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  • Oxfordshire Oral Health Needs Assessment 2023: Key Messages for Care Homes

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    Findings from the Oxfordshire Oral Health Needs Assessment 2023 have now been published.

    These findings have highlighted the importance of promoting and prioritising good oral health across the whole system, which includes care homes. Oral health and related factors such as number of teeth, bite force, and chewing problems have a significant impact on older adults’ quality of life and ability to function. Oral health has impacts on many other elements of health, including nutrition, and is therefore an important element within individual care plans.

    Results from Oxfordshire surveys with stakeholders have highlighted general county-wide issues with access to NHS dentistry across all age groups. Impacts resulting from COVID-19 and NHS dental workforce limitations are being felt across services.

    The report highlights issues with access to dentistry within care homes, and outlines that more support is needed to promote partnership working between care homes and dental services. Additionally, commissioners are recommended to fund for local initiatives which promote oral health in care homes, such as peer-to-peer support.

    Recommendations from the report include:

    • Prioritising oral health in care homes
    • Wider collaboration across organisations and systems
    • Raising awareness of NICE and CQC guidance which can help to support oral health in care homes
    • Providing more training programmes and resources for care home staff
    • More resources to empower residents to maintain good oral health
    • Piloting oral health champions in care homes

    Community Dental Services (CDS) have a wide range of oral health-related training available to care homes and staff:

    • CDS have collaborated with Oxfordshire County Council and offer a level 1 toolkit for carers within care homes.
    • CDS then can offer further level 2 training for care homes and staff which focuses on maintaining and promoting oral health through incorporating national guidelines.
    • Care homes can also complete Lifelong Smiles, which is a level 3 accreditation programme.

    Overall, it is important to prioritise oral health across all services to make a difference to the oral health of people in Oxfordshire. A summary of the Needs Assessment can be found here.

  • Flu and COVID-19 autumn vaccine programmes brought forward

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    You may have seen the announcement by NHSE in regard to the upcoming autumn vaccination program. Due to a COVID-19 variant of concern the start date of the program has been brought forward to the Monday 11th September.

    The ICB is working with providers to ensure all care homes have a dedicated provider to ensure full coverage. The provider may be a GP, pharmacy, or a hospital team.

    We ask that care home managers work with providers to accommodate clinics at pace, ensuring any family involvement if required, i.e., where power of attorney is in place, is supported prior to the vaccination visit date.

    All front-line health and social care staff are eligible for a vaccination - we have seen an increase in staff sickness across the system related to covid and would urge all staff to come forward for their vaccination. Staff can go to their GP, a participating pharmacy, or in some area's a hospital hub.

    Booking online via the National Booking Service will be available from Monday 18th September.

    Should you have any questions or queries in relation to this, please email bobicb-bw.bob-carehome@nhs.net

    Thank you all for your continued support.

    Zo Woods

    BOB ICB All age Palliative and End of Life Care (PEoLC) and Care Homes Programme Lead

    Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board

  • The new Joint Strategic Needs Assessment has gone live!

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    The Health and Wellbeing Board has just produced the 2023 Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) which is designed to inform local decision-making, by identifying community needs, so that they can be met by service provision. It provides the intelligence that will inform the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy (in development) which, in turn will identify priorities for action to improve the health and wellbeing of Oxfordshire’s residents and reduce health inequalities.

    You can use the JSNA to:

    • find out about the key issues affecting the health and wellbeing of your local community
    • identify demographic groups and geographical areas that need targeted support
    • provide evidence of local needs to support funding applicaitons and inform research projects

    View the JSNA at Oxfordshire Insight, and use the interactive tools to explore data on different topics and local communities.

    Key findings from this year’s report include:

    Population and Demographics

    • Between 2011-2021 Oxfordshire’s population increased by 10.9%, above the growth in England (6.6%).
    • The population from mixed or multiple ethnic groups has increased by 71% over the past 10 years.

    Start Well

    • Most children in Oxfordshire, assessed as part of the Healthy Child Programme development review around their second birthday, reached a good level of development in five key areas. However, children living in areas with higher income deprivation had a lower (worse) than average good level of development.
    • The number of mental health referrals for young people has increased, especially for those aged 10-19.
    • There are clear inequalities for childhood obesity by deprivation, sex, and ethnic group. Data shows that children were more likely to be obese in more deprived areas of Oxfordshire.

    Living Well

    • Oxfordshire’s population is relatively healthy and does better or similar to the national average on most public health indicators.
    • Some health conditions are above the national average, including cancer and osteoporosis.
    • But there are pockets of deprivation and wide inequalities in health and wellbeing.

    Age Well

    • Oxfordshire’s population is ageing, a trend that is predicted to continue.
    • There are clear inequalities in life expectancy across Oxfordshire. Males living in more affluent areas of the county are expected to live around 11 years longer than those in poorer areas. For females, this gap is around 12 years.
    • In 2021-22 the rate of hospital admissions due to falls was above the national average.
    • Oxfordshire was ranked the loneliest county compared with its statistical neighbours.

  • Making Every Contact Count (MECC)

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    Oxfordshire County Council’s Public Health team are working on the strategic roll out of making every contact count (MECC) by supporting organisations and services across Oxfordshire to embed MECC in their everyday work.

    Would you/your staff like to be more confident talking about health with the people you support?

    Would you/your staff like to support people to make positive changes to their health and wellbeing?

    If so, MECC training could be the answer!

    MECC is about utilising the day-to-day interactions we have with others to help people make positive changes to their physical and mental health and access the support they need.

    MECC training is available to support staff to gain the skills and confidence needed to have conversations with others about health and wellbeing and then signpost to support services. Public Health are calling all organisations and services that have contact with the public to undertake MECC training. The training is designed to support staff to make the most of their everyday conversations and respond appropriately to cues for issues that come up in conversations and may be affecting people’s wellbeing such as money worries, finding a job, mental health and changes to lifestyle such as healthy eating or stopping smoking.

    A MECC interaction takes a matter of minutes and is not intended to add to existing busy workloads, rather it is structured to fit into and complement existing conversations.

    The nationwide MECC initiative is led by NHS England and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly known as Public Health England).

    There are various MECC training models to choose from:

    • An e-learning MECC module (approximately one hour) provided by NHS England
    • An online face-to-face MECC practice training session on Microsoft Teams with a MECC trainer (approximately two to three hours)
    • MECC train-the-trainer courses for those who are interested in cascading training to their own team and would like to become a MECC trainer. These consist of four two-hour online interactive sessions. You’ll become a member of the MECC trainer network and be invited to other CPD and behaviour change focussed events. Organisations who are willing to cascade MECC training to their staff are encouraged to undertake the MECC train-the-trainer course.

    The MECC training on offer in Oxfordshire is accredited by the national CPD accreditation body and the Health Education England (HEE) Behavioural Insights team (HEE has recently merged with NHS England).

    To book a place on the MECC training, please email bobicb.personalisedcaretraining@nhs.net. To book a place on the MECC train-the-trainer course, please email clare.hodsdon@nhs.net. Depending on numbers, bespoke sessions can also be arranged for your team.

    If you’d like to find out more about MECC in general, please email Imogen Coningsby in Oxfordshire County Council’s Public Health team.