Earlier in October Sarah Burslem, CEO, joined MacIntyre’s monthly Family ‘Let’s Come Together’ meeting.
At the meeting, which was attended by family members of people who draw on MacIntyre’s support from a number of different areas, Sarah took the opportunity to update on two current key areas.
Covid
Over 1,000 people draw on MacIntyre’s support and we employ over 2,000 staff. Over the past few weeks we have seen an average of around 8 new positive cases of Covid each week, predominantly amongst our staff. While we haven’t really changed our protocols around the use of PPE, Infection Control and testing, it is important that we enable those who draw on our support to increase their social interactions and increase access to interests, hobbies and employment situations that are important to them. The group discussed a number of examples where a person’s self-confidence had appeared to dip during the pandemic and how the resumption of activities is so important for confidence and for well-being.
In terms of vaccinations, three people we support in Registered Care have not yet been vaccinated where we have not yet found a way for the person to be happy to be vaccinated. Across all our settings there are 14 people for whom we have lead care responsibility who have not yet been vaccinated.
As many will have read in the press, with effect from 11 November new legislation, passed in July, will be implemented meaning that no one can work in Registered Care unless they have been double-vaccinated. At MacIntyre over 90% of all our teams have been double-vaccinated, but there are a small number of people who, for a variety of reasons, have not yet been vaccinated. If we are unable to achieve a satisfactory solution for those individuals then unfortunately their employment contracts will end on 11 November. Families on the call voiced their support of the vaccination for MacIntyre employees.
Recruitment
Prior to the Covid pandemic there was already a shortage of staff working in adult social care and organisations such as Skills for Care (whose report was published this week The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England (skillsforcare.org.uk) are predicting crisis points over the next decade. We launched several very successful campaigns during the Pandemic and were very successful in attracting people whose employment with MacIntyre will be their first experience of working alongside disabled children and adults. We are delighted with the wave of energy and optimism created by these new recruits and are looking to double our efforts to attract others. We recognise that traditional methods of recruitment and “fishing” from a diminishing pool of care workers will not be sufficient. Sarah confirmed that we have sought external support to help us and shared some of the exciting ideas we are using. We recognise that local knowledge and connectivity is vital, enabling us to start dialogues with local people and to this end Sarah urged any member of the group who can help or who has ideas to get in touch. We want every hour of support to be a good hour and want to attract others to join us to help make that happen for those we support.
Anyone wishing to contact Sarah with any thoughts or comments following this meeting can do so by emailing [javascript protected email address], or via Nicky Payne, Family Engagement Consultant [javascript protected email address]
Would you like to join our family meetings?
If your relative is supported by MacIntyre you are most welcome to join our regular meetings for family members. We currently offer:
- Let's Come Together - a monthly meeting for parents, siblings and carers of the people we support which provides a chance to hear from MacIntyre about what we are doing and plan to do and network with other families
- Meet MacIntyre for Siblings - for siblings of people supported by MacIntyre, who think that in future may be involved in decision-making process
- Time for a Cuppa for families and friends - this is a very informal meeting for families and other people in circle of support
- Brother and Sister Workshop - for young siblings (future dates to be announced)
- MacIntyre Family Charter Workshop - the Charter is a resource that allows everybody to have a true understanding of how we should be working together
Dates of the upcoming events and links to sign up pages are available below.
