In May 2020, the Scottish Government directed Health and Social Care Partnerships to put in place assurance processes to support care homes, therefore the Glasgow City HSCP’s Care Home Nursing Team (CHNT) was developed to provide direct support to Care Homes across Glasgow City in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The CHNT works in partnership with care home managers and staff, Social Work Services, Commissioning, the Care Inspectorate and our colleagues in the NHS Quality & Transformation Team. The CHNT covers all 97 care homes across Glasgow City including our HSCP’s Older People’s Residential Homes.

Since the team was developed during the pandemic, there had been little opportunity for training and development. Through Care Assurance visits and discussions with managers, staff training priorities were identified as being essential to the team’s wellbeing. 

Team leaders quickly listened to Care Home staff and started organising a development event that could be attended by multiple care home team members and would provide an opportunity for staff to meet their peers and share knowledge and experience. 
Following the relaxation of the physical distancing rules the team set up and planned a Carers Development Day. The inaugural Development Day was held on 1 June at Stobhill Hospital. During the event, a variety of topics were covered and interactive sessions were delivered on topics such as palliative care, continence, stress and distress. 

Claire Ireland, Lead Nurse-Care Homes, Glasgow City HSCP Care Home Nursing Team said: “The CHNT has been working incredibly hard since it was established to build relationships and understand how we can work in partnership with and support care home staff. The event created an opportunity to come together, share experiences and develop. We look forward to making the event a regular occurrence.”

The event gave staff the opportunity to meet and interact with one another and the wider teams as well as provide a relaxed environment encouraging staff to raise issues or ask questions to related topics. The staff in attendance contributed throughout the day and reported that they enjoyed the interactive elements of the sessions. Staff said they felt the sessions were informative and gave them the opportunity to reflect on their own practice and the care delivered within their workplace. 

As the Development Days will occur on a regular basis, it is hoped that staff awareness and knowledge will increase which will then have a direct impact on the quality of resident care delivered.