Interest Free Monthly Packages

Embrace our monthly package deals! As one of the UK's leading suppliers of elearning courses to the health & social care sector we are proud to introduce our new course catalogue & pay monthly interest free package deals. You can be assured of the highest standard of training with our CQC compliant, certificated courses. Our deals include Mandatory, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum or Alternative Packages giving you the freedom to choose the courses you require whether it’s refresher training for existing staff or training your new employees. Click here to view courses. We offer courses to meet all your mandatory and statutory training requirements, professional standards and to support best practice in the workplace. Elearning can be integrated into your current training matrix offering flexibility and reduced overhead costs.

Our course range includes: Care Certificate Caring for People with Dementia Epilepsy Awareness Health & Safety & COSHH Mental Capacity Act 2005 Safe Handling of Medicines  With our flexible and cost-effective pay monthly subscription you can pay as little as £1.80 per learner per course. To find out more call 0161 928 9987  or visit our website www.embrace-learning.co.uk

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health Awareness Week 2015

Did you know that it is Mental Health Awareness Week? The theme for the week is Mindfulness - this is about learning how to pay attention to the present moment without getting stuck in the past or worrying about the future! 

We have a wide range of e-learning courses relating to mental health and disability awareness including:

 

Mental Capacity Act 2005
Caring for People with Dementia
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
Learning Disability Induction

Acquired Brain Injury Awareness

Supporting People with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Needs
 

Click here for a free trial of our Mental Capacity Act 2005 course.

 

More information about Mental Health Awareness Week at www.mentalhealth.org.uk

Follow us on twitter @embracelearnuk for updates & join in with the discussion using #MHAW15

Care Certificate Training Update

In a recent update from Skills for Health regarding Care Certificate training, 5 key issues were raised in regard to how training providers are marketing their courses. At Embrace-learning we pride ourselves on the quality of our e-learning solutions and we would like to use these pointers to explain how our Care Certificate course has been developed in order to provide a high quality blended learning solution to help support the induction process for health and social care staff.

In a statement from Skills for Health, Skills for Care and Health Education England:

1. No provider has been ‘licenced’ to award the Care Certificate. Such a licence does not exist.
2. No providers are accredited to deliver the Care Certificate. Some organisations may have had their training externally quality assured by a third party and we would encourage providers to explore this option but no provider has been ‘accredited’ to deliver the Care Certificate.

Embrace-learning’s response: We do not claim that our course is  accredited or licenced by Skills for Care, Skills for Health or Health Education England, it has however been developed directly in line with the Skills for Care course specification.  Any concerns over the fact that the Care Certificate is not accredited are outweighed by the flexibility that care providers and managers now have in delivering their staff induction training in a way that best suits their particular requirements. Many providers are choosing to incorporate e-learning into their Care Certificate training as it means that staff can learn at a time, pace and place that suits them.

3. It is not possible to achieve the Care Certificate through completion of e-learning alone. Whilst e-learning can certainly support the acquisition of knowledge and the assessment of knowledge, the assessment of the required skills must be undertaken in the workplace unless simulation is explicitly allowed.

Embrace-learning’s response: We agree that a standalone e-learning course does not provide the sufficient level of induction training to achieve the Care Certificate which is why our course provides a wide range of additional resources for each of the 15 units, including workbooks which can be completed on-line or printed out and filled in by hand. These workbooks contain questions and exercises covering all of the learning outcomes and assessment criteria, including practical elements to be carried out within the work place setting. The e-learning course provides an assessment of the theory of the Care Certificate while the workbooks are used by the manager/supervisor to sign off the practical assessments.

The manager/supervisor has the responsibility of ensuring that the learner has a thorough understanding of each unit and has demonstrated their competence in the workplace before workbooks can be signed off.  This allows for evidence of best practice to be gathered and underpinning knowledge to be acquired by the learner.

4. The Care Certificate is not a mandatory requirement. However, the Care Quality Commission will expect that appropriate staff who are new to services which they regulate will achieve the competences required by the Care Certificate as part of their induction.

Embrace-learning’s response: The Care Certificate is regarded as ‘best practice’ rather than a mandatory or legal requirement.  New health and social care staff are, however, expected to achieve the advised competences set out in the Care Certificate to contribute towards meeting CQC regulations.  It also offers existing staff the opportunity to refresh or improve their knowledge.  Embrace-learning’s Care Certificate e-learning course covers all 15 standards and outlines the key competences, values and behaviours essential for providing high quality compassionate care.

5. It is not a requirement that the Care Certificate is achieved within 12 weeks. The Care Certificate FAQ states: The experience of the pilot sites has shown that for full-time staff the average amount of time taken for an employee new to health or social care to demonstrate the expected competences and knowledge is 12 weeks. This will vary from organisation to organisation, and may depend upon a range of factors: the hours worked by the learner, teaching methods chosen, previous educational achievement, resources and opportunities for assessment, the availability of assessors.

Embrace-learning’s response: Our e-learning course can be used to compliment work-based learning and the average time for new full-time health and social care staff to have gained the expected competences and knowledge from this training is 12 weeks, however there is no legal requirement for the certificate to be achieved in this time.  Access to our e-learning course is for 12 months which gives the learner plenty of time to complete the course and revisit or repeat units again if necessary to refresh their knowledge. 

  

For more information please give us a call today on 0161 928 9987 or visit our website to see our full course list.

To read the full shared statement from Skills for Health click here.

The Care Certificate

The Care Certificate has now replaced both the Common Induction Standards in adult social care and the National Minimum Training Standards in healthcare.

Due to the previous inconsistencies in training and competencies of the health and social care workforce, the Cavendish Review 2013 proposed that all healthcare assistants and social care support workers must achieve a standard ‘certificate of fundamental care’ before they can provide care to people unsupervised.

Skills for Care, Skills for Health and Health Education England have developed the Care Certificate which is made up of 15 standards covering the key competences, values and behaviours essential for providing high quality compassionate care.

It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that all new staff members complete the Care Certificate during their induction process.   

If you employ Health Care Assistants, Assistant Practitioners, Care Support Workers or those giving support to clinical roles in the NHS where there is any direct contact with patients, Embrace-learning can provide you with the training material to ensure that your training needs are met and you are fully prepared for these upcoming changes.

The introduction of the Care Certificate should hopefully bring an improvement to care standards over the coming months.  Any concerns over the fact that the Care Certificate is not accredited are outweighed by the flexibility that care providers and managers now have in delivering their staff induction training in a way that best suits their particular requirements. Many providers are choosing to incorporate e-learning into their Care Certificate training as it means that staff can learn at a time, pace and place that suits them.

We have created a blended learning solution for rolling out the Care Certificate.  Our e-learning course, produced in line with the Skills for Care Specification, contains individual workbooks alongside each of the 15 e-learning units.  The workbooks can be downloaded as a PDF or completed online. In addition there is an end of course on line assessment that tests the learner’s knowledge based on the course content. The manager or assessor has the responsibility of ensuring that the learner has a thorough understanding of the unit and has demonstrated their competence before they can be signed off. This allows for evidence of best practice to be gathered and underpinning knowledge to be acquired by the learner.

If you would like some more information about our Care Certificate course or our other health and social care courses please give us a call on 0161 928 9987.  We offer free advice and can talk you through the most suitable and cost-effective solutions to meet your specific requirements.

For information about our Care Certificate e-learning course, as well as access to a free trial, please follow the link here.

More information and resources are available from the Skills for Care website. 

Safeguarding Adults Updated For The Care Act

Are you aware that the introduction of the Care Act 2014 has led to significant changes in adult safeguarding?  

A major change is the move towards a person centred social work approach. All care providers must ensure that their staff are trained in Mental Capacity Act and DOLS and have at least basic awareness safeguarding training, which has been altered in regard to the new Care Act legislation.

We are in the process of updating our courses in line with these changes and our new Safeguarding Adults updated for the Care Act will shortly be released.  If you would like more information please contact us on 0161 928 9987

For more information click here

Are you ready for the new legislation which will be coming into effect this April?

The implementation of the Act in April 2015 will have significant implications for the health and social care workforce.

Embrace-learning has developed a number of e-learning courses to help support these changes.  Our Care Act Unpacked course, developed with Carers UK, has a focus on carers.

We also have The CareAct Learning Suite, comprising the Care Act Overview and six additional bite sized courses with the content covering the learning material set out by Skills for Care. 

In addition to our Care Act e-learning, we are also launching the Care Certificate course which will replace Common Induction Standards in March 2015. Completion of the Care Certificate Course will help ensure that learners have the necessary values, behaviours and skills to provide high quality compassionate care. Click here for more information on the Care Certificate.

For further information about our e-learning courses or to request a quote, please give us a call today on 0161 928 9987 or email info@embrace-learning.co.uk  

An anonymous article by a care team worker on the fourth year of redundancies and the effects on team morale. The pertinent question is raised of why after four years of drip-fed redundancies, there has been no change to management staffing levels? Surely there are far fewer people to manage now.

Management decision making (or the lack of it) is also addressed, raising further questions.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2015/jan/21/redundancies-social-care-job-cuts