Month: November 2022

This week, 21^st-27^th November 2022, organisations throughout the UK are taking part in Safeguarding Adults Week. The theme this year is Responding to Contemporary Safeguarding Challenges. This annual event was set up by Ann Craft Trust in order to raise awareness of safeguarding issues for adults. With this in mind, we want to make you more aware of some types of abuse and neglect within the health and social care sector, and how to record and report concerns.

Types of Abuse and Neglect

• Psychological, e.g. bullying, no provision for cultural or religious needs, limited opportunity to make decisions
• Discriminatory: e.g. exclusion from basic rights, unequal treatment, derogatory remarks
• Organisational: e.g. inadequate care or support, limited freedom, mistreatment of people using a service
• Self-Neglect: e.g. living in dirt conditions, suffering non-treatment of illness, malnutrition and dehydration
• Physical: e.g. poor moving and handling, hitting or pushing, unauthorised restraint
• Domestic: any controlling, bullying, threatening or violent behaviour between people in a relationship
• Sexual: e.g inappropriate touching, sexual advances, being shown pornography
• Financial: e.g. theft, misuse of personal allowance

How to Record and Report Concerns

Always take action as soon as possible if you believe someone is at risk of abuse or neglect. Whistle blowers are protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Follow the policy and procedure of the organisation. Inform a supervisor, line manager or lead practitioner. Your report should be concise while ensuring all necessary details are clearly communicated.

Ann Craft Trust have set up a schedule to help raise awareness of contemporary challenges:

• Monday: Exploitation and Country Lines
• Tuesday: Self-Neglect
• Wednesday: Creating Safer Organisational Cultures
• Thursday: Elder Abuse
• Friday: Domestic Abuse in Tech-Society
• Saturday and Sunday: Safeguarding in Everyday Life

Use #SafeguardingAdultsWeek on social media to get involved and help raise awareness. Virtual workshops on the topics above are available via Hull and East Riding Safeguarding Boards throughout the week. If you are interested in providing training in Safeguarding Adults, Advantage Accreditation has a ready-made course available to our approved centres, alongside many other courses . Please get in touch to learn more.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) recently introduced a new approach to regulation. This is yet to impact all care providers, but will soon become the standard method of regulation and assessment. Advantage Accreditation has already provided a resource about these changes: New CQC Quality Statements. Read on to learn more about the CQC’s new assessing services.

The goal of the new assessment framework is to allow more frequent assessments, often based on people’s experiences of the care provider. The frequency of assessment will no longer depend on the care provider’s CQC rating and service type, but on the information previously collected about the care provider.

Gathering Evidence

Evidence may be collected on site (e.g. observations) or off site (e.g. patient reported outcome measures, national clinical audits, etc.) based on the required evidence and type of service. As some evidence can be collected entirely off site, the CQC can update a care providers’ rating without visiting in-person. Site visits will occur more frequently if there are concerns about risk, evidence received, etc. Advisors, such as Experts by Experience, may help the CQC decide what evidence to collect and how to analyse it.

Ratings

Care providers will receive Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, or Inadequate ratings for the key questions: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, and Well-Led. Numerical scores will be provided to increase openness and clarity, and to show if a care provider’s rating is close to moving up or down. Each evidence category will receive a score from 1 (significant shortfalls) to 4 (exceptional). Each score will then be combined to provide an overall score for each quality statement within each key question.

For example, if the CQC assess evidence from three different categories, the maximum potential overall score is 12. The actual scores may vary.

In this example, the care provider received a score of 9 out of 12, or 75%. The percentage is converted back into a score so that multiple quality statements can be combined into a score for each key question. In this case, 75% is converted into a score of 3. Each quality statement (QS) receives a score.

In this example, the care provider received a score of 15 out of 20, or 75%. The percentage is converted into a rating. In this case, 75% is converted into a rating of Good.

Planned and Responsive Activity

The CQC will plan to collect evidence, including first-hand accounts from people who have received care, policies, processes and procedures, and other evidence types. The frequency of assessment will depend on national priorities and levels of risk in different areas of the country. The CQC plans to assess every service at least once every two years.

In response to any reported concerns, including whistleblowing, safeguarding, feedback, etc, the CQC may collect evidence from the care provider.

We would be more than happy to provide answers to any questions you may have. Please get in touch with Advantage Accreditation. Further information about the CQC’s assessing services is available on their website.

The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disability and Autism. This placed a requirement on all CQC registered service providers’ staff to complete relevant training in response to Oliver McGowan and his family’s experience. You can read Oliver McGowan’s story here.

The new training aims to equip staff with the necessary knowledge and skills to care for people with learning disabilities or autism within their roles. Standardised training has been developed to provide consistent content and learning outcomes. This training is endorsed by the government.

Mandatory training was promised by the government back in 2019. The government pledged to draw on existing best practice and input from people with learning disabilities or autism, their family and carers, and subject experts.

The new standardised training has been developed and delivered with the help of people with lived experience of learning disability and autism. The training also features Paula McGowan OBE, who shares Oliver’s story and explains the need for this training.

Staff will need to complete Tier 1 or Tier 2 training, depending on their role.

 

Tier 1

Provides general awareness of how to support people with learning disabilities or autism:

eLearning package: available now and required for all staff

1-hour online interactive session

 

Tier 2

For staff who may need to provide care for people with learning disabilities or autism

eLearning package: available now and required for all staff

1-day face-to-face training

 

Tier 2 training includes Tier 1 training, so staff only need to complete Tier 1 or Tier 2.

Integrated Care Boards are currently working to increase their training capacity in order to deliver online and face-to-face sessions from early 2023. These sessions will all be co-delivered by someone with a learning disability or autism.

The eLearning package is live on the eLearning for healthcare website now. Employers should organise staff training and ensure it is recorded appropriately.

Health Education England (HEE) are currently accepting applications for anyone wishing to provide this training. If you are an expert by experience, an employer, or an education provider, you can fill out their expression of interest form.

Our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation is especially popular within the beauty industry. This is perhaps due to the requirements of the Hair and Beauty Industry Authority and the Guild of Beauty Therapists for professionals to complete 30 hours of CPD training every year. With ever-changing trends, methods and treatments, keeping up-to-date is crucial.

Accreditation is available for original courses in all areas of beauty therapy, from nails, to make up, to aesthetics. By becoming an accredited CPD training centre with Advantage, you can offer courses awarding CPD hours or CPD points. At the moment, we accredit several beauty training providers in the UK.

 

Aya Beauty, London:

Certificate in Waxing

 

Being Venus Aesthetics & Training Academy, Cheshire:

Foundation Dermal Filler

Microblading

 

Bodygoalstudios Academy, London:

Buttock Augmentation

Fat Dissolve Mesotherapy

Ultrasound Cavitation

Vacuum Therapy (Brazilian Butt Lift and Wonder Breast Lift)

 

Cinderella Salon, West Sussex:

Brazilian Bum Lift & Breast Enhancement Cupping Massage

Warm Bamboo Massage

 

Moon Aesthetics, Essex:

Anatomy and Physiology Foundation

Botox

Dermal Filler

Fat Dissolving Injections

Profhilo

Vitamin Injection

 

The Basement, Wiltshire:

Chemical Peel and Facial

Luxury Facial Dermaplaning and Lash Defining

 

Unique Beauty Academy, Greater Manchester:

Brow Waxing

Combination Brow

Lip Blush

Microblading

Scalp Micropigmentation

 

You can find more accredited training centres in our directory.

Advantage Accreditation provides ongoing support to our centres. This means, even after you have gained accreditation, we will continue to provide access to our online training management software. We will also research and keep you updated on any changes within your industry relevant to your courses.

Click here to learn more about CPD accreditation.