporting folks and their carers this winter. This implies built-in care boards (ICBs) and built-in care partnerships (ICPs), native authorities, well being and care suppliers and the voluntary sector all being actively concerned in joint planning for winter and dealing collectively to assist people who draw on care.”
Expertise counts greater than ever
In each ICB in England, social care nursing advisory councils are constructing their boards and creating robust hyperlinks with nurse leaders. As winter planning gathers tempo, we may have a vital position to play within the alternate of concepts, perception and greatest observe with our NHS counterparts.
The councils may even use their grounded expertise to assist colleagues and clarify the best way to maximise the optimistic influence of grownup social care capability plans (supported by the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund) and in addition capability and demand plans for intermediate care.
As ever, social care professionals, like anybody working in or commissioning care and well being providers, will probably be concentrating minds on contingency: worst case situations, sudden crises and the wants of native populations.
Our means to evaluate danger and thereafter coordinate our preparedness throughout providers, disciplines and specialisms will probably be very important in our efforts to construct resilience within the system. On this context, the Authorities’s latest announcement of £600 million over the next two years to boost care workforce capacity is to be welcomed.
It ought to come as no shock how vital the voice of unpaid carers and the cared for will probably be in our preparations to resist winter pressures. Now, greater than ever, we have to contain them in all choices about their care, assist them keep away from hospitalisation for so long as attainable, and be able to assist them earlier than, throughout and after any well being emergencies.
Reform and resilience
Extra broadly, the social care workforce is on the coronary heart of Authorities plans for a reformed social care system, supported by beforehand introduced funding from April’s Next Steps paper. A part of this entails constructing winter resilience and defending the well being and wellbeing of our superb care colleagues, while additionally giving them the talents, coaching and profession choices to thrive in our fantastic career.
On this respect, winter planning can be taking part in the lengthy recreation; ensuring we’ve dedicated, supported and proficient care colleagues who can ship for our communities, even in essentially the most troublesome occasions. We’ll proceed to take care of one another so we will maintain caring for many who want our assist essentially the most.
