How the council is supporting care homes during the pandemic

Bridgend County Borough Council is continuing to provide the staff and residents of local care homes with expert advice and support in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The support, which is being made available to both council homes and privately-run establishments, ranges from help with sourcing vital supplies and recruiting staff to the provision of additional social care and specialist loss and bereavement services.

The council has ensured that each week, independent care providers throughout the county borough have received a delivery of more than 280,000 items of vital PPE supplies in order to keep staff and residents safe, and limit potential exposure to Covid-19.

Acting as the lead organisation, Bridgend County Borough Council has established multi-agency arrangements which have ensured that care homes have not run out of staff during the pandemic, and that services, specialist equipment and additional social care support have all remained available.

Council employees are supporting the rollout and delivery of the vaccination programme, which has been successfully offered to all care homes, while officers from the local authority’s Shared Regulatory Service are continuing to provide expert advice on the prevention and control of infection within care home premises.

Working in close partnership, the council and the National Health Service have also provided integrated teams to directly support the delivery of nursing care within each home.

Staff from the council, the NHS, the health board and a wide range of other agencies are continuing to go the extra mile in helping independent and council-run care homes look after elderly and vulnerable residents, and I would like to acknowledge their efforts and thank them all.

The coronavirus pandemic has of course sadly resulted in a number of people passing away, so the council has also been working to support care home staff in dealing with the impact of living and working in the shadow of Covid-19, and in dealing with the inevitable grief and loss of losing a resident.

One of the unique ways in which the council’s social services team have responded to this is by engaging with a specialist loss and bereavement organisation, and making bespoke, on-line webinars available to provide care home staff with informed, sympathetic support. This service has also been made available to any other residents or relatives who feel that they may benefit from it, and we are continuing to look at other innovative ways in which we can offer meaningful help and support.

Councillor Nicole Burnett, Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help