Lisa Maynard from Care Inspectorate’s improvement team shares a great new initiative that is being rolled out in Fife to combat loneliness among people living in care homes:
During the pandemic Carol Hands, Care Home Liaison Nurse, reflected on how isolated people were feeling so she began a pen pal service called Letters of Friendship, Loneliness is not an option.
The poster has been distributed to care homes across the region and the team of care home liaison nurses to promote it when they are out on their visits or during their support calls.
There has already been a good interest in the scheme with around 50 residents starting to write letters. This communication tool can not only stimulate new conversations with new people but tackle loneliness and improve mental health.
If you would like to find out more about this initiative or share any initiatives of your own with us please contact Lisa Maynard, Interim Senior Improvement Adviser: Lisa.Maynard@careinspectorate.gov.scot
Guidance relaxed in line with latest clinical advice
Social care staff and visitors are no longer being advised to wear facemasks at all times under new guidance published today (7 September).
The recommendation has been lifted due to a sharp drop in coronavirus infections and a reduction in severity of illness, which has been driven by Scotland’s successful vaccination programme which has so far seen more than 12 million Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in Scotland.
Care home residents and their loved ones will benefit from these more relaxed visiting arrangements. Masks and face coverings in social care may still be worn if recommended in certain situations, such as a local outbreak of COVID, or if staff deem it necessary. Staff and visitors remain free to wear one if they choose.
This guidance balances the risk of harm from COVID-19 with the impact masks can have on communication, mental wellbeing and rights and choices of those working in and using social care services.
Social Care Minister Kevin Stewart said: “Our phenomenally successful vaccination programme has driven down infections and saved the NHS from untold pressures.
“Removing the need for facemasks in social care settings including care homes is the latest step in our path to recovering from the pandemic.
“This will make communication and relationships easier in care settings, benefiting mental health and promoting the rights and choices of those working in and using social care.”
Elderly residents at Glencairn Care Home in Edinburgh have been out enjoying the wonders of the capital this summer, with a programme of fun activities including rickshaw rides, theatre visits and musical performances.
The care home residents, located at Marchmont, have a busy calendar of socialising and events to see them through the summer months as part of the home’s ongoing commitment to being a ‘people-first’ home that centres decisions around the needs of its residents.
Exploring the streets of Edinburgh on pedal-powered rickshaw vehicles, the group have been experiencing the capital city at a much more leisurely pace while taking in the sites of the Meadows, Bruntsfield and Morningside.
To ensure that the residents feel part of Edinburgh’s Fringe celebrations, the activities coordinators also arranged visits to shows throughout the month, while visits from a historian and a cello player have also been scheduled into the calendar of events.
At Glencairn, as part of its people-first approach, residents are regularly consulted on the activities programme, asked for input and asked for reviews to determine what to plan and book next.
The activity schedule has recently been awarded plaudits as part of the Care Inspectorate’s ongoing review programme. The home was awarded a rating of 5 which is considered ‘Very Good,’ scoring highly across areas including; care and wellbeing, leadership and meaningful contact.
Debra Husband, Activities Coordinator, Glencairn Care Home, said:“We’ve had packed calendar of activities this summer which has been fantastic for the residents here at Glencairn.
“The sun has been shining and it’s been fantastic to get out and about to enjoy the city. We’re so lucky to be located in the heart of Edinburgh and the rickshaw rides in particular have meant that we can take the residents out to enjoy and explore our surroundings on a regular basis.”
Jozi Stables, Manager, Glencairn Care Home said: “Providing the residents of Glencairn with a full and enjoyable social calendar provides so much more than just a break from the daily routine of the home but it helps our residents to retain a sense of their identity, adventure and provides a rich and enjoyable life.
“We pride ourselves on bringing unique experiences to the home and also creating fun and adventurous excursion for our residents. The activities feed into the overall care ethos we have here at Glencairn which is ensuring the needs of our residents come first and we work closely with them to design plans that suit their recreation, care and wellbeing needs.”
The home, managed by Renaissance Care Homes, is one of sixteen homes located across Scotland and currently provides care provision for 26 residents.
The care group which runs 16 homes across Scotland is known for its fun and inventive campaigns that engage residents and focus on bettering their health and wellbeing, as well as encouraging fun and physical activity, some of which includes hosting the Renaissance Care Olympic Games and an upcoming Foodies Festival.
Care home residents in Edinburgh were boogying on down to silent discos, live performances and an ABBA tribute act last week as part of Music Festival Week in the homes.
Residents and staff in both Renaissance Care’s Letham and Milford Care Home’s were working together to give TRNSMT a run for its money with a week-long Music Festival initiative. From ice-cream vans and transfer tattoos, to glitter and bucket hats, staff pulled out all the stops to give the residents a summer to remember.
The care group which runs 16 homes across Scotland is known for its fun and inventive campaigns that engage residents and focus on bettering their health and wellbeing, as well as encouraging fun and physical activity.
Each home had its own bespoke musical line up throughout the week, all taking place around the homes and gardens which were especially decorated in a festival theme, as well as playing a range of games and enjoying festival style grub.
Music has proven to be an effective tool in boosting mood and memory, especially for those living with dementia and Alzheimer’s. The number of people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s has increased substantially over the past two decades, and this initiative offered a fun way for residents of all abilities to enjoy some time together and let loose their inner-ravers.
Norma Liston (90), resident at Renaissance Letham Care Home, said: “I’ve been hearing a lot about the summer festivals from Glastonbury to TRNSMT, then of course The Fringe coming up too, so it was great that we could have our own celebration and enjoy a song and a dance together this summer.
“Renaissance Care never does anything by halves, the staff did a fantastic job at making this as much like a real festival as it could be without actually going to one – and thankfully there’s no camping involved!”
Yvonne Mackenzie, Operations Director at Renaissance Care, said: “Music has universal appeal, and we know from experience how much our residents enjoy a bit of a boogie and a song. This concept has been another brilliant way to get everyone involved, up and active in whichever way they feel comfortable.
“We have recently introduced a new danceSing platform across the homes for staff and residents to use to stay fit and healthy, so this has been the perfect complement to its launch which is part of a wider effort to further improve the culture within the business.
“Bucket hats and glow-sticks were in full swing and it was great to see everyone up and having a good time this July.”
Renaissance Care recently introduced a range of new benefits as part of its culture review including danceSing, a flexible approach to working and free period products in all staff bathrooms.
Residents, staff and guests at two Edinburgh nursing homes were treated to highly-charged live performances by the Celtic rock band Red Hot Chilli Pipers today as part of the celebrations for Care Home Open Week.
Outdoor events took place on the grounds of the Blenham House and Ashley Court nursing homes in Sighthill and Morningside, which are owned and operated by Randolph Hill Nursing Homes Group.
Dubbed ‘the most famous bagpipe band on the planet,’ the Red Hot Chilli Pipers drew international attention after winning the BBC talent show When Will I Be Famous in 2007. The Scottish-based outfit now travels the globe playing concert tours as far afield as America, Malaysia, India and Saudi Arabia.
Yesterday’s performances in Edinburgh are part of a whirlwind two-day tour by the band, covering all of Randolph Hill’s seven nursing homes across Scotland.
Further live shows are also taking place in North Berwick, Gullane, Livingston, Broxburn and Dunblane to mark Care Home Open Week 2022, which takes place from 27 June to 3 July.
Care Home Open Week aims to connect care homes across the country with their local community. The event provides care homes with the opportunity to showcase their facilities, activities and services.
It also puts a focus on career opportunities and encourages communities to support and build connections with their local service throughout the year.
Peter McCormick, Managing Director of Randolph Hill Nursing Homes Group said: “We were delighted to welcome Red Hot Chilli Pipers to both our homes in Edinburgh today. As you might expect, it was a highly-spirited performance which our residents, staff, and invited guests thoroughly enjoyed.
“We are really pleased to have the band’s support during Care Home Open Week where they are performing at all of our seven nursing homes. It’s an ideal way to mark the occasion, which celebrates the important role of care homes in the communities where they operate.”
Randolph Hill currently cares for more than 350 residents and employs over 500 members of staff at its seven sites across east and central Scotland.
A luxury Edinburgh care home has enhanced its bespoke five-star care with the resumption of monthly resident meetings after Covid restrictions were lifted.
Residents at Cramond Residence will have the chance to engage in active, regular discussions about their experience in the home and to provide open and honest feedback.
The meetings were halted at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic but care home management believe the facility is an important aspect in promoting independent lifestyles and ensuring residents are mentally fulfilled.
Cramond Residence staff will be able to respond to any question on the running of home – from daily food menus and programmes of activities to the general service – all aimed at promoting community inclusivity.
The monthly meetings have been designed to give residents a key role in their own health and wellbeing and aligns with Cramond Residence’s ethos of ensuring residents continue to live interesting and fulfilling lives, doing things they want to do on their own terms.
Managing Director at Cramond Residence, Graeme Kelly said: “We are delighted to be adding the resident monthly meetings back into our already jam-packed schedule at the care home.
“It will provide our residents with the perfect opportunity to raise any queries so that we can continue improving and adapting, and above all, continue putting the needs of the residents at the heart of what we do.
“Cramond Residence provides an array of activities and specialised, tailored programmes and receiving feedback is an important way of confirming that we are meeting the needs of our residents and maintaining our status as a high-quality care home, providing the best possible care.”
Included in the home’s current offering for residents and curated by its dedicated lifestyle team are bespoke physiotherapy sessions provided by boutique experts, as well as specialist dementia care delivered in an environment that combines luxury hotel living with the reassuring feeling of being in your own home.
Graeme continued: “The resident meetings are optional however, we fully encourage all of our occupants to attend in order to get the best outcomes. We are really looking forward to adding this highly worthwhile service back into our programme of events and will welcome any feedback that we receive.”
Located in Cramond, the care home was launched in 2018 to offer uncompromising nurse-led care, as well as respite and dementia specialist services, and provides small-group living for up to 74 residents in nine luxuriously-appointed homes.
In addition to deluxe accommodation, residents are provided with freshly prepared nutritious meals, best-of-class facilities and a wide range of entertainment. The medication and care provided is based on a detailed personal care plan, which is continually assessed and revised by health care professionals and other experts to ensure that the best possible care is being delivered.
Facilities provided include a cinema and function room, a dedicated games room and also a sensory experience which offers therapeutic activities for those with dementia.
Cramond Residence offer tours of their quality accommodation and facilities, allowing potential residents and loved ones to see the residence for themselves, meet the team and discuss requirements.
“The data show 24,000 patients were delayed in an Emergency Department for 12-hours or more (from decision to admit to admission). This is a staggering and grim number and should seriously alarm all political and health leaders. Patients are coming to harm; now is the time for an Urgent and Emergency Care plan to tackle this crisis.
“The situation is more serious than it has ever been. Patients face long waits for an ambulance, long waits in an ambulance outside an Emergency Department, and long waits in the Emergency Department. These long waits delay care and treatment to patients who may be in a critical condition, and they prevent our highly skilled paramedics from returning to the community and responding to urgent and emergency calls.
“At the heart of the issue are reduced bed capacity in hospitals mixed with an increase in the number long-stay patients – social care patients who do not have sufficient support to return home or to the community – and widespread workforce shortages throughout the system.
“To tackle the crisis the government must publish a fully funded workforce plan that includes measures to retain existing staff, and open 10,000 more beds across the UK.”
Responding to the government’s announcement of more funding for nursing in care homes, Dr Henderson continued:“This announcement is welcome. Social Care nurses have long been undervalued and under-acknowledged. This increase in pay is a welcome step towards showing them the appreciation and gratitude they highly deserve.
“However, it is a shame to see that this increase in funding is limited to NHS-funded nursing care. The entire social care workforce deserves the same acknowledgement and reward. It is critical that during this crisis we attract and retain social care workers and value their time and effort by paying a wage that reflects the significance of their role.
“Good social care supports an efficient health service. Good social care can help prevent A&E attendances. Good social care will support patients moving in and out of hospital in a timely way. Crucially, good social care frees up space for other patients and increases flow throughout the hospital.”
The leading Scottish care home group is undertaking a full review of culture across the organisation after two years of care staff fighting at the front line against the pandemic
Leading Scottish care home group, Renaissance Care, has implemented a full review with its staff across each of its 16 homes to overhaul the traditional operations across the care home sector.
Following interviews with staff across all levels, the group, which employs 1,200 people across the country, is reviewing the culture, working practice, and its health and wellbeing offering across the board, as it responds to rising resignations of care staff across the industry on the back of the pandemic.
Staff across the homes will now be offered a range of new benefits including flexible working, a pay review across all roles, and a health and wellbeing package.
In response to feedback around long shifts within the care sector, which have historically been 12 hour shifts as industry standard, Renaissance Care will now offer staff a flexible working pattern based on their individual requirements.
The move means that those who want to change shifts around childcare commitments, or want to cut down on long shift times can do so, while office staff will have the option to move to a four-day working week.
The group will also implement a minimum 5% pay increase for all staff and has committed to becoming a Scottish Living Wage Employer.
In line with the review, the care group is also undergoing a project to promote inclusivity and security among its workforce.
It has committed to supplying sanitary items for female staff in all of its facilities, as well as becoming a menopause-friendly workplace with plans to roll out training for staff later this year, and is ensuring an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ staff and residents with an understanding that identities can be complex.
The home will also introduce a health and wellbeing package which includes free access to danceSing for all staff members – encouraging health and wellbeing through fitness classes with a saving of £400 per year for each individual. It is also to invest in upgrades to the staff rooms in each home to ensure its care teams have a space that promotes a positive culture throughout shifts.
In addition, the care home operator is currently investing £500k on its operational management and accounting systems to improve administrative processing for all staff as it responds to feedback about time spent on paperwork throughout shifts.
Louise Barnett, managing director at Renaissance Care, said:“It is absolutely clear that staff retention and recruitment across the care industry is a massive issue on the back of the pandemic. It comes as no shock that staff, who have had an incredibly difficult two years looking after our most vulnerable in society, would consider changing careers.
“For most organisations, people are at the heart of the business, but within the care sector it is no exaggeration that staff play the most crucial role in ensuring that elderly residents receive care that goes above and beyond, and we see time and time again the difference that our teams make to peoples’ lives.
“Operationally, the care sector has always functioned in a certain way but now, as we begin to recover from the pandemic, it is time to turn it on its head and set a high benchmark for what the industry will look like for years to come. We need to modernise the offering for care staff and ensure that they can remain dedicated to delivering the best quality care while having a work life balance that allows a career around family and personal life.”
Robert Kilgour, executive chairman of Renaissance Care, has been a consistent industry voice throughout the pandemic, calling for more support for care homes across the country.
Last year, he spearheaded a group of the country’s leading care home operators who joined forces to help uncover answers to the many questions around the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland.
Robert Kilgour, executive chairman of Renaissance Care, said:“The last two years have been an incredibly tough time for residents, families and hard-working team members in care homes across the country and it is important to us that we provide the best possible care and facilities for our people.
“Despite all that we have been through since the start of the pandemic, we remain very positive about the direction of the business and at the heart of our plans for recovery is our people.
“We are investing, developing and working alongside our team, ensuring that we can attract and retain the very best of talent to perpetuate a person-centred approach across each of our homes for staff, as well as residents.”
Renaissance Care has a strong people service strategy which focuses on learning and development for individual staff members, as well as onus on creating a person-centred culture of inclusivity and care.
Researchers call for digital route map to prevent sector being left behind
CARE homes for older people in south-east Scotland are largely run using paper-based management systems, a new study into the sector’s digital readiness has revealed.
Only one in three (35 per cent) used an electronic care management system and only two in five (43 per cent) used an electronic system or software to manage medication.
Most care homes were also dogged by poor connectivity. Only two in five in SE Scotland (42 per cent) described their internet connection as “good” with fast loading of content and no interruptions.
And nearly two thirds (58 per cent) of the care homes which provided information reported that remote electronic access to resident information was not possible for any key health and community-based professionals.
The findings emerged from a study led by Edinburgh Napier researchers working in partnership with the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC).
Funded by the Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) programme, the work was set against a backdrop of Scottish Government proposals for a National Care Service and the related construction of a National Digital Platform.
However, the findings raise question marks about whether care homes are ready for a future in which digital innovation will be key to post-pandemic recovery and improved efficiency in health and social care.
Research lead Lucy Johnston, from Edinburgh Napier’s School of Health & Social Care, said fast connectivity, capacity for data capture and information sharing capabilities were “limited and unevenly dispersed”.
Calling for more support and coordinated resources for the sector, she concluded: “This targeted assessment of data and digital readiness exposes the fragile and insecure foundations of a care home data platform for Scotland.
“The findings confirm that care homes are only in the foothills of what is a complex, vast landscape where the direction of travel is rightly ambitious and therefore uphill and the pace is fast.
“To ensure care homes are not left behind, they require a trusted, well-informed and certain national and local route map, secure ties to the new and developing infrastructures and continued integration of health and social care services.”
The study – Landscape Assessment of Data and Digital Readiness of Scottish Care Homes (LADDeR) – was set up to map current data and digital readiness in terms of connectivity, systems for collecting resident data, and how this information is shared with other care partners.
Carried out from July 2021-January 2022, the LADDeR report drew on information from 55 per cent of the 200 registered residential care homes for older people in Edinburgh, Fife, the Lothians and the Scottish Borders, collected through an online survey, direct contact and additional research.
A third of homes gave the cost of introducing digital systems as a reason why they remain paper-based.
More than two-thirds (69 per cent) which are currently paper-based did plan to introduce electronic care management systems in the next 12 months, but these were overwhelming privately rather than local authority-owned.
The study suggested that what will primarily drive increases in digital capabilities may be the investment decisions of larger group providers.
Professor Bruce Guthrie, Director of the ACRC, added: “Improving access to, and making better use of, data is a core aim of what we are trying to achieve at the ACRC.
“COVID-19 brutally exposed how invisible care home residents are in data, and supporting the care home sector to develop their digital capacity is an important step in meeting this aim, which will, in turn, lead to improvements for care home residents.
“This study helpfully illustrates the scale of the challenge in care homes.”
A spokesperson for the DDI programme said: “This report provides an important insight into the care home sector’s challenge in embracing a digital future and we will use its findings in our work to support a more digitally integrated and data-driven health and care sector within SE Scotland and more widely.”
Elderly residents at Renaissance Care have been enjoying their April Fools’ Day as they pranked the nation with their ‘Scotland’s Strongest Pensioner Championships’.
The care home residents had a blast taking photos during fake training exercises inspired by the World’s Strongest Man competition, as they were pictured working towards personal goals and bests in the famous Vehicle Pull, the Hercules Hold and a variety of deadlifting challenges.
The residents have been taking part in Summer and Winter Olympics initiatives across the group, which improved the health and wellbeing of residents and saw them get competitive across the sports.
For April Fools’ Day, they felt the perfect joke would be to take that one step further to find Scotland’s Strongest Pensioner.
Care home resident Robert (81) took part in the joke and was photographed at Renaissance Care’s Whitecraigs Care Home. ‘Rob Roy’ said: “We had a great laugh lifting the fake weights and pretending to pull the mini-van along.
“We have all been really competitive and have been joking about who has been the best at the Olympic games and who is the strongest so wanted to have a little fun for April Fools’ Day!”
