Mandatory Training

Overview

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

They regulate care provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies and voluntary organisations. Their aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone - in hospitals, care homes and people's own homes. They also seek to protect the interests of people whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.

From April 2011, all private ambulance providers working for NHS Trusts will have to be registered under a tough new regulatory system for monitoring quality and safety of care. Failure to meet these tough standards may result in substantial fines for operators or the closure of their operation.

One of the biggest areas of concern to emerge from CQC reports over the last year has been that of mandatory workforce training, and NSL Care Services is fully committed to ensuring that all colleagues attend mandatory training in accordance with the requirements of their role, that will meet legislative requirements and demonstrate good employment practice.

Mandatory training is defined as training deemed essential for the safe and efficient functioning of the organisation and/or the safety and wellbeing of individual members of staff.

The Challenge

The CQC report on mandatory workforce training indicated that participation in programmes produced the lowest overall compliance rate of all standards. The CQC report indicated that compliance rates vary from 73% to 90% among NHS staff and that less than 86% of adult social care providers meet the training standard.

As mandatory training programmes are deemed essential, obligatory or compulsory compliance standards should be around 100%, with a nominal variation in place just to cover long-term absentees or sickness.

The minimum requirements under CQC guidance for private ambulance providers include basic training on safeguarding, life support and Infection control.

The Challenge for NSL Care Services is to ensure our mandatory training programmes are well structured throughout the course of a year, the methods of follow-up and control are robust, and recording and audit procedures are in place to demonstrate that we meet our statutory obligations.

These systems and procedures should further underpin and support the National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHSLA) standards, Standards for Better Health (SFBH), and the Knowledge & Skills Framework (KSF), as even though NSL Care Services is not directly an NHS Service we are an NHS service provider, and therefore must strive to maintain or improve on these measured standards.

The Solution

In planning for new regulation under the CQC NSL Care Services created a structured corporate and local framework for mandatory training for the entire workforce. This would become an integral part of training linked to risk management and other relevant national standards, to ensure a consistent approach and standard.

This framework requires all NSL Care Services employees to attend mandatory training on a yearly basis.

A database identifies when employees are due for their recertification and a copy of the database is forwarded to all managers monthly indicating which employees need to be released for training .

Directors and heads of departments are sent quarterly attendance and non attendance reports for staff in their areas, which are provided by the NSL Care Services Training and Education department from the training database

If a member of staff does not attend mandatory training accordance within the NSL Care Services can achieve the highest compliance standard.

The Result

All NSL Care Services employees attend the yearly mandatory training programmes in accordance with the requirements of their roles as detailed in the mandatory training schedule. They are required to sign a register of attendance at all sessions that is used as part of the audit trail.

Mandatory training does not now only cover the Basic Life Support and its associated treatments but now also includes Capacity of Consent, Safe Guarding Children and Vulnerable Adults and also Infection Prevention and Control.

We are currently on course to achieve 100% attendance at Mandatory training for the year.