Scottish Care works with local organisations to address PPE shortage

Access to PPE supplies for the social care sector in Scotland has been a major concern for Scottish Care members since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. As the crisis grew, social care PPE supplies that would typically cover a care home or care at home providers needs began to diminish. Trying to get ahead of the curve, our members reached out to suppliers who in many instances were prioritising NHS orders and were unable to supply the social care sector. This meant it was very difficult for care providers to source the significant increase in PPE required to keep residents and staff safe. Social care providers resorted to sourcing their PPE through emergency supplies from NSS and other suppliers. What’s more, our members have been reporting astronomical and unreasonable cost increases for sometimes lower quality PPE items, impacting the financial sustainability of these organisations since these costs are not being reimbursed. This has made it even more difficult for providers to source PPE through their usual routes for their ongoing and ever-expanding needs.

In the midst of this PPE shortage, a large number of independent, smaller organisations, individuals and local communities have reached out to us to offer supplies to Scottish Care members for free or at low cost. Some of the companies have even adapted their normal functions to create products such as hand sanitisers and protective face visors and masks to help frontline workers during this crisis. The team at Scottish Care have been working hard to build partnerships with these people and organisations to ensure that our members are able to access PPE outwith traditional routes. Thus far, we have been in touch with over 100 different organisations, with the details of nearly 30 companies listed on a member facing webpage. It is our hope that this webpage will develop further with more contacts to support even more of our members to access PPE.

Scottish Care appreciate that these individuals and organisations are keeping the social care sector in mind during these unprecedented times. We are extremely thankful for all the time and effort they have put into sourcing or producing PPE. These offers have also been well received by our members, with some suppliers citing that website traffic, orders and enquiries have increased substantially since featuring on our webpage.

Karen Williamson, Director of New Horizons Inc. said:

“We contacted Scottish Care last week with our offer to supply urgently needed face masks to care homes. They informed us that the issue of meeting high minimum order quantities with large suppliers was a major stumbling block for the smaller care homes and asked us if there was anything we could do.

We immediately established a system whereby the smaller care homes could place their orders with us, and we could group them together into one larger order and simply split shipment.

Within 1 hour of our initial call, our contact and product details were live on the member portal and we were taking orders that same day. We are delighted to say that care homes including Rivendell in Birnam and Newlands in Dunfermline received their face masks within 2 days of placing their order.”

Mandi Cooper, Managing Director of National Property Auctions said:

We are a construction business who are currently helping to support with the PPE demand and the battle against COVID19.

With family working on the front line and family sadly being taken from us from this horrible illness we wanted to help as many people as we could. I saw Dr Donald Macaskill on the news and decided to get in touch. They have been amazing; we were advertised on the website and within hours we have placed orders and helped many care homes with PPE, and we will continue to do so. PPE is very important, and we have contacted the British Embassy in China to check all of the paperwork and certificated to ensure all products we are taking to the frontline are safe, secure and stand the test. This is a huge learning curve for me, and the team and we will keep working hard and learning to help as much as we can. We want to help and support in any way we can, and we are proud to helping supply PPE to frontline workers.”

Lynda Rogers, Manager of Caley Home Care said:

“Due to the shortage of hand sanitiser and with the support and advice from Lynn at Scottish Care, we made contact with a local distillery who were producing hand sanitiser instead of gin.

The Port of Leith distillery, very kindly supplied us with 10 (Gin) bottles of hand sanitiser for free.

Their kindness merited a purchase of some Gin as a thank you gesture. They remain unopened at this time, but I do look at them often fondly

I’m saving it for normality returning!“

 

Pictured: Val Allen (Independent Sector Lead for North & East Ayrshire – Scottish Care) delivering protective face shields to Heather Lundie (Manager – Crossgate Care Home).

Latest Covid-19 Blog from our Workforce Lead

It has been said that during times of crisis it can bring out the best and worst in us and we have seen a great deal of that in real time with COVID-19. We have witnessed the support for NHS and social care workers on Thursday evenings, the realisation of the commitment these individuals give to their work often to their own personal detriment. We have also seen the judging of others and the way our society seems to place people on a scale of worth, this has been particularly highlighted in the comparison between NHS health staff and social care workers. Not by the staff themselves, I hasten to add, but by the general public, at times the media and by companies including supermarkets who initially deemed social care staff as a lower priority (apart from Sainsburys where I will be shopping from now on).  There has also been at times the feeling that social care is not as deserving of the same level of support and compassionate treatment their health counterparts have received.  This historical lack of value and respect has a profound impact on the social care sector and workforce and can be evidenced in the high level of staff absence that has been generally seen within the sector and which has been rising over the last 5 years.  But is it any wonder that staff who give so much of themselves to care for others experience high levels of burn out and sickness when they are low paid, lack decent work structure and security of work and are treated as an afterthought by most other professionals including those who commission their services and work.

The thing about the social care workforce is that despite this lack of respect, in times of crisis we see them again and again get their heads down and get on with things. You just have to look at Twitter and other social media sites to see the amazing work that is being carried out by care workers within care homes and in communities across the country. This is not new, COVID-19 may be something that thankfully we have never experienced before, however there have been other occasions notably during extreme adverse weather that we have seen these workers, at a time when others are staying safe at home, getting out and battling the elements to provide much needed care to those who are vulnerable.  When it is over it is back to business for the “just a care worker”, gone are the thank you’ s across social media, gone is the focus on the work they do and gone is the brief increase in value and respect.

During COVID-19 we have seen care home staff move in with their residents to ensure that they can limit the possible contact with the infection as much as possible to protect those they care for, this is obviously at a huge personal sacrifice.  Care workers, managers and care home owners have been and are currently away from their own families and homes for weeks while they have prioritised their work and residents. Surely these are the same levels of commitment and values that we see within the NHS and for which we give praise to the doctors and nurses who are working within hospitals. The same call to provide care, compassion, and assistance to those in our society who most need it. I would never try to take away from the amazing work saving lives that doctors and nurses and other practitioners across NHS do daily, it can also be seen time and time again. Doctors and nurses sleeping on floors, exhausted but willing to get up and start all over again. I am asking why this is reserved only for these individuals and why care and support workers and care home nurses are deemed not to be as worthy or deserving the same level of respect? I am also asking that the work of social care be recognised as lifesaving as without the highly skilled level of care they provide, individuals would be unable to stay safely at home and within their communities. Staff who prevent hospital admissions due to their knowledge and understanding of those they care for and their individual health needs, this is also lifesaving work!

Social care providers and the workforce give true person-centred care and that is more than just knowing someone’s likes and dislikes.  It is about understanding that person, knowing about how their health conditions including pain can impact their lives and the challenges that many people face and overcome every day.  We hear about it and see it in the stories that appear particularly right now when families have been unable to be with their loved ones, about the care workers and nurses who sit with people and hold their hands to the very end.  Staff who provide the type of care that often is intuitive, is highly skilled and can be honed through years of experience.  Palliative and end of life care that is given freely but comes at cost to the worker although it is an aspect of their role they find rewarding.   Giving piece of mind and comfort when it is most needed in the last days of a person’s life, how can this work be misinterpreted or not be recognised as being highly skilled and something that certainly most people find extremely challenging to do?

If there is any doubt about the lens that social care and it’s workforce is viewed through it can be clearly evidenced in the recent approach to supplying vital personal protective equipment and the initial lack of staff testing out with the acute sector. We know, despite the denials, that companies providing PPE were instructed to supply to the NHS as a priority to the point that many of our care providers were unable to source their normal day to day requirement of gloves and aprons. We have spoken with many of our Scottish Care members who were struggling to obtain necessary PPE to keep those using services safe and to keep vitally important staff delivering care safe. We also know from these individuals who were experiencing real panic and distress that the majority of their concern was for their service users and residents understanding how vulnerable they are in this current situation. This in itself has been traumatic; managers and owners have done everything within their power to source the needed equipment from paying much higher costs to travelling great distances to obtain PPE when needed. Bearing in mind of course these are the “greedy private providers that do not care about anything but making money” and yes that was sarcasm.

Can you imagine working for an organisation you trust and respect, knowing they invest a great deal in their staff and services. Working with and for people who are committed to long hours managing service delivery and ensuring peoples safety.  Doing a job that you love because of the reward of helping others and then being told you are greedy and only doing this for a profit.  This is while being the lowest paid section of the care sector, the most ignored and the last to receive financial assistance or support in times of need or crisis.  Independent and third sector providers and their workforce are the best of us, they do this extremely hard and challenging work with little support or financial assistance while in a climate of being told they expect too much and are not deserving of the same respect and value others receive.

During COVID-19 social care providers and their networks are constantly being told we are in this together whilst receiving little assistance. Guidance has been issued around support that providers may require due to the current changing nature of care, increasing workload pressures in some areas and decreasing pressures in others as some services have been cancelled due to family being available or because they are shielding. Increased costs surround PPE are a huge factor as prices have soared and there is a large amount of additional PPE that is now required to effectively protect services users and staff from the virus. To date this support is still to be seen by care providers some of whom are actually being expected to use forms of electronic call monitoring to deliver their services and in order to receive payment.

PPE is paramount in social care because when providing support such as assistance with personal care, going to the toilet and assisting people to eat, social distancing is just not possible. Moving and assisting equipment may be in place where people are hoisted out of bed or may receive the vast majority of care in their bed. Keeping 2 meters away from each other and the resident is not going to work in these situations so PPE must be available to keep them safe. Lack of testing for staff has resulted in time off being taken when COVID-19 is suspected but not known for sure.  It also results in staff having to be placed in vulnerable situations themselves, caring for others while not knowing if they are carrying the virus or are effectively protecting their services users due to lack of necessary equipment such as face masks.  For care at home travelling to services has been an additional issue and care staff have been fined for doing so even though they literally had no other choice due to lack of transport in some areas.  All of this contributes to care staff feeling undervalued and underappreciated and that is before they have been turned away from shops and told they are not real key workers.

Once this initial crisis has passed there must be real authentic conversations taking place to ensure that our social care workers are no longer treated as second class citizens. Our lives have changed dramatically and when things will go back to the way they were remains to be seen. We do know that social care will continue to be a huge part of peoples’ lives, caring for others with disabilities, in ill health and in older age must continue to be a priority as must the workforce that provide this care. Giving social care workers and nurses the respect they deserve and the recognition of the work they do will ensure we have a workforce who can remain healthy, both physically and mentally and are rewarded for the work they do with decent pay and terms and conditions.  Surely this is the very least that we can do to thank them and show how much they are valued and appreciated for all that they do.  If not who were you really applauding on a Thursday evening at 8pm?

Caroline Deane

Workforce Policy & Practice Lead

 

Open Covid-19 Webinar with The Care Inspectorate – 24 April

This week’s Covid-19 open webinar will be hosted by our CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill along with guest speakers from the Care Inspectorate, including Peter Macleod, CEO and Kevin Mitchell, Executive Director of Scrutiny & Assurance. This webinar will take place on Friday 24 April 2020 at 11:00am.

Please join this session to ask us and The Care Inspectorate any questions you may have.

Please note that this webinar will be hosted on Microsoft Teams instead of Zoom. Scottish Care members can find the link to join via the Members Area of this website. External partners should contact [email protected] to register interest, stating your name and organisation, if approved you will be sent the link to join.

For more information about joining Teams events without a Teams account please see: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/attend-a-live-event-in-teams-a1c7b989-ebb1-4479-b750-c86c9bc98d84

Scottish Care comments on latest NRS figures on Covid-19

We are desperately sad to hear this week’s figures on COVID-19 related deaths, including the fact that three quarters of the deaths were of people aged over 75, and 33% of deaths took place in care homes.

Unfortunately, the particular impact of this virus on many individuals who are elderly, frail or have existing health conditions fits closely with the needs of our care home residents and makes this population particularly vulnerable.  It is why care homes continue to need all the support they can get in order to keep residents safe and well, including access to PPE, extra staff and other resources and we continue to work with national and local partners to ensure these supports are in place. 

It is important to note that in instances of COVID-19 in care homes and associated deaths, there should not be an immediate assumption that this reflects a failure of care homes to provide high quality support, to follow infection control guidance or to respond quickly to COVID-19 cases.  Unfortunately, we see that this virus does not discriminate in who it affects and it can get far and wide despite best efforts to limit it, including in settings such as care homes where a number of people with health vulnerabilities live in close proximity and are supported closely by a group of staff.  We welcome the wider health and clinical care support being given to care homes at this time, and we commend all staff who are doing their utmost to keep the environment safe and the  people they support well. We know they will be suffering the impact of resident losses too. 

We know that people, not least those with loved ones in care homes, will understandably be worried at this time and that is why we remain committed to ensuring that national and local supports for care homes, staff and residents are as robust as they can be.  Whilst it does not relieve the pain felt by those who have lost friends and relatives in care homes to this virus, it should also be noted that many residents with COVID-19 recover from it. 

These figures also highlight the need for dedicated mental health, bereavement and trauma support for all who are experiencing deaths as a result of COVID-19, including social care staff and the families of residents.  We are all being hit hard by the effects of this virus.

 

News Release: COVID-19 Homecare Issues

Understandably and correctly, the last few weeks have seen a significant focus on the challenges our care homes need support with whilst tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

What has continued to be under-recognised publicly, however, are the challenges that our equally crucial homecare services are facing in supporting individuals in their own homes.

On Wednesday 15 April, the First Minister provided the first set of weekly figures from National Records of Scotland.  These showed that 129 people with confirmed or presumed Covid-19 died at home or in their communities – over 13% of the total deaths in Scotland up to 12 April. In the same way as individuals who die in our hospitals and care homes, we must not forget that these deaths at home represent individuals.  Given that the virus disproportionately impacts the mortality of elderly and frail individuals and those living with other health conditions, it is not unreasonable to assume that a significant proportion of the 129, and indeed those in hospitals, had been receiving support at home through homecare organisations.  More people are supported at home any day of the week than in hospitals and care homes combined.

We must therefore carefully consider what support these organisations require in order to continue to provide essential care and support and therefore preventing additional demand on health services, as well as how their workforce is protected.

The critical challenges facing homecare during the COVID-19 pandemic include:

Access to PPE

Whilst we welcome the move to deliver a direct supply of PPE to care homes this week, we are acutely aware of the ongoing challenges for homecare organisations in accessing PPE supplies.  We want to see a similar move to direct delivery of PPE to homecare providers and access to supplies beyond those required in emergencies for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases.  Homecare workers must be able to access the appropriate PPE in sufficient numbers to meet current PPE guidance.  It must be recognised in supply allocations that homecare staff support many individuals across the course of their shift, often visiting the same people on multiple occasions, which leads to an increased need to change PPE more regularly.  There is also an issue of equity here.  There is one Guidance document covering all community care provision yet homecare members are telling us that their staff are supporting individuals in their own homes alongside other colleagues who are wearing significantly different PPE.  This leaves staff feeling unfairly exposed.  We are also aware of some Health & Social Care Partnerships where PPE is being provided for in-house staff but not made available for organisations delivering care on behalf of the Partnership. 

Organisational sustainability

These issues are also compounded by the fact that, as for other providers, homecare organisations are struggling to obtain PPE through usual supply routes and available PPE is significantly more expensive.  So far, there has been no explanation of the commitment for reimbursement or financial support offered nationally or locally for costs associated with Covid-related PPE. This uncertainty is impacting the already minimal margins for homecare organisations.  Providers have been asked to submit data on additional spend as a result of Covid-19, but with no guarantee or details of back-payment. This is creating issues of cash flow, particularly in additional staffing costs relating to furlough and uplifted sick pay, as well as for PPE. Many providers await clarity on the Scottish Living Wage uplift to enable them to pass that funding on to staff. Whilst clarification of the rate has come directly from Scottish Government, providers await local rates and start dates from local HSCPs.

Whilst Scottish Care is currently seeking to collect additional data in this regard, several homecare members have informed us that they have seen a 10-15% drop in care hours they deliver.  One describes having 126 vacant hours for this week.  These figures are unheard of when demand for homecare usually significantly outstrips supply. This is as a result of cancelled visits both by Partnerships and individuals who fund their own care, often because family members are not currently working or are working from home and are therefore able to step in to provide care.  Additionally, social work assessments are not being carried out as planned therefore delaying or limiting the provision of new or additional support to individuals who require it. 

Not only does this place organisations in an extremely precarious position, in a sector where sustainability can balance on a knife edge of care hours at the best of times because of the commissioning and procurement climate, but it risks the jobs and financial sustainability of thousands of vital care workers where they are willing but unable to undertake their usual hours.

Almost 2 weeks ago, COSLA released updated Guidance for Commissioners of social care in an effort to outline supportive measures. That guidance has fallen short, underestimating the requirement for clear national direction in times of crisis on what standards of good practice would look like, it provides a more ambiguous picture by adopting uncertain language such as ‘could’ ‘perhaps’ and ‘may’.

Contract flexibility

Whilst some Health and Social Care Partnerships are working collaboratively with homecare providers to provide flexibility in managing the unprecedented impact of COVID-19, others are continuing with ‘business as usual’ approaches to contracting, monitoring and funding. 

Some areas are continuing to operate minute-by-minute billing for commissioned homecare visits through electronic call monitoring systems, with no tolerances allowed for late or extended visits.  This results in financial penalties for the homecare provider.  This rigid approach does not take into account the need for flexibility in supporting individuals who may have lost their wider support networks due to current restrictions and therefore need additional time for support, or for staff to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of an individual thoroughly including monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms.  It also fails to recognise the additional time required to operate stricter hygiene and infection control protocols, or to put on and remove PPE. 

At a time when we truly are all in this together, there must be trust, flexibility and partnership in health and care provision in order that the whole system and workforce can operate safely and effectively. 

Testing

We welcome recent announcements regarding enhanced testing access for health and social care staff and for care home residents.  This must specifically include homecare staff and supported individuals too. Homecare staff are experiencing high levels of anxiety and distress associated with fears of carrying Coronavirus unknowingly between the homes of the vulnerable people they support.  Testing can support these fears to be at least partially reduced as well as to ensure critical workers are off work for shorter periods of time when they or a family member are suspected of having Coronavirus but testing proves they do not.  There must also be routes to accessing testing which do not require significant travel, which is proving to be a barrier for homecare workers who do not drive.

Individuals supported at home may not see anyone else in a day, particularly at the current time.  Knowing if they have Coronavirus can therefore help to direct their care accordingly.  The homecare they receive, from individuals they know and have built relationships with who can spot early signs of health deterioration, is absolutely essential to their health and wellbeing.

Karen Hedge

National Director

Care home admissions during Covid-19

Care homes have continued since the Coronavirus outbreak to both receive back individual residents from acute settings and to continue to have admissions from both the community and hospital  settings. This is a critical role for care homes and is in part to make sure that there is no greater pressure on the acute sector than it needs to be. But it should be understood that care homes always have admissions from hospitals. If care homes stop doing this then individuals will be stuck in hospital which would effectively put them at a much greater risk. Staying in hospital longer than you need to is something which we know carries real danger for patients. It is also something which can be immensely distressing for individuals who might be living with dementia.

The difference with COVID-19  is how these admissions are handled. When being discharged from hospital it is often routine for the person to be tested if they have been Covid positive to make sure they no longer have the disease. However, testing will only show whether the person has Covid on that day. It will not show if they had it before or if they will get it. There are also dangers from  false-negative tests. What there is are strict clinical assessment protocols which are in place before discharge.

Once someone arrives at the care home they will be isolated and will be barrier nursed as if they have Covid – even if it is recognised they do not – this is a belt and braces approach and lasts for between 7-14 days dependent on the risk assessment of the individual. We have made it very clear that no care home should receive any new admission or returning resident unless staff are clear that they have sufficient PPE to allow this to happen. Some care homes have isolated individuals in separate units with separate nursing teams to reduce the risk of cross-infection.

I would ask those who do not want admissions to happen and returns to happen what they would do with these individuals. They are not objects or commodities, they are human beings, often frightened in an alien environment and wanting either to go home or to get some stability. What would you say to someone who is simply trying to get back to their own home including those who have come through the battle with Covid?  Hospital can be a confusing and distressing place for someone with dementia – they want back to what is familiar and safe. And I would ask what would you say to someone stuck in hospital, often with conditions other than Covid, in the knowledge that they are at greater risk of infection and deterioration the longer they stay there?

We need the least restrictive and safest option for the most vulnerable.

Some of the commentary over the last weekend has been inaccurate, alarmist and insensitive. In all the emotion of the moment, we all of us need to remain respectful, to use language which affirms individual worth, and always to seek the best interests of the most vulnerable.

 

Dr Donald Macaskill, CEO

Grieving in the time of a pandemic

Grieving in the time of a pandemic

Professionally I have been involved in the work of death, dying and bereavement for most of my adult life, both teaching and writing about the subject. In some senses then I am at ease talking about death and dying, about the pain of loss and the emptiness which the absence of another leaves.

At a personal level, like so many, I have had times when I have lost those very close to me. In those moments I have been forced to do the hard work of grief. In all honesty it has been in those personal times despite my so called ‘head knowledge’ that I have struggled to find a path through and a sense of balance when the waves of emotion overwhelm.

Bereavement is the sense of feeling robbed and bereft. For no matter how expected or anticipated a death or loss is, its ache is still sore, its pain still raw, its touch a cold beyond description. The pain of grief is like no other. It is a total emptiness, feeling abandoned and bereft and a searching which never seems to end.

This sense of lost-ness is beautifully conveyed in the original word for ‘bereavement’ from the Old English- ‘bereafian’ which denotes a sense of deprivation, of being robbed by someone, of being seized or grabbed out of living and life.

It is this feeling of being robbed that has been described to me in the last few days in my conversations with people who have had to endure the death of a loved one, someone they knew or who they cared for to Coronavirus.

This pandemic robs you. It robs you of time. It robs you of the moments when you would have been with another to say goodbye. It robs you of the touch, of the assuring smile, of the ability simply to wipe away a tear, of the chance just to be there. For to be with another at such times is to be still, to be in a touching place between life and death, between presence and absence.

This pandemic has robbed us of our traditions of saying goodbye. This is true of those who have died whether of Covid or for any other reason. It has robbed us of those moments when we find ourselves comforted by others; family have literally to be two metres apart unable to hug and console. It has robbed us of times when a song, a piece of music or hymn has sparked a memory and given familiar reassurance. It has robbed us of the rituals and rhythms of funeral and wake, of tradition and association. It has robbed us of the conversations which have sparked laughter even from the depths of sadness. It has robbed us of our ability to be with others, to reminiscence and remember.

This is in no way to deny or forget that undertakers and funeral directors, clergy and officiants are doing amazing jobs to keep things as ‘normal’ as possible not least through ‘Zoom funerals’ and video links. But strangely that very ‘connection’ has for many of us felt artificial serving only to confirm the sense of bereftness.

But out of such a sense of futility there are those who have been working hard to ensure that we can grieve despite the pandemic.

I wrote last week bout how important it was that we all made efforts to ensure that even if far from perfect there is a chance for people to say goodbye. I was therefore very pleased that a few days ago the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges along with Marie Curie and Scottish Care was able to publish some guidance to help this process. Huge thanks to Professor Andrew Elder for championing this and getting this done. 

Then on Wednesday we saw the publication the first Bereavement Charter for Children and Adults in Scotland. Over the last eighteen months I have been honoured to chair the working group of practitioners from across a whole range of organisations who have come together because they believed that Scotland needed to get better at dealing with death and dying. They devised the Charter as part of a national movement to get us all reflecting more about the role that grieving and supporting those who grieve should play in our lives and in our communities. 

No one could have imagined that the Bereavement Charter would be launched in such strange and disturbing times. Its messages have never been more important or necessary.

The next few weeks we will be all of us be rightly focussed on beating this virus. We will also be concerned about those most impacted in families and as professionals in the NHS and in care homes and home care. But after we get through to the end even if it is just the beginning of the end we will still be robbed of so many who have died, still needing to do the work of grieving.

We will need to do a lot to support those who are formal carers especially those who have faced grief at its most acute. For no matter how skilled and experienced you are we all need to be supported and upheld through our grieving, we all need to find a solace that comforts us in our weakness. When we have a sense of futility and despair, both personally and professionally, we need there to be space to open up and pour out our feelings; we need there to be people who have time and capacity simply to be present and there for us.

That will necessitate real change. There will be few of us who will be left untouched by this pandemic. Few of us will not know someone, however distant, who has been lost to the virus. We will all of us need to grieve both as a nation and as individuals. We need to be given space and time for that to happen.

We will, I hope, have a National Day of Mourning. I hope we will also as individuals and families have space for formal memorial services and events to recognise those who have died. But I also hope we will start to change the way we think about death and dying, the ways we need to begin again to restore the lives of those who are grieving and give solace to their hurt. Perhaps as a society in recent decades we have lost the capacity to share the grief of others and have individualised death, dying and loss. This surely has to change. We owe it to those who have died that their loss should mould us into a new tomorrow.

If Coronavirus leaves us with anything I hope it will be a determination not only to live better but also to be more comfortable and open in the face of dying as individuals and as a nation, for it is in that light, I am convinced, that we end up living our lives to the full.

Donald Macaskill

Letter from Cabinet Secretary & COSLA on Fair Work and the Living Wage in Adult Social Care

Scottish Care has received the following letter from the Cabinet Secretary and COSLA regarding the 3.3% uplift to contract hourly rates from April 2020.

The 3.3% uplift relates specifically to home care and those areas who are not applying a greater value of increase, essentially to set a minimum standard to enable the payment of SLW of £9:30 to social care staff.

Fair work in social care Letter from Cabinet Secretary and Councillor Currie - 10 04 03

Covid-19 Open Webinar – 16 April

The next Scottish Care Covid-19 webinar will take place on Thursday 16 April 2020 at 3:00 pm. This session will be hosted by Donald and Karen along with a guest host – Professor Graham Ellis, National Clinical Adviser for Ageing and Health, Scottish Government.

Professor Graham Ellis is a Geriatrician in Lanarkshire in Central Scotland and a clinician with the Hospital at Home service.  He has a research interest in the organisation of acute services for Older people.  He was recently appointed as National Clinical Lead for Older People and Frailty in NHS Scotland.  He was recently appointed as Honorary Professor at Glasgow Caledonian Universities department of Health and Life Sciences.

This is the perfect opportunity for you to ask us and Professor Ellis any questions you may have on Covid-19.

Please note that this webinar is open to both Scottish Care members and external colleagues, therefore those who are interested in attending will need to register to access the webinar (even Scottish Care members). You can register via the following link. After your registration gets approved, you will receive an email with a unique link to join the webinar.

Registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1yyTi6HiTWmdS1meUpElqA