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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of a regular meeting of the Health Service Forum SE held on 12 May 2009 in the Larkfield Centre
Contents
Workforce Development Survey Of Independent Care At Home Services - April 08 In Summary
Welcome
Margaret Hinds welcomed everyone to the meeting
Apologies
Apologies were received from Douglas McGregor, Alastair Glen, Pat Lally , Janette Butler
Minutes
James Sandeman proposed the adoption of the minutes of the 10 March 2009 and this was seconded by Alva Caldwell. There were no matters arising.
Correspondence
1) David Robertson of the Scottish Ambulance Service was unable to attend the May meeting and has just told us he cannot attend in June. We are very disappointed as we would like to be kept up to date on this vital emergency service for our community.
2) We wrote to Dr David Stewart following his attendance at our April meeting and were advised that the 48 rehabilitation beds in the
3) On the 28 April 2009 we wrote to Nicola Sturgeon re Care in the Community following the Panorama programme. We expressed our concerns and suggested that there should be obligatory training of care workers and improved supervision of the work force. As yet we have not received an acknowledgement.
4) A letter was sent on the 4 May to Richard Copland, Director of IT at GG&C Health Board. We asked if a) the software programme for the new computer system in the ACH will allow doctors to utilise data from a large number of patients with similar illnesses to provide them with guidance?
b) Will each patient have access to his/her own electronic records? This would be especially useful for those with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart problems. These patients know a great deal about their disease.
The Herald newspaper published a letter sent in by Louise Laing regarding an article of the 2 May that told how upset the consultants are at the
In the absence of a reply from the Scottish Government on the subject of statutory training of care workers who are sent out to care in people’s homes we found on the internet a workforce survey carried out by Scottish Care at Home dated April 2008 and financed by the Scottish Government.
To read the survey in full see www.scahonline.org
The following is a copy of a brief summary about the organisation and the conclusions as listed in the April 08 Survey;
Scottish Care At Home
Scottish Care at Home (SCAH), a national representative body established early in 2006, now represents approximately 65% of the private sector’s Care at Home and Housing support services. Members’ contribution to public service provision in
Demographics identify the growing need for increased care within peoples own homes. The independent sector accounts for approximately 30% of the overall Care at Home Services. Although this figure continues to increase year on year, the in-house provision of local authorities still dominates provision with many independent providers only offered ‘spot’ contracts and often for the more unsocial elements of a care service at unsustainable fixed low rates.
An increasing number of council areas have now compounded service delivery issues with the tendering of contracts. This has exposed existing services to competition with no regard to the quality of the current service provided or the wishes of service users. This commodity style approach to the purchasing of services has created anxiety and uncertainty for service users with significant management costs for councils and providers. SCAH has brought these concerns to the attention of the Scottish Government.
Workforce Development Survey Of Independent Care At Home Services - April 08 In Summary
In order to deliver on the policy agenda, and if there is to be a competent, confident and valued care at home workforce, there are initial steps required to realise this ambition:
1. Care at home services require a vision for the likely range and structure of future services
2. Care at home services require to create a workforce profile, capacity and resources
consistent with anticipated future service demand
3. Care at home organisations require some consistency and stability in the commissioning of
services to enable sustainable growth in delivering a quality provision to meet future demand
4. Care at home staff and prospective staff require a retention and recruitment strategy,
respectively, to sustain their commitment to social care work and to encourage entry into it
5. Care at home organisations require to be fully included in the developmental processes of the Skills for
6. Care at home organisations require to be part of a level playing field of resource allocation
for development of the workforce, with resources allocated according to assessed need
7. To achieve the foregoing, care at home organisations require to;
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be supported to engage with the key stakeholders who drive strategy, policy and regulation of workforce development for care at home services .
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be supported to develop and agree a strategy and operational plan to meet requirements arising from the analysis of service and workforce needs, including how employers, training providers, Sector Skills Councils, NHS, Government and other key stakeholders will collaborate and invest in skills development for the sector
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be supported to establish a robust and stable process of workforce planning and development with an appropriate infrastructure, and for this to be framed in the wider vision of care at home services provided by all social care and community health care services.
The Scottish Social Services Council based in
for workers in care homes. These have only recently been put in place. As yet there have been no training criteria set out for care workers in the homes of others. We have received information from the Council and will refer to it at the next meeting.
Parkinson’s Society
Parkinson’s Society London sent us leaflets and cards on how to arrange a donation of brain tissue
For research purposes. To receive an information pack e-mail pdbank@imperial.ac.uk or visit www.parkinsons.org.uk/brainbank
The date of our next meeting is Tuesday 9 June 2009 at 7.30 p.m.
