25th June 2010

The event in Birmingham yesterday was excellent, a great deal of emphasis on dementia care which is as it should be I think.

I’ve had a meeting here at the office with our staff about our annual conference on 20 and 21 October this morning. This year for the first time we are splitting up the Conference into two quite separate days. The first day was what we were concentrating on this morning. On that day we will be holding two separate conferences, one about dementia care and one for providers of services to adults with a learning disability.

It was the conference about dementia care that we sorted out today. We have managed to agree the conference programme and now need to hope that everyone we have invited to speak is able to attend. We have already had expressions of interest from as far away as America.

I am away from the office now for just over a week but if anything significant happens I will manage to publish an update.

Have a good weekend.

Sheila

24th June 2010

I have driven to Birmingham today for the National Care Congress. This afternoon I will be chairing the final session of the conference. I have been able to spend the morning constructively engaged. I have visited a number of exhibitors talking about new products and I have also been able to talk to Cheryl at length about our plans for the summer.

More a out that later!

22nd June 2010

I am off to a meeting in 1 hour with the new Minister. Not just me of course but with 20 other people. It should be an excellent event scheduled to last for 3 hours and I ought to come away with a much better impression of where Social Care sits within the new Government agenda .

18th June 2010

I have spoken at 2 conferences over the last week. The first was the West Yorkshire SC Partnership Conference where I spoke to more than 100 providers about the future of social care for providers.

Last night I spoke at a seminar organised by Barclays Bank alongside a speaker from CQC. This was a good event with a large number of providers and others such as accountants and solicitors present.

It made me realise we must look to the future now. There is an ever increasing number of people needing care and we must look to deliver a modern service.

But... as I said last night, Government - both local and national - and the regulator cannot continue to expect more and more services unless they have money to pay.

Vetting and Barring Scheme Announcement

I wasn’t surprised to hear that the Home Office had decided to delay (?) the introduction of the Vetting and Barring Scheme but it was certainly very late in the day.

Many members will want to know what the arrangements are now with the CRB and which form etc. to use. All information is in the CRB section of the National Care Association Website.

http://www.nationalcareassociation.org.uk/crb.asp

The big question is “is the end of the Independent Safeguarding Authority?” For once I have no idea!

National Care Association and Boots.

We are delighted to announce that Boots and National Care Association have agreed to continue their partnership.

Boots will be speaking at the Dementia Conference on 20^th October 2010 – click below….. and watch this space for more information.

http://www.nationalcareassociation.org.uk/conference.asp

Survey of providers of Learning Disabilities services

I am really grateful to all those providers of services to people with Learning Disabilities for returning our Survey. If you haven’t can you please try to complete and return to us as soon as possible. If you haven’t received a copy of the survey please follow the link below:
http://www.nationalcareassociation.org.uk/


We are going to analysis responses in mid-June. We will share the results initially with all those who responded and we will use the report in discussions with Government. We will formally launch the report at our Learning Disabilities Conference, 20th October 2010 in London. http://www.nationalcareassociation.org.uk/conference.asp

CQC - Revised Enforcement Policy and Consultation Document

Dear Members,

Please see link below which takes you to two downloads on the revised enforcement policy and consultation document.

http://www.cqc.org.uk/getinvolved/consultations/enforcementpolicy.cfm

Wednesday 9th June 2010

Dear Members,

At last we are having a quieter week in the office giving us time to catch up with some items and also to plan for the future particularly around seminars and Annual Conference.

We are currently working on a joint meeting with the Kent Care Homes Association in Canterbury on 21 July and a seminar in Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire on 28 July.

Annual Conference will be held in London on 20 and 21 October. We are having a different format this year to make it easier for people to attend.

There will be a modular structure to the conference - designed to give busy care professionals the opportunity to attend either one or both days, depending on their schedules and subjects of interest.

The developing programme will include a Dementia Care Conference and a Learning Disability Providers Conference running simultaneously on 20 October and the National Conference featuring a number of major speakers on the 21st.

The Conference will be held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel & Conference Centre, Kensington
London.

Today I am off to a Residential Forum workshop entitled “Residential care – After the Election” so more news about that tomorrow.

5th June 2010

I went to the Great British National Care Home Awards on Saturday night which was held at the Guildhall in the London. It was a magnificent event and I presented one of the awards (Dignity in Care).

There were many people there that I hadn’t seen for years and one was an official from the Department of Health. I took the opportunity to speak to him briefly about the latest developments with CQC and re registration. I have this morning sent him an email and I hope to have a response soon. I will of course keep you informed.

Photo below is of the winners of the dignity in care award with Fiona Philips on the left and me on the right!

2nd June

I was grateful that Monday was a bank holiday which gave me time to recover from the busy schedule Nadra and I had last week.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I went to a prevention of infection conference held by the Department of Health in London. I think it was helpful but there was some divergence of opinion amongst the speakers.

The implementation of the Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infection is clear that regulation needs to be proportional for social care providers. That is why we are working with Peter Hawkins of ReQuired Systems to come up with a manual that is appropriate for social care providers.

More about that in a few weeks.

1st June

Last week was a very busy week for Nadra and myself. It began on Sunday 23 May when Nadra and myself travelled to Leeds in preparation for a seminar we had arranged the following day. The seminar was again about the Care Quality Commission and the re registration process and it went very well.

We then set off for Manchester where we stayed the night before another seminar the next day. We hadn’t been to Manchester for several years and this was a really successful seminar. In passing I think I should say how grateful we are to Skills for Care, the National Skills Academy for Social Care and our sponsors for supporting us at all 12 seminars we have held already in 2010.

We haven’t finished yet and are currently planning more, the next one likely to be in Beverley in Yorkshire and one later in the year in Brighton. We are also arranging a meeting in Kent in July with the Kent care Homes Association.

When the seminar in Manchester finished Nadra and I headed off to Heathrow in preparation for an early morning flight on Wednesday to Sweden. We went to attend the Conference of the European Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (EAHSA) of which National Care Association is a member. In future we will tell members about the conferences so that you can attend if you would like to.

These conferences are immensely useful for both learning from delegates from other Countries about what is happening in social care around the world and also EAHSA examines closely technological and innovative advances which I think we need to take much more notice of.

We enjoyed the conference and at the end we were able to spend a few hours as tourists in Stockholm