The Care Certificate has been in place since April 2015 and a lot of care managers have coped very well with the transfer from the historic Common Induction Standards (CIS). There are some areas of the new standards that have caused confusion. The level to which the Care Certificate should be carried out is guided by the internal standards of the various care providers, but there is a framework consisting of 15 standards that should be met in order for an individual to be awarded the Care Certificate. Of these 15 standards, 4 were not covered in the outdated CIS and therefore should apply to all staff, not just the newly employed (employed after 1st April 2015). These 4 standards are Fluids & Nutrition, Awareness of Mental Health, Dementia & Learning Disability, Safeguarding Children and Basic Life Support. Best practice would suggest that all of your staff will need to complete the training on the 4 standards above.
Some of your established care staff will have previous training and experience, so you will need to collate evidence to show that the relevant competencies have been reached. The evidence could be documented visual assessments.. Chances are that if staff have been working in care for some time then they will have knowledge and understanding of the subjects. However, you should still question when the training was completed and satisfy yourself that their knowledge and understanding is relevant to current best practice for not only your organisation but also in relation to the Care Certificate standards. You will need to supply evidence to prove that all individual staff members are competent.
A lot of care homes are choosing to run an induction programme as well as the Care Standards Certificate, this is not always necessary. Often company policies and procedures can be integrated into the Care Certificate and evidenced along the way. This collection of evidence, may seem like an arduous task, however if done correctly gives you a very powerful audit trail for future reference, not only for yourself as a care manager, but a very valuable resource for individual staff.
One of the justifications for the Care Certificate is to offer a carer greater understanding and competence. The Care Certificate has not been designed to cover all of your staff training but is a foundation to be built on and tailored around person centred approach over time. Staff should be encouraged to further their knowledge in each standard laid out within the Care Certificate and also to undertake specialist courses to cater for every facet of the service users requirements. Further training will allow care staff to increase their competence and ability to deliver high levels of care. Person centred approach is key, so in most cases your staff will require courses that are not part of the Care Certificate in order to meet the requirements of the people being cared for.
When the Care Certificate was piloted, the average time that it took for a carer to complete was 12 weeks. As your staff complete the Care Certificate this time frame may alter, for example if you have a part time member of staff, the process is likely to take longer. The time scale is not as important, the importance is that the staff gain the competencies that they require. Best practice suggests that the new member of staff should not be working unsupervised prior to the standards within the Care Certificate being reached.
The importance of the physical certificate is outweighed by your staff’s actual abilities. The main aim of the entire process is to bring competence and confidence levels up to a required point so that they have the skills to deliver the care required on a daily basis and those abilities surpass all 15 standards within the Care Certificate.
Redcrier have reviewed the Care Certificate and have produced a package in order to streamline the process. Redcrier’s Care Certificate Standards Resource has been designed to enable your staff to use a holistic approach to increase their efficiency and reduce the resources needed to complete the process. We will be happy to show you how we can have a beneficial impact on your organisation and how our products and services can improve the performance of your staff, offer a higher level of care and therefore make it easier to achieve your business goals.
If you would like more information of any of our products and services, then please feel free to contact the team today: 01823 332200 info@redcrier.com
