Cornwall Partners in Care News

This message is being shared with you by CQC on behalf of the Department of Health & Social Care

1. Background to the daily CQC COVID-19 impact update

The daily COVID-19 impact update was set up to quickly establish reporting on the impact of COVID-19 on domiciliary care services, extra care housing schemes, supported living schemes.

At the time it was preferable for speed of implementation and for the sector if the survey came from CQC, as CQC already collected info from these providers for regulatory purposes.

Data collected is used daily by central and local Government for both reporting and decision making.

2. Background to the Capacity Tracker

Capacity Tracker (CT) was originally developed by NECS in conjunction with NHS England and the Better Care Fund to enable the system to better manage hospital discharges by identifying available capacity in care homes.

It was identified as a suitable tool for COVID-19 data collection from residential care providers as it was already in use by multiple care providers (such as Care Homes, Hospices and Community Providers) across English Regions.

New sections of the tool were created as part of COVID19 emergency (level 4) response which were initially around PPE and COVID19 and Business continuity workforce, admission status etc. 

Adopting Capacity Tracker as the tool of collecting COVID-19 information was announced in the government’s ‘Action Plan’ (15^th April) and a joint letter (17^th April) from DHSC and NHSE&I together with CQC and the Care Provider Alliance.

Although this tool continues to be called “Capacity Tracker”, it is no longer just used to highlight vacancies in care homes whilst the pandemic continues.

3. Transition of the COVID-19 impact questions to a new Capacity Tracker Home Care section

To enable a better, more supportive response to and from providers and provide a better user experience, the questions are in the process of being moved to a new section of the Capacity Tracker tool, created to capture and report on this key COVID-19 information.

This means that from 30^th November 2020, domiciliary care services, extra care housing schemes, supported living schemes will report their COVID-19 information through Capacity Tracker.

Shared Life service providers do not answer these COVID-19 questions and do not form part of this transition.

4. Current COVID-19 impact questions transferring to the new Capacity Tracker Home Care section

5. Supporting providers through the transition process

As part of the transition process we are working on giving providers as much support as possible during this move, including:

• Pre-registering providers on the Capacity Tracker tool, so that the amount of information they need to provide is minimised
• Working directly with care provider representative groups to help us move questions to the Capacity Tracker
• Establishing a Support Centre solely to help with the registration process and any initial issues experienced by homecare agencies, extra care housing service providers and supported living service providers
• Engaging with Regional NHSE/I and NECS Leads as well as identifying CCG and Local Authority Capacity Tracker System Champions for more direct assistance
• Providing online learning materials, including guidance and videos from the Help menu of the Capacity Tracker
• Ensuring there are no changes to the questions
• If you are already registered as a Capacity Tracker user against another provider type such as a community care or care home care provider, your access will be amended to include the separate home care section. This will contain the COVID-19 impact questions. The questions asked to provider types are different, so it is important that you answer each section on behalf of each provider type on their corresponding page on Capacity Tracker.

6. What you will see and when you need to take action

• From Wednesday 25/11/2020 your regular daily email from CQC will start informing you of the upcoming change
• On Friday 27/11/2020 you will receive your final email from CQC, you will have until 8pm to make your last submission
• On Monday 30/11/2020 you will receive an email invite from the Capacity Tracker team, asking you to confirm your registration on the Capacity Tracker tool, or an email confirming you are already registered and now have access to the home care screens.
• Users who do not receive an email (please check email junk folders), by 02/12/20, can register manually.
• Once your access is confirmed you can immediately complete the questions
• If you try to submit responses using the CQC link, this will not be successful, and you will be directed to the Capacity Tracker tool

7. Infection Control Fund

After the transition has completed and providers are used to using the Capacity Tracker, some new questions related to the Infection Control Fund will be added.

These questions will be finalised in full collaboration with provider representatives.

Thank you for everyone’s really hard work so far in submitting their information through the daily COVID-19 impact update. Rest assured all the information you provide is reviewed daily and used to support collective planning across the health and social care sector to swiftly resolve issues wherever possible, whether through local or national actions.