In May 2019, the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act became law, and one of the major changes to mental capacity law will be the introduction of Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS). These safeguards will replace Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

There is currently a Code of Practice being written for the new LPS’s and, until this is finalised and published, training for mental capacity should remain the same and include DoLS.

Careskills Academy have recently reviewed and updated our Mental Capacity & DoLS training and have now included the latest information and an overview of Liberty Protection Safeguards, but until the new Code of Practice is released, our Mental Capacity Training still focus on the use of DoLS, as directed by Skills for Care.

It is important that your staff are still trained in mental capacity law, as it guides them in their approach to individuals, and how the ability to make choices and decisions should be respected and supported.

With the introduction of Liberty Protection Safeguards the fundamental principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 will not change, it is only safeguards that will be updated for those individuals who lack capacity, where decisions may have to made for them in their Best Interests.

We will release a further notification when the training is updated with the process of Liberty Protection Safeguards completely replacing DoLS. The governments plans are, to date, that the change will take place in Spring 2022.

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With estimated 1.25 million people in the UK having an eating disorder and it having the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, with almost 1 person dying every hour as a direct result of an eating disorder, it is crucial that all care workers have the understanding and knowledge to identify eating disorders.

While many eating disorders develop during adolescence, it is not unusual for people to develop eating disorders later in life and due to a lack of understanding and awareness of eating disorders, many cases outside of the stereotypical age bracket go unnoticed, resulting in many sufferers not getting diagnosed and appropriately treated.

Unfortunately, an eating disorder isn’t necessarily obvious, you can’t tell if someone has an eating disorder by just looking at them. While some suffers of anorexia are severely emaciated, others are not. For example those with bulimia may be within a normal weight range or possibly even overweight.

However, Professor John Morgan at Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation Trust designed the SCOFF screening tool to indicate a possible eating disorder. By answering these 5 questions you may be able to identify an eating disorder: 

1) Do you ever make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
2) Do you worry you have lost Control over how much you eat?
3) Have you recently lost more than One stone in a three-month period?
4) Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are too thin?
5) Would you say that Food dominates your life?

A score of two or more positive answers is a positive screen. 

There are many forms of eating disorders that those in care need to be aware of such as anorexia (which has the highest morality rate) and bulimia. It is crucial that all care workers have the knowledge and understand to identify and care for those who display signs of an eating disorder.

It is estimated that 70% of those who suffer with eating disorders will not seek treatment due to stigma, misconceptions, lack of education, diagnosis and lack of access to care.

Yet, the earlier the eating disorder treatment is sought, the better the sufferer’s chance of recovery, so having an understanding and awareness of Eating Disorders is crucial within care.

Why not enrol your staff today from just 99p per course or 47p a month for Unlimited Access to all Careskills Academy eLearning and ensure they have the knowledge and understanding to beat Eating Disorders.

Click here for more information on our Eating Disorders online course, or contact us on 020 3397 9734.

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In the UK, we are legally getting closer than ever before to equality for LGBT people. Yet, in the workplace, that’s not necessarily the case.

Shockingly, a massive 68% of the LGBT workers have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work and not only that but it’s believed to be a hidden problem with as many as two thirds of those harassed not reporting it.   
 
This is why it’s crucial that your staff has the knowledge and understanding regarding the awareness of LGBT people and workers in health and social care.

Not only that, it’s also a Care Quality Commission (CQC) essential to supporting the needs of the LGBT people.

Your staff MUST understand:

• The meaning of LGBT+ and how this relates to sexual orientation and gender identities
• The laws relevant to LGBT people and the rights that they have
• The approach to assessment and what LGBT people need
• How to make a difference for LGBT people that you support
• How to support LGBT people with their sexual relationships

We at Careskills Academy are committed to delivering new and improved eLearning to our customers, which is why we are pleased to announce the release of our LGBT – Aware For Care online course to continue to enhance your team’s learning.

Our course will help learners to learn about supporting the needs of LGBT people and recognise the equal standing that LGBT people have.

The course reflects the Care Quality Commissions approach to LGBT people and sexuality and also embraces the research and information published by Age UK and Stonewall who campaign for equality and diversity.

This training applies to all health and social care workers that work in settings such as Care Homes, Day Centres, or supporting an individual in their own home. This also applies to hospital staff at health care assistant level, unpaid and voluntary workers.

Create a more LGBT-inclusive workplace by enrolling your staff and educating them on the values and actions that support the needs of LGBT people.

For more information on our LGBT – Aware For Care online course, please contact us on 020 3397 9734 or click here.

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Blended Learning is an innovative way to get the most out of your training, and the one-stop solution to all training worries.

It incorporates all methods of training required in the health and social care sector, to ensure that staff are trained to quality standards and become reliable, knowledgeable and confident members of your team.

Blended learning is:

Online training and Practical Face to Face training

It is important to recognise that some skills required by staff must be practically taught in a face to face setting, to ensure that they can work diligently and at the standard expected when supporting vulnerable individuals.

Online training lifts the burden away from your training by providing all the necessary learning for the underpinning knowledge expected of your staff. It takes the weight off so that you can concentrate on the practical skills needed for mandatory requirements.

Online training is the valuable asset to your face to face training, resulting in service compliance.

Blended Learning for your mandatory subjects will end the frustration and lift the pressure and assist your organisation in getting quality trained and competent, compliant staff out working in a timely and efficient manner.

What Are The Benefits of Blended Learning?

1) Flexibility

A blended learning solution provides flexible training. This means practical elements of a course can be taught face-to-face, while other elements can be provided within online courses.

The online element to training will increase flexibility and convenience over how and when your staff can participate in training.

2) Increased Effectiveness

The blended learning training method has been proven to enhance both the effectiveness and efficiency of meaningful learning experience. Vastly improving retention, while saving time and money.

3) Efficiency

A well-planned blended learning solution can help you to efficiently and quickly deliver the right training to a broad audience. With comprehensive e-learning and a strategical blended learning process in place, it will help you to get more staff up to your organisation and the industry standards.

4) Cost-effective

As social care providers, we understand that training budgets are tight. Blended learning allows you to include more online training options into your training, which will save you on missed work, travel, room hire and employing a trainer to spend a couple of days going through theory that can be done via e-learning, equating to massive savings!

5) Personalised to the business

Using an external trainer or e-learning platform won’t be customised to your organisation. This is why a well-crafted blended learning solution can provide a seamless transition from classroom to online delivering a personal tone to your organisation’s needs. You can also include relevant factors alongside the training to ensure your staff get a well-rounded and personalised content to a care worker’s specific job requirements. This allows new staff to find their feet within the business much quicker.

6) Incorporates Different Learning Styles

When building a foundation for your training solution, it is important to consider the different learning styles your staff may have. A well-structured blended learning solution gives your staff the best of both worlds as it caters to all types of learning styles through a variety of techniques.

7) Easy To Track and Evidence

It can be challenging to collect feedback from an in-house or third-party trainer. With an LMS that clearly tracks employee activity, course completions and scorings, the efficacy of blended learning is more easily measured and checked for compliance as well as also being easily accessible for evidencing if the CQC requires it.

Blended Learning is an innovative way to get the most out of your training efforts.

Click here or call now on 020 3397 9734 to find out more about our Blended Learning Solution and be the first to get your hands on this innovative new training programme.

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In May 2019, the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act became law, and one of the major changes to mental capacity law will be the introduction of Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS). These safeguards will replace Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

There is currently a Code of Practice being written for the new LPS’s and, until this is finalised and published, training for mental capacity should remain the same and include DoLS.

Careskills Academy have prepared changes and updates to our training, but until the new Code of Practice is released, our Mental Capacity Training will remain the same, as directed by Skills for Care.

It is important that your staff are still trained in mental capacity law, as it guides them in their approach to individuals, and how the ability to make choices and decisions should be respected and supported.

The fundamental principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 will not change, it is only safeguards that will be updated for those individuals who lack capacity, where decisions may have to made for them in their Best Interests.

We will release a further notification when the training is updated with Liberty Protection Safeguards. This is likely to be in Spring 2020, unless the Code of Practice is released earlier.

Sign up to Careskills Mental Capacity & DOLS Online Course today or call us on 020 3397 9734 to ensure your staff is suitably trained in Mental Capacity Law.

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Last week, Skills for Care published news of an event that they are holding on how to use data to effectively recruit and retain staff.

Recruitment and staff retention is an ongoing problem shared by providers throughout the health and social care sector, but Careskills can help you with this.

Skills for Care will cover the recruitment of staff with the right values and attitudes at their event and whilst this may come naturally to some, it is the right training that instils this into staff, supporting you to have the highest quality of compliance in your service, and most importantly confidence and satisfaction from the individuals that you support.

Careskills Academy provides you with a Learning Management System (LMS) that enables you to collect important training data and plan the future development of your team. It will also help you to log information into your Workforce Data Set (previously known as NMDS-SC).

Recruitment

Is your training part of your recruitment strategy?

Do new recruits know how good their training is?

Careskills online training is thorough, compliant and time effective in getting new staff trained and into work. Your recruitment process is quicker because online training is timelier than face to face training. It allows you to start training your staff while you are waiting for their references and DBS checks to come through. Completing online training early on in the recruitment process, before any face to face training, will also show a sign of commitment to the job from the new staff member.

Let your new recruits know that they can access over 60 courses as they progress through their career in care and that you will continually invest in their learning and development, and you can be confident that the training will promote the right values and attitudes that are needed for your service.

Retention

Do your existing staff know that they could have access to over 60 courses?

Surveys completed with Care Workers have shown that the main thing they want from their job is ‘Appreciation’ and part of that is opening their minds to the learning opportunities that are available to them. Many Care Workers don’t want a promotion, they just want to be the best Care Worker but have their employer value them and have the right attitude towards them, whilst investing in their future. Allowing them to learn and develop their knowledge online, without compromising their working time is a key motivator in appreciating your staff. You will consistently upskill them and maintain their working standards because the right values and attitudes are expressed through all Careskills courses.

The Skills for Care event is being held in November, but you can start right now by using your training data wisely and become the employer of choice because you invest in your staff by nurturing their skills, knowledge, confidence, and compliance.

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Being a care provider ourselves, we know the way you deliver care training is one of the key factors that can make your organisation become the provider of choice in your area or a provider that struggles to meet its clients’ needs. Here, we uncover how personal development helps care providers not only provide excellent care, but also grow as a business. And so you’re in the know, we tell you how you can go about it.

Supporting your team’s personal development motivates them and increases staff retention – saving time and reducing recruitment costs. According to a recent survey by the Department of Health and Social Care, job satisfaction is the main motivating factor for 95% of care workers, while pay came fourth at just 73%. Adequate training and a personal development plan helps your staff feel valued and engaged, improving loyalty and productivity.

It also helps you meet the CQC’s expectation to “deploy enough suitably qualified, competent and experienced staff” to meet the regulatory requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. Constant training is necessary to receive a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ CQC rating, which then helps grow your business as prospective clients are more confident in using your services.

The more skilled your staff becomes, the better they understand your clients’ needs. By being supported with a personal development plan, your staff will feel more confident in developing positive working relationships with your clients. In turn, your clients will live more dignified and independent lives, and their families could even turn into ambassadors of your business through positive word-of-mouth!

Training your staff in a wider range of disciplines also means you will be able to offer more services and be more responsive to your clients’ needs. Combine this with high levels of client satisfaction, and you will increase business opportunities.

Regular training helps create a virtuous circle in your organisation, improving staff retention, quality of care, and increasing business opportunities. And the good news is it does not have to be costly and time-consuming either. Elearning is a flexible and extremely cost-efficient alternative to traditional classroom training, and is increasingly popular among care providers.

Careskills Academy’s eLearning is the ideal solution to support the personal development of your staff. Our intuitive learning management system makes it very easy to enrol and track the progress of your staff. You can print a matrix in just one click, so you don’t need to manually create and update this yourself, saving you valuable time to focus on delivering care and growing your business.

All our courses are written and updated by qualified teachers who are also health and social care practitioners, and are endorsed by Skills for Care. Over 3000 care providers are already trusting Careskills Academy, so you can be confident in using our courses.

And with our unlimited use subscription model, your staff get unlimited access to 60+ online care courses including the Care Certificate starting from just 47p per learner per month.

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