Coronavirus (COVID-19) Special Brief - 16 March 2020

Welcome to the VDG special Coronavirus (COVID-19) brief. Below you will find a roundup of the most up-to-date guidance from the government, regulators, and sector experts, as well as a range of resources that may be helpful within your organisation.

The situation is changing at great pace. We will continue to monitor communications and materials being disseminated from these sources, as well as gather intelligence through our involvement in the Care Provider Alliance and via our relationships with key stakeholders and across government.

We will communicate updates and new information as it arises via this special briefing, which we will issue on a rolling basis. Included content will be the latest available and will not feature repeated content, unless it is an updated version. In this way, we can ensure we are providing you with the most up-to-date information, guidance and resources. Earlier issues of this brief will be available on our website along with other key resources.

We are also establishing a virtual hub for members to come together and identify key issues, actions and responses. This 'Keeping in touch' meeting will be held online on Wednesday 18 March from 11.30 until 13.00 and will also enable us to collectively identify topics for representation or action by VODG (e.g. across government departments, regulators, etc). Registration is open here.

Finally, we are working across the sector to co-ordinate responses, questions and intelligence. Please do not hesitate to contact [email protected] with any issues.

• VODG is working as part of the Care Provider Alliance as part of a national co-ordinated response.
• Department of Health and Social Care guidance was published on Friday. This is high level and may raise further questions for members.
• NHS England and NHS Improvement guidance is forthcoming. The message here is that "members may wish to engage with NHS organisations in their area now, while we encourage the NHS to reach out. There will be nothing from NHS England which dictates what that engagement should look like. Every location will be different."
• Members may wish to connect and engage with Local Resilience Forums.
• Members may wish to note the Voluntary Sector Emergencies Partnership and the single point of contact for the public when there is a serious incident or emergency. (This number will be free to call and promoted as soon as an emergency is declared.)
• All feedback, please email [email protected]

VODG is in regular contact with CQC in relation to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the CQC's review of its approach to the carrying out of inspections at this time. Providers who may wish to be involved in piloting new approaches (and not resulting in a rating) are invited to contact [email protected] to express an interest.

On 11 March, CQC issued the following statement from chief executive, Ian Trenholm.  “CQC inspection and regulation activity will continue. However, we will be adapting our standard inspection approach – adopting a targeted risk based approach to direct our efforts at areas of specific safety concern – this means that planned inspections of services may well be postponed. Clinically qualified CQC special advisors are already being supported to return to the frontline to help with the wider national response. “We are very conscious of balancing the need for public reassurance with our impact on health and social care providers and will be focused on working with providers to ensure that they are supported to keep people safe while the health and care system faces a period of considerable pressure. As the regulator with unique oversight of the NHS and social care, we will maintain our role in keeping patients and service users safe as people continue to access care in difficult circumstances, provide assurance to Government and Parliament that health and social care services are safe, and ensure that patient safety is being monitored during the period of the COVID-19 outbreak." On 4 March, CQC wrote to every registered care provider in England setting out its response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The full text of this letter can be found here.