Care Certificate

It’s now five years since the Care Certificate was launched in England in April 2015. With the latest statistics showing that 68% of frontline health and social care staff have engaged with the Care Certificate, let’s refresh our minds as to what the Care Certificate is as well as answer some of the commonly asked questions from throughout the health and social sector. Read More

In October 2019, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) released their annual assessment of health care and social care in England. The document, aptly named ‘State of Care’ reported that, despite challenging times, most of the care given across England is good and, overall, the quality is improving slightly. However, they also reported that service users are not always having good experiences and sometimes people don’t get the care they need until it’s too late and things have seriously worsened for them. Read More

CQC published a report ‘Smiling Matters’ in June 2019 which details an in-depth review on the state of oral health care in care homes across England. Since October 2019, new questions to improve oral care in care homes have been added to the Care Quality Commission’s ‘effective’ key line of inspection inquiry. Read More

The Workforce Development Fund (WDF) is a funding opportunity for adult social care employers in England. It’s a finite pot of money which allows you to reclaim some of the costs incurred through the achievement of advertised qualifications and non-accredited learning programmes by your workforce on completion of the learning. The fund supports the continuing professional development of staff across the adult social care sector. Read More

The third Monday of January has the uninspiring title of Blue Monday. Apparently, a university professor managed to precisely calculate the most depressing day of the year, using formulae based on weather conditions, financial debt, time since Christmas, the time since failing our new year’s resolutions and low motivational level!! Cheery stuff. Read More

The clocks are turning back, and nights are drawing in; somehow, with a blink of an eye summer has gone for another year. This time of seasonal change brings lots of emotions - the more organised amongst you may have all but finished your Christmas shopping, others will be counting down the days until the annual ward night out whilst some of you will simply be wanting to hibernate for a few months. Yet, love it or hate it one thing is for sure: everyone wants to escape the winter bugs, especially the dreaded ‘flu'. Read More

The recent publication of the CQC report, Smiling Matters: Oral health care in care homes found that both a lack of access to dentists and insufficient support provided by care home staff is leading to a worrying state of affairs for residents' dental health. Read More

Caring for others can take its toll on your body, mind and emotions. Yet, even though you may be an expert at looking after your patients, are you giving your own wellbeing the same attention? Read More

If you were trying to improve your fitness, what’s the first thing you’d do? You might join a gym, get advice from a personal trainer or start working out with a friend. Either way you’d probably want to know where you were at before setting yourself some goals, whether it’s running a 5k or doing a triathlon. If you want to move forward you’ve got to find out where you are. That’s the rationale behind The Charity Digital Skills Report. Read More

All of you will have found yourselves in public situations where powerful emotions bubble to the surface, e.g. on the ‘phone to a call centre or waiting for a delayed train. Often even if it doesn’t change the outcome of the situation, if you are dealt with in an open, honest and respectful way, you feel more in control and able to cope. Read More

Fortunately, 21st century healthcare is gradually moving away from the out-dated ‘doctor knows best’ model to one which is more person-centred. For you, as a health care practitioner, this means working with your patients - exploring what they already know, educating and empowering them to live the best they can with their conditions. Read More

Feb 4th, 2019 marks the 20th World Cancer Day (WCD) - a day that aims to bring people, communities and countries together to raise awareness and take action in the global fight against cancer. Read More

Working in the healthcare environment you have a duty to keep your patients safe and free from harm. However, in doing so you need to know that your health is not being put at risk and you are able to work in a safe environment. Read More

This past year has given us some extreme weather: who can forget the deluge of snow that the ‘Beast from the east’ brought us in March? And then, just a couple of months later we enjoyed unprecedented heat waves throughout the long summer. Unfortunately, we don’t have a crystal ball, so who knows what the next few months will bring weather-wise? However, what we do know is that, if you work in a care home, it’s not only the weather that you will be concerned about this winter. Read More

This past year has given us some extreme weather: who can forget the deluge of snow that the ‘Beast from the east’ brought us in March? And then, just a couple of months later we enjoyed unprecedented heat waves throughout the long summer. Unfortunately, we don’t have a crystal ball, so who knows what the next few months will bring weather-wise? However, what we do know is that, if you work in a care home, it’s not only the weather that you will be concerned about this winter. Read More

The weather has turned, the dark nights have settled in and winter is fast-approaching. For those of you involved in the annual influenza immunisation campaign it’s a busy time of year; you will have completed all your training, be familiar with this years’ schedule / PGDs, and now your ‘flu clinics will be in full swing. Read More

Whatever field of healthcare you work in, the ability to cope with change has become an important aspect of your role. Yet keeping abreast of clinical, organisational and administrative changes presents a logistical challenge for even the most dedicated professional Read More

Anaphylaxis is a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction which affects the whole body. Without prompt treatment, it can quickly deteriorate into anaphylactic shock. Read More

Most people tend to think that dementia only affects older people. However, approximately 42,000 people in the UK are affected by what’s known as ‘young onset dementia’ each year. This short article aims to give a brief overview of early onset dementia. However, to fully support people, both through the initial stages after diagnosis and as the disease progresses, it is advisable to undertake specialist healthcare training to help patients deal with the inevitable grief and confusion. Read More

I’m sure that you didn’t enter the caring professions expecting things to be easy, but as the song goes ‘no-one said it would be this hard.’ Unlike so many careers, what you are leaving behind at the end of a long and tiring day isn’t just a ‘to do’ list, it may quite literally be life and death. In addition, being frequently under-resourced means that so often your best is never quite enough. And that’s not easy to cope with. Read More

As the NHS celebrated its 70th birthday this summer there were plenty of nostalgic memories as we as we all reflected on how things were ‘back in the day’. The NHS has changed so dramatically since its inception in 1948 with technology and advances in medical science largely paving the way. But the NHS landscape has also been shaped by those who use its services. We know that people are living longer with more complex conditions and this is reflected in the demand for services both in primary and secondary care. Read More