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Blog 10^th Jan 2012

Happy New Year to everyone

It was a busy few weeks leading up to Christmas and 2012 has started the same way. It was a pleasure to read the email from Surrey County Council complimenting several of our providers in East Surrey for their flexible and speedy response to supporting individuals needing care in their own homes and in care homes following discharge from hospital. Dept of Health have also announced some new short term money to support hospitals with their discharge plans as beds are being blocked around the country. We are waiting to hear from SCC how this will work but are hopeful that providers in the independent sector will have an opportunity to respond.

Showcase planning is now well underway. Don’t forget to put the date of 15^th March in the diary, venue Brighton racecourse. The speaker programme is just being finalised and once again we have attracted a wealth of great speakers – make sure you book your free places. I was really pleased that the four local authorities have once again financially supported the event – Surrey, East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove – given the financial constraints they all face this demonstrates their commitment to ensuring this really important date in the Adult Social Care calendar goes ahead. Make sure you take advantage of the opportunity.

All the Network and Conference dates are now in the diary so make sure you have them in yours. There is also a full programme of development events so do take up the opportunities. I sent out the paperwork for grant claims for end March in the newsletter – please also give this your attention.

You will have received emails from me regarding the Workforce Development Funding from Skills for Care. So many of you responded but we still need more. Decisions are being made next week on re-allocation of funds so do let us know if you intend to claim.

Judicial Reviews were the hot topic of the last weeks of 2011 and we are currently exploring with SCC how we can progress on inflation increases for 2012 for Older People services and address the learning from the JR’s. It’s a difficult discussion as there are real tensions on the one hand we are aware of funding constraints in SCC, on the other independent work we commissioned has provided evidence of a 5% inflation increase.

On a positive note we have had discussions with a political lobbying and media relations company and we have decided that we will take further ideas for some positive promotion of the work of SCA and the sector in Surrey. ECCA are excellent at raising big issues nationally and lobbying but we believe strong local associations like SCA can add a very useful perspective. My attendance at the National Market Development Forum is proving very interesting. I am on the work stream for Market Development and Procurement, but recently met members of the workstreams on Quality and Personalisation. Some good pieces of work coming through and it is useful to keep your eye on website Think Local, Act Personal. What is interesting is sitting next to commissioners from other local authorities and understanding a little more about how they are approaching their challenges. What is very clear is that Surrey being such a big county has a big independent provider sector compared to say a smaller unitary like Kirklees where the numbers mean personal relationship with their suppliers are much easier to achieve.

Don’t forget www.surreycare.co.uk – make sure your web page is up to date and we have just launched a new vacancy finder page so you can add your vacancies. Hot off the press Skills for Care are funding a Surrey workshop on Feb 9^th at Leatherhead Food office on Understanding Apprenticeships – flier will be on website shortly.

Thats all the news for now, Regards, Erica Lockhart

Blog 23^rd August 2011

SCA seem to be in demand recently for making comment on Care issues. The latest was to comment on BBC Radio about warning notices for care homes and the CQC report that during a visit the Inspector had noticed an elderly resident left unattended for a full 7 hours. The home was in Aldershot and the listeners were asking why the Inspectors did nothing. I must admit I felt the same watching the Panorama programme how the undercover journalist could do nothing time after time when he was filming abuse. The reason I know is to gather evidence but it must be a hard call not to follow your natural instincts and intervene.

Unless there is a safeguarding concern neither SCA or SCC will be informed of concerns so before we could make contact and offer the services of our Advice Service, we have no way of knowing unless providers approach us when they get warning or enforcement notices so please do remember we can offer advice and help in most circumstances. Sometimes the first we know is when CQC issue a press release.

SCA are delighted to have been invited to participate in a national working group under the Think Local, Act Personal programme. This invitation has been a long time coming as usually only the national associations are invited round the table so we are particularly pleased that our work in Surrey has been recognised and we have been invited to contribute to the work stream on Market Facilitation and Procurement. This is a part of the National Market Development Forum (NMDF). The NMDF is a group of 40 plus organisations including commissioners and providers from across the public, private and voluntary sectors. Its purpose is to explore some of the challenges of market development in adult social care, and to propose practical ways in which partners can work together to address them in the future.

August has been a busy month. 17^th August saw a large group of Domiciliary Care providers getting a first insight into the forthcoming Home Care Tender. The slides are on the website and at the next network meeting on 8^th Sept there will be more information.

The next newsletter is just going to print. A few important things – 1. Award entries 2. Email address updates 3. Funding for training and 4. Our AGM and Conference on 4^th October. Keep checking What’s On and website for all the latest.

Erica Lockhart

Blog Erica Lockhart July

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. I attended the Care Management Matters Insight event in Birmingham. It was very worthwhile as the speakers addressed future business opportunities and I learnt a little more about the work of venture capitalists and how banks and valuers work together to value care businesses. The presentations are available if anyone hoped to go and didn’t manage it. The next one is on Learning Disabilities and SCA will attend to disseminate information to our Surrey providers.

Soon after another trip to Birmingham. This time for a one day visit to the Care Show. I made some useful connections but Showcase offers greater opportunities to meet suppliers and also for seminars than was on offer at this two day event. It also clashed with the Care Homes Congress run by Caring Times but I attended day two. The opening speaker was Andrew Webster now Director of Joint Commissioning at Dept of Health. It was Andrew in his time in Surrey who had the vision to transfer the Adult Social Care grant to SCA and also to sign the 15 year Partnership Agreement so Mike Roycroft and I were pleased to re-establish contact. An interesting speaker from Hertfordshire Care Homes talked about how she had achieved fee increases of 23% as a result of agreeing with the local authority top-ups by third parties (in older people services). Something for us to discuss with SCC. The afternoon saw Mike and I attending the Care Association Network event with associations from Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Bristol, Somerset, Dorset, West Midlands, Thameside and of course Surrey. A few more were expected but sent their late apologies. It was really useful to gather intelligence from around the country particularly around legal challenges to local authorities and PCT’s. The amounts of money associations like Staffordshire had collected to fund a judicial review was remarkable (around £350K). Birmingham are well on their way with their review and another 6 have reviews in process and there are further areas funding the first stage of legal review. That in itself requires £25K deposit for fees. We plan another meeting in the autumn to share intelligence. Of course the customer profile is very different in some parts of the country where the local authority is the monopoly purchaser.

In between I managed to submit a tender for 2011-2012 Skills for Care funding no longer called TSI with a new term Workforce Development fund. We hope to hear by the end of July and more information will follow. Suffice it to say it was a challenging document to write!

Thursday saw me speaking at a European event hosted by SEHTA (South East Health Technology Alliance) – 50 delegates from Finland, Turkey, France and Italy learnt about how telecare was used in the UK, and we were also treated to a tour of Ernie Graham’s newly opened care facility in Kent. All I can say is it is impressive and you can check it out on www.hawkingehouse.co.uk.

And then to finish the week a 9.40 date with BBC Radio Surrey to talk about my recent award – except a national report on Palliative Care and the postcode lottery for the type of service you receive took over the interview.

Two extra network meetings provided an opportunity for providers to discuss the CQC Excellence consultation as well as learn about future tendering opportunities and most importantly alert us to the Olympic plans for 2012 and the impact of road closures in Surrey for care providers, both staff and for service users.

And closer to home I am pleased to let you know that Jenni Turner has successfully achieved her Level 3 NVQ in Business Administration, well done Jenni.

Blog 1st July 2011

I attended the Surrrey Safeguarding Adults Board Meeting yesterday, a meeting where representatives from all concerned agencies meet to discuss overarching issues and agree strategy etc. The wide representation of senior decision makers from many organisations allows decisions to be taken and direction given to the various sub groups to take the work of safeguarding the most vulnerable forward. The group recieved information on topics such as the themes emerging from Hospital admissions, case studies and lessons learned from serious case reviews etc and explored ways of ensuring the lessons learned are translated into practice. Key messages were around inter-agency communication and risk assessment and management. A draft version of the Prevention Strategy was outlined and opportunity for comment given.

The Board Meeting was followed by the launch of the new Multi Agency Procedures, these are now live but there is opportunity to feedback on how they are working until October when a review will be undertaken. SCA are currently exploring the possibility of providing an opportunity for providers to get together and submit a joint response. If you think this would be helpful please let us by emailing sca@surreycare.org.uk .

Free Conference places still available

SCA has been offered six free places at the South East Region Care Conference on Thursday 7th July at Ashford International Q Hotel, Ashford.

This conference tends to be more relevant for care homes.

This year’s theme is “Focusing on outcomes promoting and providing good care”. A speaker on Dilnot has been added to the programme.

More details can be found on our website under What’s On.

The actual delegate rate is £60. Once the free places have gone, SCA providers can get a discounted price so make sure you mention SCA. Please contact Jenni Turner to access a free place.

Blog Thursday 9th June

Quality care matters: not private v public debate

Abuse at a Bristol care home highlights the urgent need to address public sector commissioning, says John Tizard director of the Centre for Public Service Partnerships

Full article here

Blog Friday 3rd June

Amidst the flurry of media attention following the Panorama programme the sector has responded to some elements of the commentary which imply inaccurate and misleading perception:

Debbie Sorkin, Director of Engagement NSA, Martin Green, Chief Executive of ECCA and Sheila Scott, Chief Executive of NCA, submitted a letter to the guardian and it has been published today.

Please see the following link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jun/03/the-silent-majority-care-scandal. I have included the text below for your convenience.  

We have seen a spate of reports about lack of standards and abuse of vulnerable people, primarily at private residential care facilities. There is no excuse for this and it is a wake-up call for all involved in delivering care – from commissioners to regulators to providers – to work together to ensure services are of a consistently high quality. Such reports will cause enormous concern to relatives of people receiving care and support, and to others considering care options for their families. But there are also many private and independent care providers in the sector providing high-quality services who will be concerned because they have been unfairly grouped in the public consciousness as not meeting standards.

Our organisations collectively represent thousands of members who are private and independent care providers and who consistently deliver excellent residential care. Many others do the same. The difference they make to the lives of vulnerable people should be acknowledged. We are committed to championing the excellent care they provide, and to use this as a driver so that excellence becomes the default standard in social care.

Blog Wednesday 1st June

The Learning Disability Coalition have initiated an "e-action" in response to the situation referred to below.

http://tinyurl.com/3w3mpl4

It calls on MP's to ensure that the human rights of people with a
learning disability are at the heart of the forthcoming social care
white paper.

Many of you will have seen the Panorama programme last night and witnessed the appalling abuse of residents in a private hospital for people with a learning disability. Predictably this has prompted responses from both the government and CQC (who it seems failed to pick up on the systemic abuse taking place despite being alerted several times). The following is an extract from a Community Care article:

Blog Tuesday 11^th May

Erica Lockhart attended the first workshop on “Developing HealthWatch” in Surrey on Monday 10^th May. There was full house at Dorking Halls with wide representation from stakeholders to debate how it could work in Surrey.

So what is it? The Health and Social Care Bill, published on 19.01.11, clearly sets out the expectation that each local authority area will develop a patient voice organisation called ‘HealthWatch’ by April 2012.  The development of HealthWatch will build on the very good work already started by LINks.

This event was to gather views on how HealthWatch should function; how it can best engage with a wide range of people and what the requirements will be for a host organisation for HealthWatch.  There was an excellent  presentations by Jonathan Tritter, who is a professional fellow at Warwick Business School and leads on public participation in health, and we also heard from Rob Kitt, the Procurement and Commissioning Partnership Manager for Surrey County Council, who explained the procurement process for securing a host organisation in 2012.

Presentation slides will shortly be available on the Surrey LINks website.

SCA reviews its governance

Hard to believe that SCA Ltd will be 6 years old in September 2011. The Chairman and Board thought this was a good time to review our governance arrangements including our articles and debate membership and policies as well as internal financial and risk management arrangements. A group of Directors developed an action plan from an excellent Governance Review document prepared by our Chairman. In order to vote or stand for office a member company must nominate a representative ie a governance member. One of the first jobs leading up to the AGM would be to ensure companies understood what was required.

The governance membership nomination form can be found on the website under SCA.

Have you checked out the new website yet? In our first month the pages were viewed a total of 3,793 times with most views on downloads and news pages.

All the team are back from their holidays. Richard’s hopes of completing the John O’Groats to Lands End bike challenge were dashed by a knee injury. After all those weeks of training it was a real disappointment but he has a pentathlon in the summer to look forward to! Erica enjoyed her break in Spain but the tables were turned with the UK having more blue skies than Spain this time.

We are just finalising the plans for the use of the grant funding from SCC this year so we will be able to confirm what development programmes we will be taking forward very soon. For those waiting for payments from TSI – the cheques are coming in slowly as Leeds was overwhelmed with all the late claims. The SCC Grants will be processed by the end of May.

Don’t forget to book for the conference on 24^th May we have a great line up. Valerie Smith and Erica are seeing Karen Parsons from the PCT this week to discuss plans for GP Commissioning in Surrey.

4^th May saw Erica interviewing the Regional Winners in the Care Home Manager category for the Great British Care Awards in London. What a pleasure it was to meet so many inspirational managers from throughout the country all hoping to get the coveted National Winner award on June 11^th. Erica herself is excited as she too goes forward for the National Award for Outstanding Contribution to Social Care this weekend.

Monday 18th April - SCA Spring Conference

Wednesday 6^th April - Health and Well Being Board

Leatherhead Golf Club was the venue for the third and final working group on the development of the new Health and Wellbeing Board. Although government have indicated a “pause” in their thinking the consensus was that the working together in partnership was providing valuable ideas for addressing an innovative health and wellbeing agenda in Surrey. There were excellent presentations from two existing GP Consortia, both who had been working together with local partners for 2-3 years and saw huge opportunities in bringing together all the partners in a locality. A district council Chief Executive also highlighted the key role local and parish councils brought to the agenda. A presentation on Health Watch demonstrated the important role this new organisation will have in representing patient interests. Adult Social Care providers will be able to contribute as the Board is established and GP Commissioning starts to take shape.

Dr Ali, Joint Public Health Director and Karen Parsons, Associate Director, Primary Care at NHS Surrey will both be speaking at SCA Conference on 24^th May.

Erica Lockhart

Friday 1st April - Joint Accomodation Strategy Launch

I attended the Joint Accommodation Strategy launch event yesterday at Leatherhead Leisure. Centre. It has been developed by the Supporting People Team, other Surrey County Council services, District and Borough Councils and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

The strategy is intended to map housing, care and support needs for vulnerable adults and young people in each borough and district area in Surrey.

It aims to:

• deliver new housing, including affordable homes

• support sustainable economic growth

• achieve regeneration and / or tackle deprivation

• contribute to meeting strategic infrastructure needs

• provide appropriate housing for those with care and support needs to enable them to live independently

• reduce homelessness.

Action plans have also been developed for each Borough and District Council, as well as the County Council, and some actions are common to each area. The event gave a wide audience, including representatives from District and Borough Councils, providers, people who use services and their carers and Adult Social Care staff, the opportunity to fine tune the strategy. The day also allowed the a chance to present achievements such as Mitchison Court in Surbury, an extra care housing project and a review of the benefits changes following the Welfare Reform Bill.

The strategy will be published on the SCC website shortly.

Alan Willmott

Wednesday 30^th March - Meeting with Surrey County Council Adult Social Care

The SCA quarterly formal meeting with SCC generated lively and wide reaching discussions on key challenges facing the sector, balanced with information sharing from SCC Adult Social care. Topics discussed were the continuing problem of Continuing Care Assessments which SCC agreed to take forward with NHS Surrey.  We received an update on the developments on GP Commissioning and again SCC have encouraged SCA to get involved and have provided a key contact to open discussions from NHS Surrey. An explanation of the role of the “in-house” broker role and their relationship to sourcing managers was explained, but to date no appointments have been made but it was recognised that evidence of independence of brokerage from “in house” brokers was required. SCC confirmed eligibility criteria remained unchanged at substantial and critical. SCA touched on the impact of the recent judicial review decisions and agreed that the issues raised would be addressed without recourse to the law. All welcomed this move as a positive way for providers and the local authority to work together. The high cost placement review first phase has ended and there will be further discussions re the process for phase two. There were discussions re market and provider development and all noted the positive invitation from SCA to invite IPC from Oxford Brookes to explore how SCA could participate in the new Market Development Centre and scenario planning, and also to work with SCC on these initiatives.

Wednesday 30^th March - Taking forward plans for the Adult Social Care Grant

Erica Lockhart met with Assistant Director Commissioning and Procurement to discuss the proposed plan for the Adult Social Care Grant in 2011 – 2012. This early forward planning will help SCA to balance out the work flow throughout the year. Key projects will continue and be enhanced eg Domiciliary Care, Learning Disability and in particular a plan to work together on PVR, Older People Care Homes as well as continuation of the Advice Service, the Training programme, the grants to providers, and specific development programmes to support Outcome based Care, End of Life Care and Dementia. This is great news for providers in Surrey.

Monday 28^th March – Discussing the Surrey LEP

Erica Lockhart participated as a business stakeholder representing the Care industry at a high level workshop on Monday evening to discuss ideas for the Surrey LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership). With over 100 participants, all business interests were represented and there was a will to push forward with a revised submission for a Surrey wide LEP representing the interests of Surrey. The key themes were Generating the energy for growth in our economy; Shaping a programme for growth – Surrey Connects must make a difference; Getting a head start, what are the top priorities; and then Governance for Growth. Participants brainstormed ideas from many perspectives. Further information and discussions will emerge as Surrey Connects bid develops.

For back ground information a recent news item from Surrey Chamber of Commerce explains:

Surrey has signalled its intention to submit a revised bid to form a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
Surrey Economic Partnership chairman Chris Bean and Surrey County Council leader Dr Andrew Povey last week announced plans to prepare a reworked county-wide expression of interest.
They said they will press ahead with the revised bid, Surrey Connects, after the Government gave the original LEP bid an ‘amber light’ to further develop the proposal.

The new revised submission will concentrate on Surrey's administrative boundaries, while also recognising the need to build strong, effective relationships with neighbouring areas.

Commenting on this decision Louise Punter CEO of Surrey Chambers said, "An LEP covering the whole of Surrey is good news for business as it will focus on ensuring that investment is made in one of the strongest economic areas in the UK. Surrey is well known for working strongly in partnership and therefore will be well placed to work cohesively with the other cross border LEPs in Surrey."

The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
WINNER – Erica Lockhart, Surrey Care Association, Leatherhead, Surrey

Erica is a remarkable person who has dedicated her working life to improving the lives of people who receive social care and support services.

Without doubt Erica has embraced people in helping them to undertake a challenge that most others would leave alone.

She has served the care industry for years giving unbelievable support and guidance with a firm but fair approach. Her passion for the well being of others is beyond that of the norm and often at personal sacrifice in time and energy.

Erica has been instrumental in shaping the Surrey Care Association. Through the care association Erica has lead great innovation in the sector. There are many examples but probably best highlighted is the work Erica is doing to drive sector organisation in Surrey. This work will support providers to become more efficient and effective whilst helping the council meet their targets. Erica’s work is key to innovative work such as this.

As well as working at strategic level, Erica has tirelessly lead development work which directly improves the quality of care and support on the ground. Her commitment to staff development and her support to struggling membership organisations evidences this.

Erica has a brilliant skill of bringing money into the sector. She has generated hundreds of thousands of pounds from myriad of sources, and these funds have been directly applied to benefit people who need support in Surrey. Much of this work goes unnoticed and unrecognised

In the words of one of the people who nominated Erica,

“Erica is a giant in our industry and would leave a cavernous hole should she ever decide to move on. Erica Lockhart is KEY to care in Surrey.”