Starwrick Care -Home Care

05/05/2025

05/05/2025

One in two of us will be affected by dementia in our lifetime – whether by caring for someone with the diagnosis, developing it ourselves, or both.

If you are caring for a person with dementia or have recently been diagnosed, this free online session will help you understand the condition and the next steps you could take. We will explore:

🧠 the types of dementia
✅ common symptoms
😀 maintaining wellbeing
💊 medication

Sign up now for our sessions in May: https://www.dementiauk.org/information-and-support/how-we-can-support-you/dementia-what-next/?utm_campaign=webinar24&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

05/10/2024

Note that , Starwrick care is not currently recruiting staff from Overseas.
Someone has just contacted us to confirm if a COS was from us, which wasn't. Beware of scammers.

27/06/2024

If you or others feel dizzy, weak, sick or are intensely thirsty during hot weather, this may be heat exhaustion. Move to a cool place, rehydrate and cool your body down.

22/05/2024

20/05/2024

Here are some simple actions you can take to help protect yourself and others from tick bites, so you can enjoy being outside 🌳🌻🌼🚶‍♂️
More info: https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/21/what-is-lyme-disease-and-why-do-we-need-to-be-tick-aware/

14/04/2024

TOP 20 TIPS FOR TENDER COMPLETION

Some advice for those who complete or are looking to complete tenders in the future. This list is based on our collective experience of common oversights in submissions, but is by no means comprehensive.

1.Read the whole documentation - it is important you understand all the schedules and how the tender is structured particularly in terms of any pricing v quality weighting

2.Only apply for the tenders you are eligible to apply for, you will be wasting valuable time and costs otherwise

3.Sign up to the relevant portals to be alerted of opportunities, attend any prior engagement events that may be held

4.Declining any opportunity to tender will not influence any future submissions, but your ability to not deliver most certainly will. Do not apply for anything and everything

5.Make full use of the clarification stage to ask any questions you may have

6.Pay attention to the detail, for example stick to the word counts, anything above the word count will be rejected or redacted. Avoid waffle, as you are losing valuable words

7.Do not cross reference questions, depending on the tender this may not be allowed

8.Read the specification and what the commissioner wants, you will be delivering against this so it is important your responses reference this

9.Read the question! Sounds simple but answer what is being asked not what you think the question is saying

10.Use the right language and style when answering questions.

11.Have someone read over the response, preferably someone who has a good grasp of language and knows about the subject in question. A fresh pair of eyes means there is a higher chance to pick up any issues

12.Seek support where required, it is not easy completing tenders particularly if you do not know how they work or haven't done them before. Though commissioning authorities do try to make it as easy as possible, they must still test that as a provider you are competent

13.Plan ahead, don't leave submissions for the last minute, if you have technical issues it is your responsibility

14.Ensure you understand and have all the documents that need to be submitted including any pricing structures

15.Do not use additional documents that are not requested in the submission. They will not be read

16.Do not simply lift from any promotional material - any responses must be tailored specifically to the requirements

17.Even if you have been delivering services for the commissioning authority do not assume that this will be taken into account. Commissioners cannot use prior knowledge and must only award based on information and evidence that is submitted in the tender, if its not there it might as well not exist

18.Do not lie, if you are not able to do something you will be found out. Some local authorities build in presentations with submitters to go through the responses

19.If you are not sucessful, ask for feedback and read this for accuracy. Make sure you agree to this or use the appropriate channels if this is not the case

20.Implement the feedback straightaway and do not wait until the next opportunity, it may be sooner than you think

These are just some of the common shortfalls that tenders have, it is by no means an exhaustive list and there is so much more to consider.

We hope this helps, if you need more specific support please inbox.

14/04/2024

TENDERS AND PROCUREMENTS

Some helpful advice on procurements and tenders for providers to consider before applying for tenders but once you have identified a suitable opportunity.

*Is the tender opportunity a DPS or a closed framework (i.e if unsuccessful you can apply again after a certain time or you can only apply within a limited window).

It may be something you choose to do yourself given you may have the opportunity to resubmit or you may wish to get some assistance due to not having insufficient time or knowledge.

*Tender processes (in a nutshell) are not designed to catch providers out, but to make sure there is competition in securing the best quality at the best value for money. Providers are tested to make sure they can deliver the service in line with the specification.

We recommend you should

*Start by printing all documents- it's much easier to work through them this way than online.

*Read and highlight everything that's important for you. It will also help you understand it all which as a business owner is essential.

*Find the standard selection questionnaire, where providers have to self declare against list of mandatory and discretionary exclusions that have been set out in the regulations. Ensure you meet these and use clarification period as appropriate

*Have a look at the commissioning authority requirements usually in the invitation to tender but may also be in other parts, do they expect you to meet other certain criteria before you can apply that's not part of the above, for example, local office, cqc rating, references from other commissioning authorities as evidence of work delivered etc.

*Make sure you read all the documents especially the service specification. You will have to deliver this and will be assessed against this.

*If you are not good at working through large documents, pay someone who is to summarise the opportunity including the points raised here. A few hundred pounds is better spent doing this than a few thousand wasted and being thrown out at the first round.

*If you are unsure of anything, any procurement will have a clarification period that you can use to ask questions to the commissioning authority.

*Make sure you are signed up for alerts and more importantly you check all messages, tender documents once published can change during the procurement process, or certain parts clarified and you will be informed if this happens.

*Tenders usually have a pricing and a quality aspect and the documents make clear any weighting of these elements to any final score. Providers usually have to specify the pricing and this may be within a range or the commissioning authority may declare the rate. Make sure you understand this, each element may have a minimum acceptable threshold, or that threshold may be based on the weighted average of both.

*Tender opportunities provide successful providers access to call offs that follow. There may still be an opportunity for competition at call off stage.

Being on a framework or DPS does not therfore guarantee you any work. And you do not have to be on these to get work as well (you'll get your head around this statement if you read it a few times !).

*Being part of a "select group" can be very lucrative for providers with contract values being in the tens of millions, hence if you choose not to do it yourself it is worth the investment with the right consultant/company. But make sure you understand what's being written and can back it all up.

*Try to ensure that whoever is helping you is not also submitting the same tender for 10 other companies in the area where the responses to quality questions are identical.....(we've seen it happen). This is why some can charge very low rates. It undermines your credibility.

*Build in some time to read through and check your tender before you submit. Some commissioning authorities may choose to invite providers in for a presentation (hence why reading all documents and understanding is important)

Please also see tips below:
https://www.facebook.com/103655092180015/posts/141484601730397/

Any questions please contact us.

07/04/2024

World Autism and acceptance week runs from the 2nd to the 8th of April.
To celebrate World Autism acceptance week, one of the autistic colleagues, of the National Autistic Society compiled 9 things you should know about autism.

For more information, advice and guidance visit http://bit.ly/40JxfdD

15/03/2024

The Good and Outstanding inspection toolkit supports you to prepare for your next Care Quality Commission inspection.