Skills for care have published a very useful document setting out Training Requirements for care staff. Please click on this link to access it associations/ca_19/Training%20Requirements%20SfC.pdf

 

Domiciliary Care Lone working – Info from Skills for Care

Domiciliary care is an area of work where a large proportion of staff work alone. Whilst the majority of these workers will carry out their care-working role without incident, for some staff there may be times when they have to deal with situations that may cause them distress, fear, injury, pain and very rarely, death.

Serious incidents can lead to poor staff morale, high levels of absenteeism and retention problems which can cost the organisation large sums of money in staff replacement costs, higher insurance premiums, compensation payments and poor company image.

Employers already have a legal duty to maintain the health, safety and welfare of their staff. So to prevent distressing situations from occurring, organisations will need to take additional precautions, over and above their normal health and safety assessments, to ensure that lone workers are at no greater risk than any of their other employees.

Many measures can be taken to ensure the safety of lone workers. This guide available to download below focuses on assessing the risk to staff and putting in place a range of measures to reduce the likelihood of incidents occurring, including making sure that employees also take responsibility for their own personal safety.

The guide links to NVQ Unit HSC223 'Contribute to moving and handling individuals' and HSC360 'Move and position individuals'. However, from 2010 the NVQ units in Health and Social Care (HSC) will be replaced by Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) units in HSC. Those units will be the basis of QCF awards, certificates and diplomas for social care. The QCF units and qualifications are being developed at the same time as the present guide is being published. 

Domiciliary care - lone worker's safety guide (pdf)

 Reference: http://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/developing
_skills/loneworking/lone_working.aspx

    CRB Checks and ISA

We are currently waiting for updated guidance on CRB checks the ISA and Vetting and Barring due to be released January 2011.             

Social care acronyms

Challenging behaviour Policy Version 2

Who fits into the category  - Social Care Workers?
 

Background

In the past it has always been a  clear cut issue deciding who is working in the Social Care Sector but with emerging policy such as the ‘Putting People First’ agenda there has been rapid growth and changes to the make-up of the micro-employer sector within Health and Social Care. At HCPA we have a commitment to work with Hertfordshire people who are within the Social Care sector and we have therefore moved away from simply supporting Residential and Nursing Care Homes, Domicillary Care Services and organisations traditionally offering day care. 

We feel it is important to be clear about who fits into these new care categories and to make it clear that we are happy to work with everyone in our sector working in Hertfordshire. 

‘Micro-employer’

‘Micro-employer’ is an ill-defined term and hence is subject to various degrees of interpretation. It has evolved to be a collective term for different types of organisations, people who use services and businesses that either provide, purchase or deliver services within the social care sector. It actually describes a range of employers with distinct needs and priorities.

This varied group of employers can be classified into five sub-groups:

  • Self-employed workers and carers/ volunteers
  • Micro-provision
  • Direct employers
  • Indirect employers
  • Micro-organisations/ (micro enterprises)  

Self-employed workers and carers/ volunteers

This sub-group defines individuals working in the care sector providing personal care or a support service. They will not be employed by either an organisation or service user; rather they will be working independently on either a paid (i.e. self-employed) or an unpaid basis (i.e. volunteers and carers).  

Micro-provision

This sub-group defines those involved in delivering very small, individualised, community-based services. Often they will be individuals working independently and may not necessarily recognise themselves as being part of the social care sector. However they will be involved in delivering a ‘care or support service’ to service users. E.g. An advice service to help people claim benefits. 

Direct employers

This sub-group includes anyone who is employing staff to provide care or support services for themselves or on behalf of another person for whom the individual has a carer role. Therefore this group includes recipients of direct payments and personal budgets, but also includes those who fund care from other sources (including self-funding), and are using these funds to employ staff directly. By directly employed we mean on a payroll and with a permanent or temporary contract of employment. As a recognised employer they will have a direct responsibility for the training and development of the staff that they employ. 

Indirect employers

This group is made up of people who employ staff indirectly via a third party such as an employment agency, a service provider, an organisation providing a staff bank or pool service, or employ self-employed workers. This group also includes recipients of direct payments and personal budgets, and those who fund care from other sources (including self-funding). However they do not directly employ, i.e. the staff are not on their payroll and do not have individual contracts of employment with them. Nevertheless they are responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day work activities of these staff and as such they will require some knowledge of HR practice.  

Micro-organisations/ (micro-enterprises)

This sub-group includes enterprises (organisations, businesses or other types of operations), who have between one and nine employees[1]; this is consistent with the definition used by the Office of National Statistics. They are first and foremost providers of ‘care and support services’, and may be regulated by the Care Quality Commission if they are providing domiciliary care, home nursing care, a care home or an adult placement service.

[1] where the total number of employees excludes the enterprise’s owners and partners. This is the definition used by the Office for National Statistics in various publications. The other categories of enterprises are small (10 - 49 employees), medium (50 - 249 employees), large (250 or more employees) and enterprises without employees.