E-learning: your questions answered

There are many benefits of e-learning. It can be completed at a time, place and pace that suits each individual learner, and is cost effective when compared with traditional face-to-face training. 

All managers want the assurance that their staff are receiving the highest standard of training. The rest of this post will aim to answer the key questions you should be asking, and how we at Embrace-learning aim to fulfill them.

1. What is the quality of the learning within the package?

Poor quality courses will not meet the needs of the learner, or of the organisation. Embrace-learning’s courses are developed by a collaborative team of educationalists, designers and software developers to ensure that the content is of the highest accuracy and quality.

Many organisations are determined to save on costs and find the lowest price available to ‘tick the box’ on their staff training but the real risk here is that the quality will suffer greatly, and staff won’t be fully competent.

Our course content engages the learner with constant questions and examples throughout. You cannot proceed to the next page before answering questions and not only do they teach learners what they need to know, but how to implement the key learning concepts in real life.

2. How do they keep their courses up-to-date with legislation and current ways of working in the subject area?

With the ever-changing legislation and government guidelines, you want to make sure the courses you purchase aren’t going to become obsolete over the year that you are using them.

Both CQC guidance and Skills for Care advice highlight the responsibility of the service provider and registered manager to continue to improve care standards through a well-trained workforce.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the health and social care regulator for England. Their aim is to ensure better care for everyone in hospital, in a care home and at home. Training is a key component in ensuring standards of service are met and increasingly providers are required to provide evidence that health and social care training is not only being provided but that learners are achieving specific outcomes. Legislative requirements must be adhered to.

Embrace-learning guarantee that by using our courses your staff training will:

• Meet CQC standards of compliance for continuing professional development
• Be available on demand 24/7 365 days a year
• Provide certificates of achievement on successful completion
• Provide reports demonstrating CQC compliance

Regardless of industry or sector, most employees are now required to undertake some form of CPD. As we work predominantly in knowledge and service economies, the updating of skills and knowledge is critical in keeping abreast of industry changes, maintaining professional competence and ensuring that qualifications do not become obsolete.

3. What is their process of development?

Embrace-learning add, change and develop courses to keep in line with current legislation. The quality of our courses remains consistent throughout these changes and all updates are made quickly, ensuring that your staff don’t have to wait for updates before they can complete a course.

Any developments take effect immediately, learners can log in as usual and the course will have been updated accordingly.

4. What platform are they using, how simple is it, how secure is it and what is the downtime?

Since staff have a range of levels of computer literacy, a complicated platform will confuse learners before they even get to the training course, discouraging them from using the provider in the future.

Embrace-learning’s platform is simple to navigate. Learners simply log in with their unique username and password, and can instantly see the list of courses they need to complete, and how far along in each course they are already.

We always plan to have downtime during weekends or late nights to ensure minimal disruption, unless there is essential action to be taken at another time. We can assure you that all the proper security measures are in place to protect both your staff details and their learning records.

5. How do they communicate with you?

You should always be aware of what your provider is developing and planning over the year.

At Embrace-learning we send out e-newsletters containing relevant information to keep our clients updated. In addition to this, we have 2 networking groups on LinkedIn and are active on all of our social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), as well as regular blogs which are shared across our social media channels.

6. What reporting mechanisms do you have? Is it real-time?

Managers need access to information and reports on their staff, to know what courses have been completed, how long it took and whether or not they have passed. This information can then be used to check staff queries, support learners in appraisals, and contribute to compliance reports, and gives managers the confidence that the staff are well trained and able to perform their job competently.

Embrace-learning offer a Learner Management System (LMS). This is completely free of charge when you license a training course from us. Some features of the LMS:

• Fully hosted by us or secured on your own intranet / extranet
• Fully managed 24/7
• Automated correspondence, evaluation and notifications
• In-built management reporting and data exports
• Administrator training and technical support
• Secure data back-up
• Scalable from 10 to 100,000 learners
• Flash content delivery

As an organisation, you can:

• Track large numbers of learners
• Monitor uptake and completion of training courses
• Get results from online assessments
• Batch upload an unlimited number of learner details
• Batch enrol your learners onto their courses
• Add your own bespoke content to our courses

7. What implementation and helpdesk support can you provide?

 If you are new to e-learning or are switching to a different provider, you may need support and guidance in getting to know the new system.

 Embrace-learning offer helpdesk support Monday-Friday 9am-5pm on the phone. If you have a query outside of office hours you can send an email and it will be answered the next working day. We also offer a live chat service Monday-Friday 9am-5pm on our website for anyone with questions whilst browsing the site.

 Administrators can benefit from training in how to navigate the LMS and direct their learners when asked simple questions like forgotten passwords.

If learners have a query, in the first instance they should contact their administrator. If the issue cannot be resolved the team at Embrace are on hand to give support during office hours.

8. How do they keep up with learning and technology trends?

 Technology is constantly changing and improving and organisations need to keep up with learning and technology trends if they want an edge over the competition.

Embrace-learning has recently launched a new website which has been thoroughly tested for any bugs and has excellent security measures in place. Our training courses are compatible with any web browser and are currently accessible on desktop PCs and laptops as well as some android tablets.

No course is updated without first conducting thorough research in to the trend and understanding how it impacts on the learning experience, and whether or not it benefits the learner.

9. Have they worked with organisations with the same needs as yours?

A good training provider needs to be able to support your needs. The best way of showing they can do this is with examples of similar organisations who have used their e-learning.

Embrace-learning’s current clients include Local Authorities, CCGs, NHS Trusts, GP Practices, Care Homes and Mental Health Trusts across the UK. With our particular focus on Health and Social Care, we have a depth of experience in providing these organisations with tailored e-learning packages to suit their individual needs. Ourwebsite contains a list of just some of our clients should you wish to compare your company’s needs.

10. Can you speak to other customers?

The best way to find out how good a provider really is, is to know about the experience other customers have had with them.

Embrace-learning welcomes feedback from all of our clients and you can find a page containing ‘success stories’ from a number of them on our website.

If you wish to speak directly to an existing client to discuss the training offered by Embrace-learning, we can arrange this for you.

Embrace-learning is a UK leading provider of quality e-learning resources to the Health and Social Care sector. Find out more about us on our website www.embrace-learning.com

You can read more of our blog posts here.

The benefits of e-learning

GPs should urge patients to go online: e-learning alternative to standard medical prescriptions

BBC News recently published an article: GPs should urge patients to go online. The recommendations made by Baroness Martha Lane Fox include every NHS building having access to free wi-fi. The aim is for GPs to actively encourage patients to go online for booking appointments and ordering repeat prescriptions, enabling the NHS to push forward with an IT revolution.

Tim Kelsey, NHS England national director for patients and information, said: "Digital health tools can dramatically improve people's lives and well-being.”

E-learning is increasingly being used as an alternative to standard medical prescriptions.
There is a wealth of evidence to show that early intervention is both effective and highly cost efficient.

GPs can now prescribe e-learning courses to patients and carers giving the learner the opportunity to access training anywhere they have an internet connection. This flexibility to gain self-help can provide early intervention for many common ailments and is an effective way of enhancing the health and well-being, and resilience of patients and carers. 

Baroness Lane Fox said "One of the founding principles of the NHS was to ensure that everyone - irrespective of means, age, sex, or occupation - should have equal opportunity to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available." In rural areas, there is limited access to the internet, but if NHS buildings were to implement the free wi-fi for all, patients could still benefit from e-learning within the buildings. If required, courses can also be downloaded so they can be accessed without an internet connection.

Our course range at Embrace-learning includes:

• About Me: Building Resilience for Caring
• Awareness of Alcohol and Substance Misuse
• Obesity and Nutrition
• Supporting People with Autism
• Supporting People with Cerebral Palsy
• Supporting People with Diabetes Mellitus

Find out more at our website: www.embrace-learning.com

Advisory or Mandatory?

When is mandatory training not mandatory?

Apparently when it applies to the social care sector.

There’s something a bit wishy washy about labelling training as mandatory when there is no actual requirement to complete said training. Or worse still, when there is a stated ‘requirement’ to do the training (by the CQC) but there are no real consequences when the training is not completed. Unless you count a slightly lower inspection rating as a real consequence. Is it just me or is it slightly baffling that there is no legal requirement to complete any training in the delivery of social care?

Care providers themselves determine whether a training course is mandatory or not. Some will deem it mandatory while others will consider it optional. While the CQC may require that a service trains their staff to a minimum standard, this is not legally binding. It seems training is a ‘should do?’ rather than a ‘MUST DO!’

The training of care workers in the new Care Certificate is advisory rather than mandatory. The Care Certificate which is promoted as the basic or minimum entry level course is not actually a qualification as we understand the term.  It is not on the National Qualification Framework (NQF) but it is considered a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course. This is a fantastic introduction to the world of care work and is indeed a minimum requirement for care workers. It is not, alas, mandatory unless deemed mandatory by the care provider.

We have a long way to go before we have a professionalised and regulated social care workforce. There are many reasons why it is important to achieve this. First and foremost is the quality it will bring to the care of the growing number of elderly and vulnerable people in our society. Secondly it will attach a greater value to this incredibly important work and allow carers to follow a career path with pay scales that reflect the importance of this work.  Is it the case that the current status of care work is an accurate reflection of how we as a society value care work? That is, not very highly. We are quick to jump on stories of poor care and express horror and outrage when people are abused and otherwise mistreated but when we scratch the surface a little and look at the way workers are trained and what they are paid, it is clear that the explanations for these behaviours cannot be simply dismissed as the actions of ‘rogue carers’.

Better pay will in turn attract and hold on to the right calibre of person needed by this growing social care sector. The resulting lower turnover of staff will add to the stability of the workforce which, again, will benefit the end users.

A better trained workforce with professional status will help care workers achieve something approaching parity with their health sector counterparts. This in itself will go a small way to greasing the wheels on the journey to an integrated health and social care system. The disparity in training, pay and conditions does nothing to facilitate the team spirit needed when workers are required to work across professional and organisational boundaries in the pursuit of an integrated health and social care system.

There’s an old adage that ‘Ignorance is no defence in law but training is’. I’m sure the day will come when training is, itself, a legal requirement. 

Integrating Health and Social Care

Integration of health and social care has been on the agenda since the turn of the century and has been talked about for a good deal longer. Will we still be talking about it at the turn of the next century or will someone actually be doing something about it?

Is your organisation doing something about it or are you, like the majority, merely paying lip service to what is, admittedly, a noble cause?

The logic is faultless but the application seems to be a good deal more complicated than some would have us believe. We know it’s desirable but is it really possible to bring two systems together to work seamlessly in the delivery of care? It can be difficult enough to get professionals of a similar discipline to work as a team when managing complex health and care packages. When we ask them to work across professional and organisational boundaries we’d better make sure the infrastructure is there to support them. But what is this infrastructure? What does it consist of and who is going to take responsibility for maintaining it? Are the differences in culture so different that we will never truly have an integrated system?

Multidisciplinary teams already exist to manage complex needs. We only need to look at the cases of NHS continuing healthcare to see that it is possible for decisions about health and social care to be made coherently and it is a credit to many of those teams that they can unpick the myriad of needs affecting patients and put together packages of care that meet the needs of the whole person and indeed the needs of those around them. It strikes me however, that it is not so much the decision-making or the ‘design’ but the implementation of those decisions and designs that is the real challenge of integrating health and social care. I wonder whether the fundamental differences in a)culture and b)training for clinicians in healthcare, as opposed to those in social care,  are such that there will never really be a genuinely integrated health and social care system. This sounds defeatist from the outset but I think it highlights just two areas (and there are many more), that need to be addressed if we are going to achieve this holy grail of a truly integrated health and social care system.

It’s worth shining the spotlight on some of the most complex cases requiring input from health and social care services. The provision of NHS continuing healthcare, by definition, applies to people with long term health and social care needs where the dominant need is deemed to be a ‘health care need’ as opposed to a ‘social care need’. So here’s the thing, what is the difference between health and social care? When does one begin and the other end?  As with many other things, it is the boundary, the borderline, the areas that are most difficult to define, where clarity is needed. It is at these professional and organisational boundaries where problems arise and where problems must be resolved in order for integration to occur.

We will consistently be returning to the questions of infrastructure and health versus care culture. It is surely a given that training will be key to any integrated system of health and social care. It is clear that joined up working can only be enhanced by joined up training. It is not entirely clear to me at present which organisations are really taking the lead in this integration of health and social care at a local level. NHS organisations and Local Authorities certainly have responsibility to design such a system but where is the guiding light? Where is the beacon that shows that people are receiving a genuinely joined up, integrated health and social care system? Is such a thing possible?

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