Health Management and Policy Alert

Coronavirus (COVID-19) lateral flow testing of visitors in care homes

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 
This guidance sets out how care homes and visitors can prepare for visitor testing with lateral flow devices.

• Guidance

A strategic approach to social care data in Wales: report on the discovery phase

Social Care Wales -
This is a discovery report, produced in response to a requirement to scope the development of a data strategy to support social services and social care in Wales. This report, following a rapid review of the existing data landscape, ambitions, challenges and opportunities, outlines a suggested approach to developing a national data strategy for social care.

• Report
• Social Care Wales - publications

Better Care Fund: policy statement 2020 to 2021

Department of Health and Social Care -
This document confirms how local authorities and CCGs should proceed with finalising plans and pooling agreements for funding under the Better Care Fund in 2020 to 2021, and sets out the national conditions for the Fund.

• Policy statement
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Unseen and undervalued: the value of unpaid care provided to date during the Covid-19 pandemic

Carers UK -
This report finds that with every day of the Covid-19 pandemic that passes, unpaid carers are saving the UK state £530 million in the care they provide. Carers UK is calling on the Government to provide additional support for carers over winter and ensure those caring for more than 50 hours a week get access to a funded break.

• Report
• Carers UK - press release

Finding our own way home: a ‘big conversation’

Housing LIN -
This report, jointly written by the Housing LIN and Learning Disability England, outlines the key results from research conducted into the housing opportunities and blockages for people with a learning disability and/or autism.

• Report
• Housing LIN - publications

ADASS autumn survey 2020

Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) -
This survey of councils across England has found sharp increases in requests for help from people being discharged from hospital, fleeing from domestic abuse, or losing their regular support from unpaid carers who are themselves at breaking point.

• Survey
• ADASS - press release

Spending review 2020: priorities for the NHS, social care and the nation's health

The Health Foundation - 
This analysis the scale of funding increases needed to meet the demands of covid-19, make the improvements to services laid out in the NHS long term plan, fix social care and secure the nation’s health for the long term. It warns that the government risks losing sight of the action needed now to shore up the future of health and care post-covid.

• Long read
• Press release

Long term care centres: making space for ageing

Autonomy - 
By 2030, there will be a 60 per cent increase in the number of individuals with caring responsibilities in the UK. This shift in the kind of work that we will be doing will require not just new funding arrangements but also robust infrastructure and working conditions. This paper proposes a network of long term care centres that can form a key part of the new ‘caring economy’ that delivers for those that need care and those providing it.

• Report
• Summary

The Covid-19 long-term care situation in England

International Long Term Care Policy Network - 
This report, co-authored by researchers from organisations including The King's Fund, Nuffield Trust, Health Foundation, provides an overview of the impact of COVID-19 so far on people who use and provide long-term care in England and of the policy and practice measures adopted to mitigate its impact. It finds that the initial policy responses did not adequately consider the social care sector and that the pandemic has laid bare long-standing problems in the long-term care system in England.

• Report
• Summary

The state of ageing in 2020

Centre for Ageing Better - 
This online, interactive report captures a snapshot of how people in the UK are ageing today, while looking at past trends and our prospects if action isn't taken. It warns that the COVID-19 pandemic risks setting people in mid-life on a path to poverty and ill-health in old age.

• Report
• Press release