Compulsory training for Care home staff to protect elderly
Care home staff to have compulsory training under government plans to protect elderly
Care home staff will be forced to undergo compulsory training for the first time under government plans to protect the elderly from abuse and neglect, The Telegraph can disclose.
By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent
9:58PM GMT 08 Mar 2013
The lack of basic requirements for training care workers is leaving frail pensioners in the hands of staff who have “no idea what they are doing”, Norman Lamb, the health minister, warned.
Proposals expected within weeks will outline national minimum standards for preparing new recruits to work in nursing homes. Carers who help with tasks such as washing and dressing elderly people in their own homes will also be required to undertake the training.
The new rules could be extended to hospitals to improve standards among health care assistants and auxiliary nurses in the wake of the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal.
Mr Lamb, the Liberal Democrat care minister, told The Telegraph it was not acceptable that there are no “clear standards of the training that must happen in a care home”.
A basic course teaching the essential skills should be “fundamental”, he said. “I would not want a loved one of mine — or indeed myself — to be cared for by someone who has no training.”
Criminal prosecutions must follow in the most “outrageous cases” of abuse but reforms are needed to improve the quality of care more widely in nursing homes and in pensioners’ own homes, he said.
Beyond basic criminal records checks, there are no legal requirements for qualifications or training for someone to work in a care home or provide home help services.
Mr Lamb said: “I want minimum training standards to apply across the board. “This is often quite intimate care: dressing someone, getting them out of bed, bathing them, so this is really important.”
Campaigners want all staff to be trained in how to dispense medication, promoting dignity, the basics of nutrition and hydration, and how to use equipment such as hoists and lifts.
The charity, Age UK, is also calling for the new training to teach workers how to raise the alarm if they suspect abuse is taking place or see poor quality care being given by colleagues.
The proposals follow a series of scandals involving the treatment of frail, elderly and disabled adults in NHS hospitals and private care homes.
The Winterbourne View home in Bristol was closed after undercover reporters found disabled adults were being routinely abused.
Inspectors found last year that one in four agencies providing home-help services was failing to meet minimum legal requirements for safety and quality.
Pensioners receiving home help often experience frequent changes of carer, and can receive “intimate” care, such as being washed or dressed, from staff they have never met before.
According to official figures, there are 1.1 million people in England who receive care in their own homes, such as help with dressing or preparing food. Another 460,000 are residents living in Britain’s 18,000 nursing and care homes.
More than 1.6 million people work in adult social care in England, staffing care homes and providing home help services.
With the number of people over the age of 85 expected to double by 2030, there are fears the potential for neglect and abuse will grow.
Mr Lamb said the new regime must not create “a tick box” culture. “But the bottom line is, I don’t want a loved one being looked after by someone who has really no idea what they are doing,” he said.
The reforms, expected by the end of the month, are likely to result in compulsory national standards for the basic training of all care staff. Similar arrangements could be introduced in hospitals after David Cameron said he wanted to end the ability of nursing assistants to “give hands on care in a hospital ward with no training at all”.
Skills for Care, a training group, said it had been working with the Government to draw up plans to make “high quality training” available for every social care worker. “Every worker in adult social care should know what is expected of them,” said Sharon Allen, chief executive of the group.
Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, welcomed the plan for compulsory training. She added: “We also need to make sure that staff with the right values are recruited into caring roles and that they remain supported by a system that values and rewards the important work they do.”
