Exact Workforce

We are now a framework agency!

Congratulations to the Exact Workforce team on recently being awarded the Workforce Alliance RM6281 framework. We now have access to beneficiary hospitals countrywide and are on a full scale nursing recruitment drive.

Our mission is quite simple. We aim to support every beneficiary to reduce staffing gaps by supplying nurses at framework rates with quality and compliance as the core of our service. https://www.e-wf.co.uk/employers

We are on a full recruitment drive and onboarding experienced registered nurses who are passionate about their jobs and would like to make a difference. https://www.e-wf.co.uk/candidates

We are looking forward to working with you!

Vacancy: Social Worker - Discharge to assess
Term: Temp/Full time
Pay: £172 per day PAYE OR £187 per day Umbrella
Location: Colchester
Hours: 37hrs a week
Working style: Community based

Please email CV to [email protected]
or ring 020 344 20079

About the Role

Working to support adults, and their families, who have complex social needs and are more vulnerable as a result of disability, exclusion, or diminished capacity, you’ll maximise their potential to live independently. You’ll share ideas and best practice, providing specialist advice as part of a multi-disciplinary team sharing your knowledge as a Social Worker.

This is a chance for an experienced Social Worker to take a step forward in their career or to expand their knowledge and experience in working within a Discharge To Assess Model. This model of practice is ever evolving and developing and as a member within the team you will be an influencer of change and progression. You will be supporting adults who have recently been discharged from hospital or supporting them to prevent an admission into hospital. The ethos being to support Adults to leave hospital, when safe and appropriate to do so, and continuing their care and assessment out of hospital.

Wherever possible Adults will be supported to return to their home for assessment. Your support will be focussed on enabling adults to remain as independent and self-caring as possible in their own homes. However, some Adults may have been discharged to a temporary care home environment to aid their recovery and for a period of assessment to be able to identify their short- or long-term care and support needs. You will be working in collaboration with health care professionals and care providers using a multi – disciplinary approach to ensure the adults receive the right support at the right time.

Please note that the team operate on a 7 day rota and you will be required to work 1 weekend in 6 along with a share of public holidays.

JCVI to announce new recommendations for vaccinating younger children

The UK’s vaccines watchdog is set to announce new recommendations for vaccinating younger children later on Friday, after a long and complex evaluation.

The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) made its decision last week, and a formal announcement is due on Friday afternoon.

Thus far, only clinically vulnerable children in the five to 11 age group have been offered vaccinations, a decision made in December.

It is not known whether the JCVI has recommended this cohort be expanded, and if so how widely. Decisions over vaccinating younger children are complex, not least because very few of them become seriously ill with Covid. Many primary-age children have also had the virus recently, with the emergence of the Omicron variant.

The JCVI’s remit allows it only to consider the net benefits to those receiving a vaccine, not wider factors such as reducing transmission. In September it said it could not recommend Covid vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds, instead suggesting ministers seek wider advice.

The JCVI is entirely independent and makes only recommendations. It is up to health ministers in each of the four UK nations to decide if they will accept them, and so far in Covid they always have.

Source: The Guardian

Government announces plan to tackle elective care backlog

The government has set out its plan for tackling the backlog in elective care arising from the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, 600 people waited longer than a year for elective care, the health secretary Sajid Javid said in a statement to parliament.

That figure is now over 300,000. The government’s plans include establishing 160 community diagnostic centres along with surgical hubs focused on high-volume routine surgery away from major hospital sites.

Follow-up appointments will be arranged on a case-by-case basis, rather than being automatic for all patients. A new online service, My Planned Care, will inform patients about waiting times and how to prepare for treatment.

Javid said the steps would enable the NHS to perform at least nine million extra tests, checks and procedures by 2025 and 30% more elective activity every year than before the pandemic.

He promised that waits of longer than a year would be eliminated by 2025.

Source: Future Care Capital

Wales announces scrapping of COVID passes and face coverings in certain venues

The news comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the last domestic restrictions in England - including the requirement to isolate if you test positive - are likely to be lifted later this month.

From 18 February, domestic COVID passes will no longer be required to enter indoor or outdoor events including nightclubs, cinemas, or theatres.

But venues will still be able to use them if they choose to.

From Monday 28 February, face coverings will no longer be needed in most public places, including gyms, cinemas, and churches.

They will still be required in all shops, public transport, and health and care settings.

The Welsh government will confirm the changes on Friday during the first three-week review of the country's coronavirus measures.

Anyone who tests positive with COVID-19 will still have to remain at home for five days and have a negative lateral flow test on days five and six.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said vaccination levels and decreasing infection rates mean the country can "look forward to brighter times ahead" as it moves beyond "the emergency footing on which we have been operating for nearly two years".

Source: Sky News

NHS COVID backlog 'unlikely to be cleared before next election'

Analysis of NHS data by the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the health service will not be able to clear patient waiting backlogs cause by COVID before the next general election.

The next vote is due to take place in May 2024.

The IFS analysis outlines three scenarios which account for the targeted expansion of elective NHS services by around a third.

In the first, "plan low" scenario, it is assumed 30% of patients who missed care return to the NHS. The plan middle assumes 50%, and the plan high 80%.

All of these show an increase in people waiting, and none falling below pre-pandemic levels before May 2024.

A fourth, "pre-pandemic status quo", scenario assumes no increase in NHS capacity, but no return of patients who missed care.

This shows only an increase in waiting patients.

Source: Sky News

Nurse staffing across the UK ‘now well past the point of crisis’

The Royal College of Nursing is calling for “decisive action” to grow the numbers of nurses being trained in the UK, in order to protect patient safety.

The college is making the demands on ministers as part of a new report it has published today laying out analysis it has carried out into the “state of the nation’s nursing labour market”.

The report warns that nurse shortages were a serious problem even before the pandemic, highlighting data from a survey the RCN conducted with nursing staff in January 2020.

Of those polled, 73% said staffing levels on their last shift were insufficient to meet the needs of patients safely and effectively.

However, one in five (19%) said they felt unable to raise their concerns about staffing levels and patient care, reflecting findings of a Nursing Times investigation carried out at the end of last year.

The new report from the RCN said Covid-19 had “highlighted and exacerbated” issues around recruitment and retention and raised fear that the situation would worsen further in the near future.

Issues highlighted by the college’s analysis included an ageing nursing workforce, an “over-reliance” on overseas recruits, and a rise in the number of nurses leaving the register.

The report found:

One in five UK nursing registrants, as of September 2021, were aged 56 or over and due to retire in the next few years;

The recent increase in the number of student nurses “does not reflect the size of sustained increase to nursing supply needed”;

Only 56% of new people joining the UK nursing register in 2021 were educated and trained in the UK, indicating a "sustained over-reliance on international workforce";

In 2020, 24,142 registrants left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register, compared to 26,863 in 2021 - an increase of 11.3%.

The report noted how, prior to 2021, the number of people leaving the NMC register had been decreasing year on year.

Source: Nursing Times

Antibodies against coronavirus (COVID-19)

The presence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 suggests that a person has previously had COVID-19 infection or been vaccinated.

An estimated 98.1% of the adult population in England, 97.7% in Wales, 98.7% in Northern Ireland and 98.3% in Scotland tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies in the week beginning 10 January 2022.

The percentage of adults who reported they have received three or more COVID-19 vaccinations has increased rapidly since September 2021. Estimates show that 82.1% of adults had three vaccine doses in England, 73.9% in Wales, 70.4% in Northern Ireland and 74.4% in Scotland in the week beginning 10 January 2022. These vaccination estimates will differ from daily official government figures, which are actual numbers of vaccines recorded.

Testing negative means that an individual did not have enough antibodies to be detected in the test, not that they do not have any immune protection against the virus.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Covid isolation rule changes - when they'll be scrapped and can employers force you to work?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced he intends to scrap rules and regulations surrounding Covid-19 earlier than originally planned.

In an announcement to parliament, Johnson said that the new plan would see the schedule for axing years of restrictions moved forward dramatically.

Under the upcoming changes all Covid rules, including the need to self-isolate, will be struck off in England.

The move comes as the government seeks to enter a new phase of endemicity as the country gears up to 'living with Covid'.

People will be advised not to go to work if they pick up the virus, Downing Street has confirmed. However, without the force of the government-backed rules or fines system, the door is open for employers to ask staff to work even when they're unwell.

The government has likened future advice for going to work with the virus to that of other infectious diseases.

A spokesperson for the PM, when asked if people would be able to go to work with Covid, said: "So there would be guidance, that would not be what we are recommending.

"What we would simply be doing is removing the domestic regulations which relate to isolation.

"But obviously in the same way that someone with flu, we wouldn't recommend they go to work, we would never recommend anyone goes to work when they have an infectious disease."

He continued: "We've talked about how we will need to manage living with coronavirus as we emerge from this pandemic. We are entering into that phase of endemicity as I've talked about, and it's only right that we adjust according."'

Source: Mirror

Downing Street says it will never recommend anyone go to work when they are infectious

Downing Street has said it would never recommend people go to work if they have an infectious disease - after Boris Johnson suggested laws requiring people in England who test positive for COVID to self-isolate could be lifted within weeks.

Asked if the change would mean people could go to work if they had COVID, the PM's official spokesperson said: "So there would be guidance, that would not be what we are recommending.

"What we would simply be doing is removing the domestic regulations which relate to isolation.

"But obviously in the same way that someone with flu, we wouldn't recommend they go to work, we would never recommend anyone goes to work when they have an infectious disease."

He added: "We've talked about how we will need to manage living with coronavirus as we emerge from this pandemic. We are entering into that phase of endemicity as I've talked about, and it's only right that we adjust according."

Source: Sky News