Colleagues at Beckside care home in Lincolnshire and across The Orders of St John Care Trust were delighted to host an unexpected virtual visit from Minister for Care Helen Whately.

The minister congratulated Beckside home manager Andrea Brooks and her team for being among the first care homes in the country to start the vaccination programme. She also added admiration that almost 90 per cent of colleagues at Beckside have been vaccinated within 48 hours of the vaccine becoming available.

Ms Whatley said: “It’s important to speak to the people working in the care homes and to thank them for their work. They have been doing a brilliant job day-in, day-out caring for those residents and it has been a long haul.”

Andrea added: “It was a pleasure to be able to have a chat with the minister who was very interested in how we were getting on. This vaccine has been a real boost for us in the run up to Christmas and is making everybody feel very positive.”

Beckside was just the first home to secure vaccinations and colleagues across Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire are now following suit.

The minister is pictured (bottom left) on the call with home manager Andrea Brooks (bottom right), Operations Director Mike Strdder (top right), and Communications Manager Malcolm Bradbrook

We are pleased to update with positive action around vaccinations among other aspects of tackling the challenge of the pandemic.

The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT) are 100 per cent focussed on the importance of enabling visits, while keeping everybody who lives in, works at, or visits our care homes as safe as possible during the unprecedented challenge of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccination

The vaccination became available to social care employees on 8 December.

OSJCT homes in Lincolnshire lead the way with 36 from Beckside care home in Lincoln being vaccinated at Lincoln County Hospital. Ten more colleagues are booked in for tomorrow.

Colleagues in Oxford, Henley and Chipping Norton and across Gloucestershie are also booking in for their vaccinations and OSJCT is working closely with local authorities and hospitals to ensure that colleagues in Wiltshire, Sussex and Suffolk have the same opportunity as soon as possible.

Details on how the vaccination will the rolled out to care home residents are expected shortly and OSJCT has pledged to mirror the swift and smooth roll out that we are seeing for employees.

You can read more about that here

Lateral Flow Test pilot in OSJCT homes

The Government has announced that all care homes will be supplied with Lateral Flow Testing kits by 18 December. As at today, very few of our services have received the tests and we will be looking at the training and administration that needs to be applied to implement them. In the meantime, we will be able to use our visitor rooms, as soon as they are ready, by appointment.

We welcome the success of the national pilot of the Lateral Flow Testing. However, no one home is the same, and we must define clear and safe processes which will work in a practical way within each home before we start to use them.

We will shortly be starting a pilot in a small number of our care homes to begin to work out how to administer and manage Lateral Flow tests to visitors in a safe and effective way.

As with any test it will not completely remove the risk of contracting or transmitting COVID-19.

We will update on the progress of this testing as soon as we can. From our pilot we will evaluate the capacity our homes need to be able to undertake the anticipated volume of testing and risk assessments to implement the guidance.

Current Visiting

We have been progressing with the installation of safe visitor rooms in all our homes. The majority of these have been inside the main building home, but where this has not been possible, we have installed specific visiting pods within the grounds or have a risk assessment in place. Many are being completed across our regions this week and the majority will have been completed by the end of next week.

There are two elements of the Tiers that are significant: the tier of the region where the home is situated and the tier of the region where the visitor lives or is travelling from. For example, if the visitor is in Tier 3 then the local rules apply which state: ‘You must not meet socially indoors with anybody you don’t live with. This includes private gardens.’

See below to read Visiting in Care Homes - Guidance in the Absence of Visitor Testing, which includes a comprehensive table indicating where visits can take place.

We have assembled a table 'Visiting in Care Homes - Guidance in the Absence of Visitor Testing' to make this advice as straightforward as we can, see below or click here to open in a new window.

Frontline colleagues in The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT) care homes across the country are booking in for COVID-19 vaccinations.

The vaccination became available to social care employees today (8 December). OSJCT homes in Lincolnshire lead the way with 36 from Beckside care home in Lincoln being vaccinated at Lincoln County Hospital.

Ten more colleagues are booked in for tomorrow. Colleagues in Oxford, Henley and Chipping Norton are also booking in for their vaccinations and Gloucestershire colleagues have bookings available at Redwood Education Centre at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital for all team members. OSJCT is working closely with local authorities and hospitals to ensure that colleagues in Wiltshire, Sussex and Suffolk have the same opportunity as soon as possible.

Details on how the vaccination will the rolled out to care home residents are expected shortly and OSJCT has pledged to mirror the swift and smooth roll out that we are seeing for employees.

Andrea Brooks, Home Manager at Beckside, is pictured having her vaccination this afternoon. She said: “As soon as we were informed that the booking system was live, we worked late last night to ensure that we could secure some slots. The response from my colleagues was great with so many willing to get the vaccination on days off or outside working hours because they know this is a great way to keep our residents as safe as possible.

“Having this vaccine available has really brought up spirits in the home – there’s a very positive feeling from all the team.”

Caroline Dunagan, OSJCT Regional Director for Lincolnshire, said: “Throughout the pandemic The Orders of St John Care Trust has taken a leading role in tackling this unprecedented challenge. We have taken part in pilot COVID-19 testing programmes and are now a key participant in the Vivaldi 2 study which seeks to determine how our antibodies react to the virus over time.

“Vaccination presents the best way forward to return to normality in our homes and we will continue to support all residents and colleagues in getting access to it.”

Patsy Just, OSJCT Regional Director for Oxfordshire, added: “It is excellent news that colleagues across the county are securing bookings so early in the process. Their commitment and skill have been inspiring for the past nine months.”

Thank you again for your patience while we work through the latest Government guidance following the second lockdown and determine exactly what it means for care home residents, their families and loved ones.

All colleagues across The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT) are 100 per cent focussed on the importance of enabling visits, while keeping everybody who lives in, works at, or visits our care homes as safe as possible during the unprecedented challenge of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Lateral Flow Test pilot in OSJCT homes

The Government has announced that all care homes will be supplied with Lateral Flow Testing kits by 18 December. As at today, very few of our services have received the tests and we will be looking at the training and administration that needs to be applied to implement them. In the meantime, we will be able to use our visitor rooms, as soon as they are ready, by appointment.

We welcome the success of the national pilot of the Lateral Flow Testing. However, no one home is the same, and we must define clear and safe processes which will work in a practical way within each home before we start to use them.

We will shortly be starting a pilot in a small number of our care homes to begin to work out how to administer and manage Lateral Flow tests to visitors in a safe and effective way.

As with any test it will not completely remove the risk of contracting or transmitting COVID-19.

We will update on the progress of this testing as soon as we can. From our pilot we will evaluate the capacity our homes need to be able to undertake the anticipated volume of testing and risk assessments to implement the guidance.

Current Visiting

We have been progressing with the installation of safe visitor rooms in all our homes. The majority of these have been inside the main building home, but where this has not been possible, we have installed specific visiting pods within the grounds or have a risk assessment in place. Many are being completed across our regions this week and the majority will have been completed by the end of next week.

There are two elements of the Tiers that are significant: the tier of the region where the home is situated and the tier of the region where the visitor lives or is travelling from. For example, if the visitor is in Tier 3 then the local rules apply which state: ‘You must not meet socially indoors with anybody you don’t live with. This includes private gardens.’

See below to read Visiting in Care Homes - Guidance in the Absence of Visitor Testing, which includes a comprehensive table indicating where visits can take place.

We have assembled a table 'Visiting in Care Homes - Guidance in the Absence of Visitor Testing' to make this advice as straightforward as we can, see below or click here to open in a new window.

Thank you again for your patience while we work through the latest Government guidance following the second lockdown and determine exactly what it means for care home residents and their families and loved ones.

All colleagues across The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT) are 100 per cent focussed on the importance of enabling visits, while keeping everybody who lives in, works at, or visits our care homes as safe as possible during the unprecedented challenge of the global COVID19 pandemic.

Testing for visitors to care homes

We are aware that mass testing for potential care home visitors has been announced by the Government. This new test is known as a Lateral Flow Test and results can be known within 30 minutes. As with any test it will not completely remove the risk of contracting or transmitting COVID-19. OSJCT welcomes any opportunity to bring our residents and their loved ones more contact after what has been a very difficult nine months for everybody.

However, we must make sure that all processes and checks are in place before rolling out this testing procedure. The first stage of that is to contact all our Local Authorities/Public Health colleagues in areas where we have care homes to ensure that they support this new testing. We will update on the progress of this testing as soon as we can as in tandem we are evaluating the impact on our homes to be able to undertake the volume of testing and risk assessments to implement the guidance.

From today, the England-wide lockdown will end, and the new tiered system will be introduced. The tiers have changed since before the lockdown, so we were unable to revert to previous procedures.

During lockdown we have been significantly progressing a project to install safe visitor rooms in all our homes. The majority of these have been inside the main building home, but where this has not been possible, we have installed specific visiting pods within the grounds or have a risk assessment in place. Many are being completed across our regions this week and the majority will have been completed by the end of next week.

There are two elements of the Tiers that are significant: the tier of the region where the home is situated and the tier of the region where the visitor lives or is travelling from. For example, if the visitor is in Tier 3 then the local rules apply which state: ‘You must not meet socially indoors with anybody you don’t live with. This includes private garden’.

We have assembled a table 'Visiting in Care Homes - Guidance in the Absence of Visitor Testing' to make this advice as straightforward as we can, see below or click here to open in a new window.

Christmas Visiting

We have also been examining the guidance for specific details on Christmas visiting and will publish an update by the end of the week.

We would like to thank you again for your patience, understanding and support during these incredibly different times. Everything we do is carried out with the welfare of residents, their families, and colleagues as our main priority and working with you to help steer a course through these challenges is hugely appreciate by everyone at the OSJCT family.

Thank you again for your patience while we work through the latest Government guidance following the second lockdown, and determine exactly what it means for care home residents and their families and loved ones.

All colleagues across The Orders of St John Care Trust are 100 per cent focussed on the importance of enabling visits, while keeping everybody who lives in, works at, or visits our care homes as safe as possible during the unprecedented challenge of the global COVID19 pandemic.

We are working with Government and research bodies to ensure that testing for visitors will be available soon and once the detail is received, we will review and update our visitor guidance accordingly.

From tomorrow, the England-wide lockdown will end, and the new tiered system will be introduced. The tiers have changed since before the lockdown, so we were unable to revert to previous procedures.

During lockdown we have been significantly progressing a project to install safe visitor rooms in all our homes. The majority of these have been inside the main building home, but where this has not been possible, we have installed specific visiting pods within the grounds or have a risk assessment in place. Many are being completed across our regions this week and the majority will have been completed by the end of next week.

There are two Tiers that are significant: the tier of the region where the home is situated and the tier of the region where the visitor lives or is travelling from. For example, if the visitor is in Tier 3 then the local rules apply which state: ‘You must not meet socially indoors with anybody you don’t live with. This includes private garden’.

We have assembled a chart to make this advice as straightforward as we can.

Christmas Visiting

We have also been examining the guidance for specific details on Christmas visiting and will publish an update by the end of the week.

Research has proven that a room ventilated with fresh air can reduce the risk of infection from particles by more than 70 per cent.

The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT) has made fresh air ventilation a key element in the creation of new visitor rooms at all of our 66 care homes across the country.

The Government has released a video to support the importance of ventilation as part of wider ‘Hands. Face. Space’ guidance.

The film, which will be shown across social and digital advertising in England, illustrates how coronavirus lingers in the air in spaces with no fresh air, increasing the risk of people breathing in infected particles.

HFS2_FINAL_16-9_Subs from The Orders of St John Care Trust on Vimeo.

As we spend more time indoors, experts are recommending that people can open windows for short, sharp bursts of 10 to 15 minutes regularly throughout the day or leave windows open a small amount continuously to remove any infected particles lingering in the room.

Airing indoor spaces is particularly important when:

• people have visitors (when permitted) or tradespeople in their home, for example for construction or emergencies
• someone from a support bubble is meeting with another household indoors
• a care worker is seeing a patient indoors
• someone in the household has the virus, as this can help prevent transmission to other household members

Our visitor rooms are under construction across the country and OSJCT has ensured they are all ventilated with fresh air by means of natural ventilation or by mechanical ventilation where fresh air is drawn in and extracted out.

A new study into antibodies created in people who have recovered from COVID-19 will begin this month with support from The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT).

Residents and employees at 65 homes across OSJCT will join other organisations in participating in the research projects, known as Vivaldi 2, conducted by scientists at University College London (UCL). In total, 14,000 care home residents and staff will be tested quarterly for their immune response to COVID-19.

The purpose of the project is to study if we produce antibodies after suffering COVID-19 and what the implication of those antibodies might be in respect of building up immunity.

The study follows the first Vivaldi project which sought to determine how many care home staff and residents have been infected with COVID-19. This will enable the sector to develop the best approach to COVID-19 testing in the future and data was collected throughout summer and is now being analysed.

Vivaldi 2 will involve three blood samples: an initial sample, a follow-up after six weeks and a further sample at 12 weeks. For those volunteers who have returned a positive COVID-19 test during the process, further samples will be taken after six and 12 months.

Researchers will also have access to NHS information stored at the organisations data store, known as The Foundry.

OSJCT Chief Executive Dan Hayes said: “It’s vitally important that we participate in these studies and support the search for a long-term solution to this unprecedented challenge.

“We are well known for the high-standards of care that colleagues across OSJCT provide. Looking to the future and ensuring that we can return to ‘normality’ is another key element of that.”

Claire Sykes, Senior Project manager, is running the project at the Trust.

She added: “I’m proud to be coordinating the support for this important study on behalf of the Trust.  Our dedicated care home colleagues, despite having unprecedented demands during this pandemic, have risen to the challenge as they always do.”

Minister for Care Helen Whately said: "Expanding this brilliant study, with the support of UCL, is another step towards improving our understanding of the virus.Testing people’s antibody reaction to COVID-19 is crucial in helping us to control the spread of the virus, particularly amongst people who are vulnerable.

"The more we know about this virus and are able to control it, the safer it will be for people in care homes."

Dr Maria Krutikov, Vivaldi Clinical Project Manager a UCL, said: “Participation in the Vivaldi study will help us estimate how many people living and working in care homes have been infected with COVID-19 and learn more about immunity following infection.

“These insights will help Government and the NHS make decisions about vaccination and will also guide decisions around care home testing and the best approaches to protect staff and residents from future infections."

Participation in the project is entirely voluntary, and consent forms from all volunteers form the vital first stage of the process. The professional who will take the blood samples, known as phlebotomists, are trained detect any signs of distress from volunteers and would halt the process in that instance.

The phlebotomists will also wear full PPE through the sample-taking and will be tested for COVID-19 twice a week.

Consent gathering will be carried out during November will blood sample testing beginning in December and continuing for three months.

Ensuring that residents and their loved ones continue to have face-to-face visits while keeping everyone safe and well, continues to be at the forefront of our decision making.

You will be as relieved as we were at the Trust when the government issued guidance late last week that moves back from a blanket ban on visits during lockdown and provides the potential for a resumption of visits.

A key part of the guidance was the approval of the use of specially adapted visiting rooms within homes.  We believe the best way to create these spaces is by making alterations internally to most of our homes, and this will take the form of floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall screens in specific rooms. This will allow both resident and visitor to remove masks and other PPE. 

There may be a very small number of homes where we will have no choice but to have an outdoor purposed visitor pod.

We are keen to proceed immediately but I want to share some context as to why it is taking longer than you might have hoped: 

• We needed to identify a room which has the greatest potential to remain open even if a single household in the home had to be closed due to an outbreak. Even then in some cases we need to build a temporary room.
• Contractors can only go into one care home per day and hence it has taken time for them to scope and quote for the works. 
• The new tiered system in England was introduced but the visitor guidance was not published for several weeks, meaning that we could not make this investment until we knew its use would be permitted

Updated lockdown guidance published by the Government last week required us to consider additional factors: 

• Directors of Public Health in the regions could override the guidance and apply their own directive. We have reached out to gain their position ahead of announcing our protocols.
• Every one of our c.3000 residents needs a documented risk assessment ahead of the visits. 
• Ventilation is required to be considered in more detail, so we have had to revisit the contractors’ plans. 

We are working around the clock to put safe arrangements in place and we thank you for being patient whilst we work through ever changing guidance. You will be notified on 16th November when works are expected to be completed via website. Our current position is:

• There will be no visits for any home in outbreak (where two or more individuals living or working at the home have tested positive in the last 28 days) except for those in end of life care, but the use of iPads for virtual visits will of course be available during the outbreak period.
• Window visits will continue to be allowed and we will look at opportunities for having a location that can be used by those living on all floors.
•  Garden visits will be allowed subject to an individual resident risk assessment to take account of medical and weather conditions.
• Where the permanent indoor room is not available within the next three weeks, we are identifying ground floor locations which will allow the resident to remain inside and we will then aim to install an awning or cover for the family member to be able to sit outside. 

I am sure you will join me in thanking our frontline colleagues who work diligently to put our residents and family members and their colleagues at the heart of everything they do. The way they continue to put the love and support of your loved one and their colleagues foremost is inspiring, especially when managing challenges of the pandemic within their own homes and families.

As a large organisation we have the benefit of being able to organise things from the centre for the benefit for every home and the visitor rooms are one such example. If you have feedback, please direct it to enquiries@osjct.co.uk, leaving our individual homes to spend their time with your loved ones whilst we put these in place.