Are your carers properly trained?

Everybody who joins our award-winning team completes a comprehensive 5-day induction course followed by ‘on-the-job’ shadowing of experienced members of our team in the community. Our induction course is delivered by our in-house training team covering everything from the basic health and social care qualification – The Care Certificate – to specialist areas such as medication management, moving & handling, dementia and Parkinson’s. The course has been designed to be informative, interactive and engaging, ensuring that all members of our team are highly skilled regardless of their previous experience.

Induction course

Regardless of previous experience, all of our home carers are required to undertake our thorough face-to-face induction programme with assessment.This covers:

  • Understand your role – introduction to the Company, how we work, what we expect, our systems and the individual role. Also covers general policies such as pay, rotas, annual leave, sickness absence and dress code
  • Person centred care – providing care according to our individual clients’ needs, individual client assessments and care plans. Also covers how to support their client to be as independent as possible and manage discomfort, pain or distress
  • Communication – how to communicate effectively with everybody involved in the ‘circle of care’ (the client, family members and friends, colleagues, GPs, nurses etc.), using communication aids and technologies and our Company communication systems
  • Managing information – how we manage and communicate information and documentation
  • Duty of care – our individual responsibilities towards our clients and how we deal with incidents, difficult situations or conflict
  • Privacy and dignity – maintaining privacy and dignity including the delivery of personal care, how to support active participation and enable clients to make their own choices
  • Equality and diversity – how to work in an inclusive way with clients and colleagues, and how you can access help, advice and support
  • Food safety, nutrition and hydration – understanding nutrition and how to deliver a nutritional diet, management of fluids and hydration and how to recognise malnutrition and dehydration
  • Mental capacity and mental health – understanding mental capacity and general mental health conditions
  • Health and safety – our approach to risk assessment and health and safety including fire safety, hazardous substances and accidents
  • Moving and handling – the theory and legislation of supporting clients with moving and handling plus a practical session including the use of specialist equipment (e.g. hoists)
  • First aid – how to deal with accidents and incidents, deliver first aid and basic life support
  • Safeguarding – how to recognise abuse and prevent harm
  • Infection control – how to prevent the spread of infection including using personal protective equipment
  • Your personal development – how we support staff to develop personal goals and improve their skills, knowledge and understanding. This includes how our supervision, appraisal and quality assurance processes work
  • Medication management – accredited course qualifying staff to administer and manage medications to clients in the community
  • Dementia – dementia awareness training and specialist training in association with the Contented Dementia Trust covering introduction to dementia, living with dementia, communication and the SPECAL Photograph Album
  • Parkinson’s – specialist training in association with Parkinson’s UK covering Parkinson’s as a condition and how to live with it

Carer shadowing

Following attending training, home carers are then required to shadow senior colleagues working with clients during which time they are assessed as to their practical abilities. They also have to submit a written assessment ensuring that they have been able to properly understand the information they have been given. Before finally working alone with clients, home carers attend a ‘Safe to Leave Meeting’ with their Home Care Manager at which point a full and final assessment of their competence is carried out. Only after satisfactory completion of this are they assigned to clients.

Ongoing support

The induction process does not stop here. During the Safe to Leave Meeting each home carer is assigned a mentor who they may contact to discuss questions or concerns on an ongoing basis. The mentor will also carry out a ‘Mentor Meeting’ with the home carer within 4 weeks of their working alone and then carry out an unannounced ‘spot check’ within 3 months. Supervision and appraisals meetings will then take place every 3 months.