A presentation providing the Committee with the response by Adult Social Care to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Melissa Wise, Assistant Director of Commissioning, Transformation and Performance, gave a presentation on the response by Adult Social Care to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The presentation explained that the weekly rate of confirmed cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 of the population had increased significantly in Reading during December 2020 and January 2021 and in fact the numbers for Reading had gone slightly beyond what had been seen in south east England and nationally.  On 7 January 2021 there had been 1219 new cases during the previous seven days, with 1040 in the week to 3 January 2021 and 775 in the week to 27 December 2020.  During the first wave of the virus from April to May 2020 deaths had been above what was normal, this had settled to fairly normal levels until recent weeks when it had again increased above the average.  For the period from 1 March 2020 to 1 January 2021 there had been 218 deaths due to Covid-19, which was 27% higher than would be expected for the year to date, 60% of deaths had occurred in hospital and 32% in care homes. 

Adult Social Care had played a key role during the pandemic and had provided support for service users, hospitals, the provider market and staff.  Currently, the service was supporting 1,800 people with services and 570 carers and dealt with 600 pieces of work a month and during the pandemic it continued to provide support such as the overnight service, day services and other services that had re-opened once guidelines allowed.  Support was also provided for a new cohort of people, those who were deemed to be Clinically Extremely Vulnerable, there were 6,000 people in this group, 350 of whom were know to the service.  The team had worked proactively with providers to help services users and had worked with officers in Housing to help people remain safely in their homes; 1,000 pieces of equipment had been installed in homes to allow this to happen.  To support hospitals work had been carried out to avoid hospital admissions, hospital discharges had been fast-tracked and new packages of care had been organised to get people home.  With regard to discharges, a block of 10 beds had been provided for those who needed nursing services so could not return home or were waiting for a place in a care home; 67 people had been supported by this service.  In addition, a block of 20 rooms had been provided in a dedicated section of the Holiday Inn for people who were ready to leave hospital but who could not return home.  This had provided support for 19 people and had saved 90 bed days in hospital in the current wave and 162 days in the first wave of the pandemic.  The service had been contacted by a number of authorities across the country wishing to duplicate this model.

Providers had also been supported with regular communications, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic when changes were happening on a daily basis, which meant that they could continue to focus on providing care.  The service had also led a recruitment campaign on behalf of providers, dispelling myths about working in care, financial support had also been provided so that they could remain sustainable; a lot of people had been fearful of losing care services.  There had been difficulties in sourcing Personal Protective Equipment at the beginning of the pandemic, but this was now being managed by a central portal. 

By Easter 2020 the service had been able to provide testing and had been involved in a pilot scheme in October 2020 mobilising testing in different settings.  A lot of time had also been spent managing questions around testing.  Currently, staff needed to be tested twice a week which meant a huge amount of administrative support was required.  Early access to vaccinations had been provided and the service had arranged for 150 staff from Reading based providers and Adult Social Care staff to receive a vaccine in early December 2020.  Vaccinations were now being rolled out to all Adult Social Care staff with 600 having been vaccinated to date, work was also being carried out to dispel myths around the vaccine. 

Finally, the presentation set out some quotes from staff on how working during the pandemic had been for them, what was different about working during this time and what had been learnt.

Resolved –

(1)         That Melissa Wise be thanked and the presentation noted;

(2)     That all staff in Adult Social Care be thanked for their dedication in working with the most vulnerable members of the community during the Covid-19 pandemic.