Cornwall Partners in Care News

Cornwall Partners in Care hold weekly briefings with Cornwall Council and Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation trust. These meetings involve Kate Alcock (Head of Strategic Commissioning – Older People, Physical Disability and Carers), Mary Anson (CPIC Chair), representatives from the CPIC Committee, and occasionally colleagues from the Council and Health.

Daily update – 8^th July 2022

The meeting today included Kate Alcock, Carolyn Montgomerie, Clare Hall-Davies, Tanya Dawson-Sheehan, Sarah Scoltock, Val Smith along with Mary, Phil, Christine, and Richard from CPIC. We discussed;

• Fair Cost of Care. There was a discussion around how to encourage providers to engage with the process and promote a positive message. It was noted that there are still some providers that may be too busy to read everything which bombards everyone, which is having a more disengaging impact on smaller providers/relative to size. These are the providers that it would be useful to engage with.
• Cap on care. The recent announcement on the reforms to the cap on personal care costs which are planned to be implemented by October 2023 was discussed. The changes in the Parliamentary Statement released yesterday was that these will be phased in up to October 25 with a start next October. It was felt that it may be too early to make any moves, but it is something to keep an eye on. It was noted that this is another reason for providers to get engaged in the Fair Cost of Care exercise. This will now be a recurring agenda item as on-going gov’t guidance is likely.
• Fuel price increases. Kate has written a report which she has submitted internally along with her recommendations. Kate is waiting on feedback and will chase and report back. It was highlighted that things are getting urgent and that this situation is already leading toward package hand-backs county wide and may lead to provider closures. It was also noted that any additional mileage rate paid to staff may be liable for tax for any wages element or mileage allowance over the current HMRC maximum tax free allowance.
• ICB. Mary attended the inaugural meeting on the 1st July and noted that there was quite a limited Council presence compared to a very strong NHS presence, likely because there are so many NHS trusts/departments that need representing. Mary also reported that she has been approached by all 3 ICA’s for sector representation and that CPIC will follow this up with providers. Kate reported that she is encouraging providers that want to engage to join CPIC where they are not already members. Kate also suggested that she, Carolyn, and Richard get together to discuss how to work together to encourage CPIC membership.
• Recruitment & Housing situation. Val reported that she is working on a number of recruitment and staffing projects including working to get care workers included as part of an NHS Housing & Accommodation survey (or to replicate it for care staff is they cannot be included). Mary highlighted that CQC are trying to capture information from providers that are leaving the market. Christine reported on work that is being undertaken on why people are leaving Cornwall as so many are not able to get local housing, particularly in light of the huge increase in holiday accommodation in Cornwall. Val asked if she could attend our next Forums.
• Raizer chairs. These lifting chairs have been provided to a number of homes across Cornwall and in another meeting Mary had raised the issue of who they belong to in the context of who is responsible for the health and safety, maintenance, liabilities, etc of these chairs. In that meeting, no-one was able to provide an answer so this has been flagged up here so that people are aware that this is a live issue. Christine noted that equipment servicing in general is proving very difficult to obtain and this is impacting on the delivery of training. Christine has her own equipment that she is unable to get serviced by Tremorvah as they are too busy. This means that she cannot provide access to the equipment for in-house or third-party training. Kate asked Christine to send her the details as Kate is heavily involved in the Tremorvah situation.
• Apetito. In light of the recent ransomware attacks against Apetito and its subsidiary Wiltshire Farm Foods, they have been advised by several countries not to pay the fee to unlock their computers. They have built new systems from scratch and are hoping to be fully operational again during July. Mary noted that she received great support from the local NHS food production unit.
• Digital Awareness. This is on Kate’s radar and the Council are looking into how they can resource some activity around this, which is looking at how to assist providers with moving towards embracing more IT such as digital care planning.
• Christine requested to diarise a meeting with Clare Hall-Davies around the PBM training. Clare will circulate some dates. Tanya asked to be involved in these discussions too.
• We asked to meet the new faces at the council.

The next scheduled meeting will take place on the 15th July 2022.