Advice | Advantage Accreditation

How our accreditation works - Advantage Accreditation

Our Accreditation Process

Advantage accredits your internal training, trainers and training system. But what does that actually mean in practice? What process do we go through?

1. Your courses or ours?

Advantage’s accreditation takes two forms: we can either accredit your courses, or accredit your trainers to deliver our Advantage Awards.

Our Awards are suitable if you do not have your own courses to deliver, if you wish to replace your current courses, or if you want to supplement your own portfolio. They are developed by our curriculum team, which consists of our in-house curriculum team but also our external, expert curriculum specialists. If you choose to deliver our Awards, we will need to check your internal trainers’ experience and qualifications to ensure they are fit to do so (see below for more on internal trainers).

Many of our centres choose for us to accredit their own courses, including training providers. In these cases, we need to make sure the content is accurate and fit for purpose. We do this by mapping the courses against external standards, such as:

Resuscitation Council
National Occupational Standards
CQC Fundamental Standards
Legislation such as the Care Act 2014 or Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

The mapping process is carried out by our internal curriculum team or, if it is a particularly high-level or specialist course, one of our Curriculum Specialists. Of course, many organisations providing their own training do so because they want to include their own practices and policies in their courses. We can help with that too, advising on the most effective way to do so.

2. Internal trainers

If you are an organisation looking to provide training to your own staff, then you will need to tell us who is going to deliver that training. Of course, if you are a training provider, then you will probably already have a bank of trainers.

Whether it is an experienced trainer or just an in-house subject expert, then the process is the same: we look at the individual’s work experience, qualifications and skills to ensure they are appropriate to deliver the course. Our Train the Trainer courses can help familiarise trainers with new course content, help inexperienced trainers learn how to pass their expert knowledge onto others, or just make sure their training skills are as good as they can be.

3. Policies and processes

An often overlooked piece of the jigsaw is the policies and processes that underlie your training: your training records, how you decide who to train and when, and how you keep your courses up to date. We will provide an outside overview on your training systems to make they’re optimised. Centres also get access to our online client portal. This can serve as a digital repository for all of your records of who attended a course, when, and how they performed. It can also help you schedule your courses.

4. Helping you keep on track

Once we’ve looked at your courses, training qualifications and experience and your processes, and if you meet our standards, then we can accredit you. If you fall short in some areas, we can help you put it right.

For us, however, the accreditation journey does not end when we let you lose our quality mark. Our office support and curriculum teams are available to help with any queries or problems. We also carry out audits. This sounds intimidating, but it is vital for two purposes:

To show you and your stakeholders that we are serious about upholding our standards
To help you use Advantage’s services as effectively and as fully as you can

How to start along the journey?

Get in touch with us for a no-commitment chat. We won’t pressure you, just talk about your requirements and how we might be able to help.

Give us a call on 020 7405 9999, or email us at [email protected]

First aid training accreditation - Advantage Accreditation

Why get your first aid training accredited?

Ever since the HSE deregulated (in a manner of speaking) the first aid training market, the number of providers has increased and differentiation has become more difficult. Awarding bodies and accreditation bodies often pitch themselves to first aid training providers as being to help them overcome the competition. But what’s really the case for accreditation? You may find the below useful if you’re a training provider wondering whether to get your first aid courses accredited, or if you’re a consumer looking to see if it’s worth paying the additional cost.

The story so far

In the past, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) approved first aid training providers. Although the title of the course changed over the years (from Appointed Persons First Aid to First Aid at Work, for example), the importance of the HSE’s stamp of approval was a constant and ensured a quality standard in the market.

After 1 October 2013, however, the HSE ceased approving first aid training providers. The argument from the HSE and the government at the time was to allow organisations more flexibility, but it was also part of a wider shift in regulatory practice of moving the onus on to the organisation itself. It is now the responsibility of organisations to ensure that the training they have received is sufficient and proportionate according to their own risk assessment.

The situation now

The HSE no longer approves first aid training providers. Instead, it has criteria that it recommends organisations look for when choosing a provider. The criteria includes:

That the trainer has an appropriate qualification
An organisational quality assurance scheme to monitor training delivery
Able to produce accurate certificates
Appropriate course content

Technically, there is nothing that forces organisations to adopt this guidance. The issue only emerges when there is an inspection by either local enforcement agencies or the HSE itself and the organisation must demonstrate that the training is appropriate. However, the number of proactive visits carried out by such bodies has plunged by nearly 70% since 2010, meaning most inspections only occur after an accident or complaint. There are a good number of organisations who are happy to play the percentages.

Why get your first aid training accredited?

So, in that context, why should first aid training providers seek to deliver a regulated qualification or seek accreditation?

1. Rising above the competition

Deregulation meant that the number of smaller training providers increased. Plimsoll has consistently said that the market is either stagnant or growing by very small amounts, but this is only half the story. Plimsoll only looks at the sales revenue of registered companies. The reason that the sales of those companies is falling or flat, however, is because of the large number of sole traders and unregistered providers who have begun to offer their services. This may explain why, in the detail of their report, you will see that the very small – insurgents with little overhead – and very big providers – with recognised brands and marketing power – are growing, whilst the middle-ranking providers are being squeezed.

In other words, first aid training has effectively become commoditised, meaning differentiation has become more and more important. Demonstrating that your courses are of a high standard that you are a reputable provider could be the difference between sales growth or slow decline.

2. Making clients’ lives easier

Although some organisations will seek shortcuts, many will want to ensure that their staff are trained to suitable standards. A small business owner reading the HSE’s criteria may therefore panic about checking that their chosen providers meets all of the best practice checklist.

An accreditation scheme helps make their life easier. If your training is accredited, it gives comfort to prospective clients and makes choosing you as their provider just that little bit easier.

3. The HSE criteria

Unfortunately, incidents do occur and the HSE or other bodies do have to investigate. In those scenarios, the business will need to demonstrate that it chose its first aid training provider in good faith, and the provider will need to show that its product is fit for purpose.

The easiest way to do this is to meet the HSE’s own criteria, which recognises that some providers “operate under voluntary accreditation schemes (including trade/industry bodies)”. Accreditation of your first aid training will help with all the HSE’s criteria, but there are two elements of their checklist that it can particularly help with.

Is there a quality assurance system in place to monitor the quality of training? Many organisations will be too small and too busy to spend vast amounts of time preparing quality policies and carrying out quality visits. An accreditation scheme will either provide that system for you, or help you to put yours in place.
Is first aid taught in accordance with currently accepted first-aid practice? Staying up to date with the guidance issued by bodies such as the HSE and Resuscitation Council UK can be difficult, particularly if you’re working in a market this competitive. Accreditation schemes such as Advantage typically offer some form of curriculum update service where they update you on the latest changes in best practice or regulation.

4. In-house training

The HSE criteria has a specific section for organisations carrying out in-house training, although in reality the requirements are similar to those expected of external providers. The challenge is record-keeping. Accreditation schemes may help you with keeping those records. Advantage, for example, offers an online accreditation portal to manage training and qualification records. We also help centres to put internal record systems in place, including checking their in-house trainers’ qualifications.

Conclusion

Getting your training accredited does not make you a great first aid training provider, nor does it prevent you from serious reputation damage if it is found that you cannot back up what you say. It may, however, help steer you in the right direction and show that you take training standards seriously an increasingly difficult marketplace.

Completing the Care Certificate - Advantage Accreditation

What you need to complete the Care Certificate

The Care Certificate was launched in April 2015. At the time and since, it has been subject to many myths and misconceptions. What is the Care Certificate? What do your staff need to do to be able to complete it?

What is the Care Certificate?

The Care Certificate is a set of 15 standards that care workers should follow in order to do their job successfully and provide a good level of care. It was developed together by Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health and based on the requirements of the Cavendish Review. It replaced the Common Induction Standards and National Minimum Training Standards, its direct precursors.

The Care Certificate is fairly similar to the Common Induction Standards in a number of ways, but included new standards that recognised the modern challenges in the health and social care sector, such as mental health issues and dementia (Standard 9), safeguarding (Standards 10 and 11) and information privacy and governance (Standard 14).

Who need to do the Care Certificate?

Any new health and social care workers from April 2015 were required to ‘do’ the Care Certificate. If you use agency, bank or temporary staff, it is up to you to determine whether they have training suitable to perform their role.

If you have hired someone who claims they have undertaken training in the standards with a previous employer, then you should still take steps to verify their claims and assess their competence in the workplace.

Is it mandatory?

Technically, the Care Certificate is not mandatory. Although it was widely expected pre-April 2015 that this would be the case, Skills for Care confirmed in 2015 that the Care Certificate had no statutory power behind it.

In their own words, 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”.

In practice, this means that the Care Certificate is effectively mandatory, or at the very least expected best practice for care providers. The CQC actively look for evidence that:

The Care Certificate forms part of the staff induction process, or if not, a suitable alternative is used;
Staff know the standards and that they have been trained in them and assessment against them;
The provider is actively assessing against the competencies in the Care Certificate.

The CQC use the Care Certificate as a baseline because that is precisely what it was intended to be, to apply to both regulated and non-regulated workforces. Assessing against the Care Certificate help ensure a minimum standard of care for everyone.

Is there a time limit?

Another myth perpetuated at the time of launch was that Certificate had to be completed within 12 weeks of induction. This belief actually originated from Skills for Care’s own pilot project that showed that 12 weeks was the approximate time it would take someone to demonstrate the competencies and knowledge. Again, technically, there is no time-limit. All the CQC need to see is that it forms part of the “induction process”.

What do staff need to do to complete the Care Certificate?

‘Completing’ the Care Certificate is not as easy as sending staff on a training course. That is because it requires a joint-effort on behalf of both the care worker and the employer. Care workers must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the Care Certificate, but the employer must assess this is their everyday work.

Many providers use a combination of methods to help new staff understand the Care Certificate. Classroom-based training, distance learning or e-learning can help with many of the more theory-based standards, although distance learning or e-learning alone is likely to be insufficient for Standard 12: Basic Life Support. The assessor should then look for examples in their everyday work that they are actively applying the standards, or, if such situations do not present themselves, create scenarios to help them demonstrate their knowledge and skills.

What resources are there to help?

Skills for Care and Skills for Health have produced a number of free resources, including guidance on all standard, a self-assessment tool, and free e-learning.

Advantage have also developed a distance learning package designed to meet the needs of both staff and employers, including assessment sheets and easy-to-follow knowledge guides. Get in touch to find out more.

What does accreditation mean?

We hear and read a lot about accreditation (especially us), but what does it actually mean, both in theory and in practice? We attempt to summarise.

A definition of accreditation

Accreditation is the external recognition of your adherence to a set of standards to perform an activity or hold a certain status. Typically, accreditation is held by education institutions or organisations. However, schemes exist in a variety of industries. It can show that an organisation subscribes to certain quality standards or adheres to a voluntary self-regulatory code.

Well-known accreditation schemes include the Red Tractor Scheme, the National Landlords Association, CHAS, and Law Society Accreditation. Sometimes, such schemes may not be called as such, or may be a part of a larger scheme. For example, the Federation of Master Builders is effectively an accreditation scheme, even though it calls itself a 'trade association'.

Benefits of accreditation

There are numerous benefits to accreditation, depending on the scheme. In general, it shows that the organisation takes their responsibilities seriously. This gives confidence to external regulators and customers. It can lead to more business or more engagement, and can give customers or service users confidence in your standards and your ability to comply with regulations and laws.

It can give an organisations confidence in itself, too. Many schemes give you advice on best practice or advice on common problems. The National Landlords Association, for example, offers commonly used forms that members can use and offers advice on common disputes between landlords and tenants. CHAS provides model procedures and documents that members can use to help become health and safety compliant. At Advantage, we offer curriculum updates so that centres can be sure they're using up to date and compliant course materials.

Who decides what accreditation is valid or not?

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the body recognised by the Government to assess against "internationally agreed standards". In their own words, UKAS "check the checkers".

UKAS aren't the only body with a role in the accreditation 'market', however. Sector skills bodies such as Skills for Care and Energy and Utility Skills have an input, even if indirectly, into accreditation and quality standards and sometimes have their own accreditation or assurance schemes. Voluntary industry bodies or professional associations such as the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) also have a big role to play. The Federation of Awarding Bodies in one such organisation.

How do I find the right accreditation scheme?

To identify the right accreditation, assurance or association body for you, you should ask the following questions:

Is this scheme right for my sector or niche? ISO standards are often the go-to certifications, but they may not actually say anything about your technical competence.
Do they have evidence of their expertise? What are their quality processes? Do they have in-house experts that provide advice to their staff and to you and make sure that the body is up to date with the latest knowledge and best practice? Can they help you with technical queries?
Do their values match yours? Do they actually do anything for their money? Some bodies want your membership fee, but then do not offer any real help.
Do they conduct audits? It may not seem to be in your interest to welcome audits, but a body that audits their members takes their standards and responsibilities seriously.

And of course, make sure they're responsive to your needs.

Your work experience checklist

If you’re a residential or domiciliary care organisation taking someone in on work experience, there’s a big benefit to yourself and the sector as a whole. Hopefully, you’re getting someone who’s enthusiastic who may even end up working for you someday and making a real difference. However, it’s easy to forget the basics when it comes to work experience, so here’s your checklist to make sure you and the person get the most out of their work experience.

1. Get the right person

Normally, if someone is applying for work experience in your care setting then it’s because they want to be there, but not always. Find some way of vetting the person beforehand to make sure you’re getting someone who will put the effort in. There’s nothing worse in any work environment than someone who doesn’t want to be there.

2. Basic housekeeping

Make sure you give the work experience person everything they need to know on the first day. That means all the things you take for granted, such as expected working hours, where the toilets are, who to ask for help, how long the lunch break is, and where the first aid kit is located.

3. Don’t mistake anxiety for laziness

Most of the people you get on work experience will be young, and teenagers are complex creatures! Sometimes they may be giving off an attitude that can easily come across as sulkiness or laziness. Make sure, however, you prod a little deeper, because it could just be anxiety. Remember, it is likely to be there first experience of working life and outside of the comfort zone of the controlled classroom environment.

4. Ease them in

As stated above, this may be their first experience of working life, so don’t throw them in at the deep end. Make sure they get a full induction and tour, and maybe try them out on a few easier tasks before moving them on to more intense activities.

5. Give them a rounded experience

We all know that a care organisation is not just the front-line. There’s also the business management, finance and coordination sides, as well as others. Give the work experience person a full picture of your organisation and all of its aspects. If the person isn’t quite enjoying one aspect of the organisation, you can move them to another where they might thrive.

6. Give them a supervisor who will make time for them

The front-line of care can be hectic. It’s hard enough for your supervisors and managers to give time to full-time staff, let alone work experience people. Of course, we know that it is important that they do. Choosing the right supervisor for the work experience person can be crucial, so have a think about someone with the right personality traits and who has the time to dedicate to helping someone through the whole experience. You may even want to consider lightening their other duties for a period to ensure they have enough time for the person.

Do you have any other tips? Leave your comments below!

Person-centred approach – training and development

Person-centred care should be at the heart of any health and social care provider’s approach to care. But how do we embed it into training and development? The person-centred approach framework released by Skills for Health, Skills for Care and Health Education England includes a section advising organisations on how to embed these approaches using training and development. The framework recommends a number of “underpinning principles” to guide an organisation’s approach to training and development on the topic.

Behaviour change

The most important of those principles is “behaviour change”. As with the whole idea of a person-centred approach, this concept is now fairly old, but its implications have still not been felt by a vast number of organisations in the sector, and indeed across all sectors. Unfortunately, the framework is frustratingly light on how behaviour can be changed in a positive way, reflecting only that it is more successful than “isolated training”. It does note, however, that any training geared towards changing behaviour will fail if the organisation’s structure and processes reward an old, habitual behaviours rather than reward the behaviours enshrined in the framework:

Development of capability must simultaneously be supported with the right processes, system and opportunity together with locally relevant incentives, which build those intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.

Co-producing training

The framework also recommends that training is co-produced to a certain extent. This boils down to having the carer or even the service user contributing stories and reflections about their experiences during the course, or even during the planning of the course.

This shouldn’t be new to any good provider or trainer. A good trainer will seek to engage the people on the course, getting them to talk about how they can relate to content of the course and whether they can think back to any relevant experiences. A classic reflection exercise is ‘What would you have done differently?’, getting the learner to retrospectively apply their new learnings to a previous experience.

Again, the framework highlights that the best co-produced training will have people involved in the planning stage without them even knowing it, with HR processes that continuously seek feedback from service users and staff.

Reflective practice

Again, we are all familiar with the importance of getting members of the team to reflect on what is working, what isn’t working, and on the needs of others.

The challenge for many health and social care providers, of course, will be finding the time for members of staff (including managers) to engage in reflective practice. As resources become more stretched, it will become more and more difficult. One possible solution is to stress its importance during the induction period, to effectively train staff to continuously reflect ‘on the job’.

Continuous improvement

The framework focuses on the structural element of continuous improvement – of managers consistently providing feedback to staff. The framework does not mention, though, the significance of a continuous improvement culture. The best companies in industry that practice continuous improvement have it as part of their culture, running through everything they do, encompassing HR, finance, production and service delivery processes.

Achieving culture change, of course, is difficult to accomplish and can take a long period of time. It requires concentrated effort and the full support of senior leadership. As any continuous improvement organisation will tell you though – and this includes the likes of General Electric and Mitsubishi – it is well worth it.

Value-based approaches

This part of the framework primarily refers to recruitment and retention. Unfortunately, the section of the framework seems a little too aspirational. The news this week has been full of reports about the huge number of vacancies with the NHS, with retention proving as much of an issue as recruitment. This is compounded by applications from the EU dropping off significantly in anticipation of Brexit and the end of free movement. Even a brief perusal of any job site will tell you that care settings are also continuously recruiting in a sector renowned for its high staff turnover.

Increasingly, health and social care providers are taking what they can get. Recruiting on the grounds of values and outlook, as the framework advocates, is simply not possible for those who cannot afford to go and do it. The emphasis has to be on training and induction. This is helped by having a strong culture that new workers can be embedded in to quickly.

Methods for delivering training

The ‘narrative’ section of the framework does not elaborate on this principle much, although content further down in the document does by discussing “permitted time for e-learning”. As ever, the key is deciding which approach is most suited for each person and for each subject area. E-learning is often perfect for entry-level staff being trained in compliance topics where answers are often binary (i.e. yes or no, right or wrong). It may not be suitable for training that requires reflection and where judgement may be more subjective.

Conclusion

Although the framework raises some great points, it does feel a little too aspirational and abstract at times. Many health and social care providers will feel that it doesn’t account for challenges in recruitment and funding issues. If you take anything from the framework and this post, let it be these three points:

Culture, culture, culture: if behavioural change, continuous improvement and a person-centred approach are going to take hold, it needs to be embedded in your culture.
The method of training delivery needs to be suitable for the person and the subject area.
Train people to reflect on their work every day and ‘on the job’. This embeds it into their behaviour, and means they are doing it even if you can’t set aside specific time for them to do so.