Oxfordshire County Council : Social Care Provider Engagement

Dear Care Home Managers

Community Dental Services (CDS) CiC is working in partnership with the county council in delivering this year’s National dental health survey designed to measure the oral health status and needs of care home residents aged 65 and older in each local authority area.

This survey will consist of a short clinical examination and questionnaire interview of those residents who have the capacity to agree to participate, and are NOT on end of life, respite or palliative care.

This information will help to provide vital information to the county council and local NHS to understand the needs of this population group and will inform future oral health planning and commissioning.

Only those care homes which have been randomly selected will participate in this year’s survey, and we will be getting in touch with these selected care homes in the coming weeks.

If you are selected for participation, we would be grateful for your co-operation with our teams in the planning of these visits to your care home. Our professional and highly skilled teams will aim to bring little to no disruption to the care homes daily activities.

Thank you in advance for your continued support for this programme and for recognising the importance of care home residents' oral health. Should you require further information about the planned survey, please contact Kate Peniket Epidemiology Coordinator CDS, on 07342062694

Dear All

I am excited to let you know that Elmore’s domestic abuse service is expanding! We are currently in the process of increasing our staff team so that each Children and Family Centre will have one victim/survivor caseworker and one perpetrator caseworker imbedded within your locality teams. This will increase the support that we are able to offer across the county for families affected by domestic abuse and minimise the need for a waiting list for our support.

We are currently recruiting for these posts and we will provide an update for each team to follow for who your caseworkers will be, and the plans to cover vacancies where we have them. Until we have filled these posts the current process to request an intervention remains in place. Please send the attached (updated) Request form to DAElmore@oxfordshire.gov.uk and we will triage cases appropriately to ensure equity of support across the county.

As a reminder of our support, our domestic abuse service aims to provide a safe space for victim/survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse. We work with parents to identify their strengths and build on them, learn about the positive changes that they want to make, and support them to create lasting changes for themselves and their families. We are also developing a co-production approach with Oxfordshire parent carers to help inform our progress.

• For victim/survivors we provide one-to-one interventions focused on safety planning and empowering individuals to recognise and keep themselves safe from abusive behaviours. Our intervention aims to provide support and tools to support the following areas: keeping me and my family safe, developing insight into harmful behaviours, increasing self-worth, gaining independence and moving forwards.

Please note for victim/survivors that have been identified as high risk, individuals must be referred to an IDVA in line with the local MARAC protocol.

Our team will also be instigating a new victim/survivor support group soon. The Hope 2 Recovery programme is a 6-week group suitable for any adult that is experiencing, or has experienced, domestic abuse in the context of being a parent. We aim to roll this out in the new year and will be in touch to share more information on this soon.

• Our perpetrator caseworkers aim to challenge and address attitudes and beliefs that support and underpin abusive behaviours. Abusive parents will be enrolled on our Programme for Creating Change; a 16-week group programme underpinned by group work and peer-to-peer learning. These sessions focus on building understanding and skill development in communication skills, respect, conflict resolution, and accountability. Groups are delivered on a rolling basis so that individuals can join at any time. (Please note these interventions are available one to one but only in exceptional circumstances)

We aim to provide holistic support that is focused on keeping the children safe. To ensure this our victim/survivor and perpetrator caseworkers will work closely together to manage risk safely and share information effectively. It is crucial that our team are attending group supervisions to ensure holistic discussions about our shared clients. Please do invite our caseworkers to group supervision and we will prioritise attendance at these. Please note that all of our intervention work is uploaded to the adults’ workbook (and not the child’s) on LCS. All case interventions will be recorded on here for your information and will feed into group supervision updates.

Any questions please contact myself Kat Meadows (Service Manager), Becki Jakeman (DA Team Manager - Victim/survivors) or Emma Truby (DA Team Manager - Perpetrators). Becki and Emma will be visiting each team to share more about our interventions and the support on offer soon also.

All the best,

Kat

Kat Meadows (nee Moore) (she/her)

Service Manager

Elmore Community Services

Please donate to support Elmore here and keep up-to-date with our work on our Website.

Tel: 07824 518364 | Office: 01865 200 130

Registered Charity No. 1090616

Oxfordshire County Council, in collaboration with the NHS and local partners, are developing a plan for services which support people living with dementia and their families/carers.

We want to understand what works well for people now and what could be better.

Please share this link to the Oxfordshire live well with dementia surveys 2024 our Let's Talk page with colleagues, other professionals and families and carers.

Dear Care Providers,

I hope this message finds you well. As you may be aware, Storm Bert is expected to affect our area significantly. In light of this, I would like to remind everyone of the importance of preparedness and ensuring that we can continue to provide care to those who depend on us.

If, for any reason, you find yourself unable to provide the necessary care due to the storm, please do not hesitate to contact the Emergency Duty Team on 0800 833 408, immediately. Please contact emergency services if the person is in imminent danger.

More information including toolkits, advice and updates can be found on the council’s flooding pages.

Thank you for helping to ensure the safety and well-being of all individuals under your care.

Kind regards,

Oxfordshire County Council

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Introduction

This toolkit supports UKHSA’s Adverse Weather and Health Plan (AWHP) and the updated Cold-Health Alerting (CHA) service. This is the second toolkit for stakeholders for communicating in periods of adverse weather, with the last one being from June for hot weather.

The communication material in this toolkit relates specifically to cold weather and is intended to provide basic health information that can be communicated during cold spells so that the right messages reach the right people at the right time.

The content included in this toolkit can be used to target both public and professional audiences. It contains background information, key messages, suggested social media copy, social media assets and links to useful information. For further information about our national campaign and communications please contact: externalaffairs@ukhsa.gov.uk Sign up to their Stakeholder Cascade to receive a weekly newsletter with the latest news, updates and guidance from UKHSA Follow UKHSA on X (Twitter): @UKHSA

About the Adverse Weather and Health Plan

The Adverse Weather and Health Plan (AWHP) published in April 2023 delivers UKHSA’s commitment under the National Adaptation Programme to develop a single plan, bringing together and improving current guidance on weather and health.

It builds on existing measures taken by government, its agencies, NHS England and local authorities, to protect individuals and communities from the health effects of adverse weather and to build community resilience.

The Plan outlines the important areas where the public sector, independent sector, voluntary sector, health and social care organisations and local communities can work together to maintain and improve integrated arrangements for planning and response to deliver the best outcomes possible during adverse weather.

The Plan is underpinned by:

• an evidence collection, published in parallel, that underlines the activities and scientific evidence that support the Plan
• guidance and support materials
• the Weather-Health alerts (heat and cold), developed in collaboration with the Met Office

Key messages for adult social care managers

Guidance for adult social care managers provides advice to managers working in the social care sector on how to reduce the risks of cold weather to the health and wellbeing of those who receive care. Main messages are:

In all settings, you should reduce the risks associated with exposure to cold weather by:

• developing, and where necessary implementing, business continuity plans (BCP) for cold weather, and ensuring all staff know how to take action accordingly
• protecting clients and staff by promoting COVID-19 and flu vaccination for them
• taking simple measures to protect clients and staff from cold, snow and/or ice

If you work in a setting that provides care in clients’ own homes, you should also:

• identify who is at higher risk of cold-related illnesses and how to reduce that risk
• have a plan in place for individuals you are responsible for to keep them warm during the winter and ensure staff know how to raise concerns regarding clients they are working with if necessary
• ensure staff are aware of main sources of support for housing, energy bills and other needs to signpost clients to, including support for those on low incomes.

Dear Care Provider,

Hopefully you will already be aware that the regulations relating to the procurement of public services and goods are set to change from 24^th February 2025. This is a part of reset of how the UK does business for public contracts following Brexit and taking onto account the new Government’s National Procurement Strategy.

The Procurement Act will introduce NEW PROCEDURES for contracting for goods and services, increase transparency of opportunity and contract performance of providers, introduce a Central Digital Platform for notices and information including a central repository for each supplier’s information.

To support suppliers in preparation for the Procurement Act, the Cabinet Office has published a suite of guidance documents that address all aspects of the new regime, provide technical guidance, and help with interpretation and understanding. Links to these supporting materials can be found on the Council’s website at the following link : Doing business with the council - supplying goods and services | Oxfordshire County Council and these include the following:

• The Procurement Act 2023 A short guide for suppliers
• Central digital platform factsheet
• TPP suppliers guide and knowledge drops LinkedIn
• Recent comms and marketing resources (1)

Suppliers can register to receive updated information which is expected to be issued in the New Year.

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