To receive presentations on the following areas affected by the crisis: Care Homes, those shielding (the RISE team) and the Carers Service.

Three short presentations were given as part of this agenda item.

Before the presentations, John Morley, Director of Adult Social Services, took the opportunity to say how immensely proud he was of his staff and praised them for supporting and protecting the people of Rutland in these unprecedented times whilst also dealing with their own worries around Covid. Staff had worked exceptionally long hours and were very tired but even so were potentially getting ready to do it all over again.

The presentations (appended to the minutes) covered Support for Care Providers during Covid-19, the Rutland Shielding response and Support for Carers during Covid-19 and were delivered by John Morley, Emma-Jane Perkins and Kim Sorsky respectively.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·       Mr Morley was standing in for Karen Kibblewhite, Head of Commissioning- Health and Wellbeing, who had led on providing support for care homes and care providers.

·       RCC had an excellent relationship with care providers who they considered to be partners. The advance payments that had been made to them to support them during this time had been very well received.

·       The Infection Control Grant had been extended until March 2021.

·       The RISE Team was a group of very adept practitioners who had worked very closely with the 4 GP practices within Rutland to identify and follow-up with patients who may not have been on a national list but who the GPs had concerns about.

·       There were now 3 Rutland Admiral nurses who supported the work of the Primary Care Network.

·       Contingency planning had been done in the event that the Carer, or those in their network, became ill.

·       The Carers Team were working with partners across LLR to introduce a Carers Passport which would give Carers priority to access services and also assist in identifying hidden carers.

·       Councillor Cross thanked staff for their dedication to their work and all that they had done and this sentiment was echoed by the rest of the Committee. Councillor Ainsley asked what was being done by the Council to support staff during this time.  Mr Morley reassured the Committee that the issue of staff wellbeing was very much on the leadership agenda and a staff Health and Wellbeing board had been set up. At these meetings, which Mr Morley chaired and the Leader of the Council, Councillor Hemsley attended, staff were able to talk openly and share problems and ideas which were then fed back into HR.

·       A member of the RISE Team was looking at setting up a peer support group between staff.

·       The new Government announcement on Covid had been a sledgehammer blow for staff who had been expecting to see light at the end of the tunnel but who were now facing an expected second wave over a further six months.

·       Recognition of the pressures that staff were dealing with and Members asking after their welfare had a positive effect on staff morale.

·       On the winter plan just published by the Government, Care Homes would get free PPE and would be able to order it directly using a special healthcare portal. However, local authorities would be responsible for supplying PPE to unregistered carers and so there was still some concern around how this would be administered and paid for.

·       The increased workload and loss of a staff member had meant that not all reviews had been recorded which had resulted in a dip in the recorded number of carer reviews completed on time. Going forward, staff would work smarter to ensure reviews were properly recorded.

·       The Chair ended the discussion on this agenda item by requesting that the Committee’s thanks to Adult Social Care staff who had worked tirelessly during lockdown and who were continuing to do so, be put on record.