Weekly Communication Week Ending 18/12/22
Dear Colleagues
Please see your weekly overview update on behalf of the Director of Adult and Community Wellbeing (DASS) and Director of Public Health (DPH)
Proud to Care Website
This site is available for providers to advertise job vacancies for free. If you do not have an account already, you can click on the link below, click on Employers hub then Employer Sign-up .
Recruitment and Energy – Information from Care England
Please see the attached document.
CareFriends recruitment app – Webinar open to council colleagues to join and find out more about the app
Care England is hosting a free webinar on Weds 14th December at 9:30 on CareFriends, which CE describe as “an app-based tool PROVEN to increase recruitment and retention for the sector via the Refer a Friend process. The App itself reduces the cost per hire by around 50% and retains staff far longer, meaning any expenditure by local authorities could go much further”.
Any council colleague wanting to join this webinar should follow this link: Care Friends Webinar – Care England
Bulk Energy Contract for care providers – Information to be shared with local care providers
Care England has worked with Box Power to create a sector-wide tender for gas and electricity. The idea being that by combining sector buying power, Box Power (a registered charity which gives its profits to good causes) can achieve better arrangements for care providers for 2023 than they can alone, which in turn reduces costs to the sector. Any provider interested in this can find more information and express their interest by following this link: Care England’s action to establish the largest Gas and Electricity Tender for Care Providers – Care England
Care England’s action to establish the largest Gas and Electricity Tender for Care Providers
Care England is offering care providers in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales the opportunity to combine energy volumes, to maximise significant economies of scale, to secure the lowest possible price for energy in the UK to help overcome rising energy costs devastating the sector and is issuing an exclusive bulk tender for 2023-24 Gas and Electricity 2023 renewals, tendered through not-for-profit consultancy Box Power, to all energy suppliers in January 2023. We would ask if you could complete the EXPRESSION OF INTEREST LINK by the 16th of December 2023. Providers will be contacted by Box Power directly to ascertain how you can participate.
Further information can be found here: Sector Wide Gas and Electricity Tender Opportunity. Data collected will help to inform the DHSC and BEIS as to the impact energy inflation is having on the sector to help inform future energy relief for our sector.
Given the funding challenges faced by all care providers, the aim is to secure the lowest possible energy rates for all care providers by way of a bulk tender through the largest care provider energy charity Box Power, a philanthropic not-for-profit consultancy that has donated £800,000 to charity in the last year. They have just been awarded (30th Nov) at the TELCA’s the top award in their industry for making a difference.
Training for Staff delivering services to Adults
Cold Weather Alert – Forecast Issued Wednesday, December 14, 2022 9:04 AM
Cold Weather Alert
Level 3 – Cold Weather Action
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/cold-weather-alert/?tab=coldWeatherAlert&season=normal#?tab=coldWeatherAlert
There is a 99% probability of severe cold weather/icy conditions/heavy snow between 0900 on Wednesday 14 Dec and 1200 on Sunday 18 Dec in parts of England. This weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services. Please refer to the national Cold Weather Plan and your Trust’s emergency plan for appropriate preventive action.
Please refer to the national Cold Weather Plan and your Trust’s emergency plan for appropriate preventive action.
An update will be issued when the alert level changes in any region. Alerts are issued once a day by 0900 if required and are not subject to amendment in between standard issue times. Note that the details of the forecast weather are valid at the time of issue but may change over the period that an alert remains in force. These details will not be updated here unless the alert level also changes, the latest forecast details can be obtained at the following link: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/#?tab=map
Regional Risk Assessments for occurrence of Cold Weather conditions between 09:00 Local Time on Wednesday and 12:00 Local Time on Sunday.
Yorkshire and the Humber/ Level 3 (Amber) 99% Cold or very cold with overnight moderate locally severe frost, and some freezing fog patches. Wintry showers at times, especially along the coast. Many parts dry on Saturday before a band of locally heavy snow arrives on Sunday before it turns to rain. Temperatures slowly rising over the weekend with a marked thaw arriving later on Sunday.
East Midlands/ Level 3 (Amber) 99% Cold or very cold with overnight moderate locally severe frost, and some freezing fog patches. Wintry showers at times on Wednesday and Thursday along the coast. Most of the region will be dry on Friday and Saturday until a band of snow arrives on Sunday morning before it turns to rain. Temperatures slowly rising over the weekend.
East of England/ Level 3 (Amber) 99% Cold or very cold with overnight moderate locally severe frost, and some freezing fog patches. Wintry showers at times on Wednesday and Thursday along the Norfolk coast. Most of the region will be dry on Friday and Saturday until a band of sleet or snow arrives on Sunday morning before it quickly turns to rain. Temperatures slowly rising over the weekend.
General Comments
This is an update to the current Cold Weather Alert and extends the existing Level 3 Alert until next Sunday morning. Widely cold or very cold at first with severe overnight frosts in places (especially over snow cover). A rapid transition to milder conditions is expected through Sunday. Low single figure maxima early in the period will likely be replaced by low-double digits (at least in the South) on Sunday. Wintry showers may affect some coasts on Wednesday and Thursday with a more organised band of snow expected in the north on Friday. During the transition to milder air on Sunday a band of snow is expected across England, perhaps heavy at times over northern hills, but readily turning to rain as the milder air feeds in from the southwest. There remains a degree of uncertainty regarding the extent of this snow. It should be noted that this may be a relatively short milder interlude with cold weather expected to return from the north next week.
The UKHSA Cold Weather Plan can be accessed at the following link:
http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cold-weather-plan-for-england
A range of free resources from the WeatherReady campaign can be downloaded here:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/weatherready
To aid local planning, listed below are the Local Resilience Forum (LRFs) matched against their regions.
Local Resilience Forum NSWWS Region
Many Thanks
Performance Support Officer
Provider Development Team