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Tuesday 15th September 2026
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The latest news from your Care Association
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You can read our previous newsletters here
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Nominations Closing TOMORROW!
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There’s only 2 days left to nominate for the East Sussex Care Awards 2026. Nominations are closing at midnight on Wednesday 16th September.
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Taking place on Thursday 19th November, the awards celebrate the outstanding individuals and teams working across adult social care in East Sussex.
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We’re especially keen to hear from those who may be eligible for the following categories:
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- Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Nursing
- Ancillary Support
- Excellence in International Recruitment
- Workplace Wellbeing
- Quality Excellence Award
- Outstanding Dementia Care Award
These are just some of the categories available, with 12 awards in total recognising the fantastic range of people and work across the sector.
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Anyone can nominate. Whether you're a colleague, manager, employer, visiting professional, family member, friend, or someone who has received exceptional care, this is your chance to recognise those who go above and beyond.
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Nominated before? Do it again! Every year is a fresh opportunity to celebrate excellence, so previous nominees can be put forward once more.
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Don't leave it until the last minute. Winners will be announced at the East Sussex Care Awards Celebration on Thursday 19th November 2026 at the East Sussex National Golf & Spa Hotel.
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Book Now! Sussex Care Showcase 2026
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Sussex Care Showcase 2026 - Wednesday, 16th September 2026, 9:15am | Hosted by WSPiC / ESPiC | Brighton Racecourse
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Book your place now for the Sussex Care Showcase 2026, bringing together care professionals, sector leaders, suppliers and experts from across Sussex for a day of learning, networking and sharing best practice.
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With the Government announcement, now pausing local re-oganisation in Brighton & Hove and East Sussex, waiting to hear about West Sussex. It is now more important than ever to hear from the three Sussex based Directors of Adult Social Care.
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Alan Sinclair from WSCC, Mark Stainton form ESCC and Steve Hook from BHCC will be joining us at this years Sussex Care Showcase on a Q & A panel to explore what this means for you.
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Questions will include the following topics:
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- Local government reorganisation - what happens next?
- A New NHS landscape for Sussex and Surrey
- A new nation direction for social care
- The provider market - can the system remain sustainable?
- The move from care homes and domiciliary care to integrated neighbourhoods
- What do commissioners need form providers now?
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To make the most of this opportunity and much, much more, visit the Sussex Care Showcase 2026 website for more details.
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Sussex Care Showcase:
SPECIAL OFFER - £20 off Associate Memberships
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If you are attending the Sussex Care Showcase, you can save £20.00 on an ESPiC / BHPiC Associate Membership. The normal cost is £99.00, but we are offering a discount of £20.00 for everyone who signs up during the event - so this means you will only pay £79.00! To see all the benefits of being an Associate Member, please go here
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ESPiC Associate Members Forum - Wednesday, 23rd September 2026, 10:00am – 11:00am | Hosted by ESPiC | Online
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Unfortunately, our planned speaker has had to withdraw, so we won't be able to go ahead with the in-person Safeguarding Adults session as planned. We'll look to reschedule this for a future date and will keep you updated.
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In its place, we'd like to invite you to an online introductory session on the same day: Associate Members Forum — Introduction to the Forum
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This will be a chance for Associate Members to meet one another, share a bit about who you are and what you do, and get a sense of the wider membership network.
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We will also introduce our training offer and explain what's available to you as members.Attendance is free for all ESPiC Associate Members.
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DHSC Get Adult Social Care Data research seeks care home NIs and RMs
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Nominated Individuals and Registered Managers from all care home providers and all small and medium home care providers (with between 11 – 200 people supported) to take part in an interview to discuss DHSC’s new digital service, Get Adult Social Care Data (GASCD).
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GASCD is a new free digital service developed by the government to give CQC-registered care providers and local authorities easier access to robust and relevant insight from different national datasets, to help improve strategic decision-making in adult social care.
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The online interview has a £75 payment to compensate for time spent in an interview (up to one hour).
Interested Nominated individuals and Registered Managers should email GetAdultSocialCareData.team@dhsc.gov.uk including the following details:
• Name of your organisation and your role
• How many people your organisation supports and how many staff you employ (to help us understand the variety of organisations we are interviewing)
• Your availability for an hour interview over the next 4 weeks, starting from 21st August.
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An accident at work? Don’t get caught out
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Accidents are never nice, and no matter how many measures you have in place, sometimes there's just no stopping them. Do you know what to do if one happens, whether it's RIDDOR reportable, or what your accident investigation should include?
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You don't have to work it out alone. Citation's free Health & Safety advice line is here to help, with friendly, practical and confidential guidance that puts your business first.
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Call 0161 504 0843 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday and don’t forget to quote “ESPiC & BHPiC” when you call.
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Free live demo: see what CareLineLive can do for you
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Fancy getting to know our commercial partner, CareLineLive by Evaran, a little better? They're running a free, no-commitment Snapshot demo for home care providers of all sizes, including a look at the latest feature enhancements: PRN Medication, Interactive eMAR and Body Maps.
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Just 40 minutes, Thursday 17th September at 1pm, where you simply watch, no need to speak or prepare anything, just grab your lunch and join.
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Whatever stage your organisation is at, there's something in it for you: whether you want to see how much simpler and faster day-to-day care management can be, standardise what's already working across sites or get the governance and data that supports board-level decisions.
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They'll also introduce MOA, their compliance feature, included with every CareLineLive subscription at no extra cost, so care management and compliance sit under one roof.
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Myley: Making memories one tour at a time
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Myley provides fully managed resident outings that create joy, connection and activity for people living in care homes.
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We know how valuable trips out can be for residents, but we also know they can be difficult for homes to organise consistently. Planning, transport, staffing, risk assessments and accessibility can all become barriers, especially when care homes rely on expensive minibuses or community transport that isn’t always available, accessible or reliable.
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This is where Myley can help.
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Myley takes care of the planning, coordination and logistics, so that care teams can focus on what matters most: supporting residents to enjoy safe, meaningful days out and create lasting memories.
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From start to finish, Myley provides a fully managed service designed around the needs of care homes and their residents.
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· Fully accessible transport brought to your care home
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· Expert Tour Leaders who handle driving, boarding and support throughout the day
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· Fully managed outings from start to finish, so that every detail is handled
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· Flexible experiences tailored to your home and residents
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· Impact reporting which is great evidence for CQC
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· Marketing pack including posters to help promote
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Whether residents are visiting their favourite local place, reconnecting with the community or experiencing something new, Myley helps make regular trips possible again.
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“All the hard work is taken out of it for us.” – The Oaks Care Home, Sandstone Care
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Let us take care of the logistics, so you can focus on making memories.
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Gold Member Offer: Myley is offering 10 free trips to care settings in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex. To be in with a chance of winning, please contact membership@espic.co.uk for a link to sign up.
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Have Your Say:
Delegation of Healthcare Tasks Survey
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Does your service support people with healthcare tasks — and are the arrangements for training, sign-off and ongoing clinical support always clear? If this sounds familiar, we need to hear from you.
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This survey is for care providers across East Sussex and Brighton & Hove. It will help us understand which healthcare tasks care teams support, how delegation works in practice, what support is available, and what works well or causes difficulty.
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Delegation means a registered healthcare professional formally passing a healthcare task to a care worker, with suitable training, competency assessment and ongoing support.
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This is not an inspection, and there are no right or wrong answers. Whether your arrangements are well established, still developing or difficult to access, we want to know what really happens in your service.
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Responses will be analysed together to identify common strengths, gaps and priorities, supporting discussions and practical action with health, local authority and care-sector partners.
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Where possible, please complete one response per service, or for a group of services with broadly similar service types, CQC-regulated activities and healthcare arrangements. Where these differ substantially, separate responses will give a more accurate picture.
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Autumn Conference — International Recruitment, Workforce Development and Compliance
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Autumn Conference — International Recruitment, Workforce Development and Compliance - Wednesday, 21st October 2026, 9:30am | Hosted by ESPiC | East Sussex National Hotel, Uckfield
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We're launching our new Autumn Conference in response to high demand for guidance on international recruitment, workforce development and compliance — three of the biggest pressure points facing providers right now. Supported by SESCA, the day offers a rare line-up of expertise under one roof, with confirmed speakers including:
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- Erica Lockhart, Chair, SESCA
- Edward O'Brien, immigration expert, Lester Aldridge
- HR specialists from Citation
- Immigration advisers from Borderless
- Representatives from UKVI
- Skills for Care
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Whether you're navigating sponsor licence compliance, building a resilient workforce strategy, or trying to keep up with shifting immigration rules, this is a chance to get direct answers from the people who set and interpret the rules — not just another update from the sidelines.
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It's free to attend, and given the topics on the table, we expect places to go quickly!
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The civil penalty for illegal working is now £45,000 per worker for a first breach, £60,000 for a repeat, charged per worker, not per incident. And the penalty follows the missing evidence, not the hiring decision: a check that's completed and recorded correctly gives you a statutory excuse. Get it wrong, and that protection quietly disappears.
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It's easy to get wrong. Physical documents are being phased out, and eVisas and share codes have changed the process.
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Our right to work check checklist takes out the guesswork: step-by-step instructions from share code to recorded result, the mistakes that catch employers out, and ready-to-use templates for keeping proof on file.
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Have Your Say: SESCA Workforce Survey
SESCA wants to hear from social care providers across the South East about workforce issues, workforce reform and recruitment support.
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Your views will help SESCA strengthen its lobbying messages and shape future support and provider schemes. The survey takes around 10 minutes to complete, with an opportunity to share additional comments.
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Your voice matters – please take part and help shape the future of workforce support.
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Sussex care providers are encouraged to apply for the SESCA Displaced Worker Recruitment Support Scheme — supporting providers to recruit experienced displaced international care workers already living in the South East, with funding of up to £6,000 available per worker recruited.
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The latest SESCA International Recruitment Bulletin includes several important updates for adult social care providers across the South East.
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The Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed funding for the International Recruitment Project until 31 March 2027. Providers recruiting displaced international care workers through the scheme can receive up to £1,500 per worker (up to six workers per CQC-registered location), subject to the scheme criteria.
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Important Sponsorship Updates
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Providers are reminded that:
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- Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) allocation requests are currently taking around 12 weeks, so forward planning is essential.
- UKVI compliance activity has increased, with a stronger focus on payroll records, salary thresholds and sponsor duties.
- SESCA can help expedite CoS and visa applications for eligible displaced workers at no cost.
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All CQC-registered adult social care providers in the South East can access a free 30-minute consultation with immigration specialists at Lester Aldridge Solicitors for advice on sponsorship and immigration matters.
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Click here to view our new and updated website with all our Sponsors!
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