Staff Training
Full time staff have at least 5 days training time per year, (and part-time staff pro rata). These include external certificated courses such as mental health issues, procedures, (social) care and treatment techniques.
Also staff receive training on manual handling, food hygiene, health and safety, safeguarding adults, medication, infection control and first aid. Q.C.F. (formerly N.V.Q.) Qualifications are encouraged, and all care/support staff members currently hold N.V.Q qualifications in Social Care with the majority being Level 3.
All staff are actively involved in staff meetings, Sunny Bank PRS’s own seven-weekly client care/support review process, and the In Service Training Programme, as well as their own monthly "Individual Learning Time" sessions.
Staff training periods at Sunny Bank run from the beginning of April each year to the end of March the following year. At the beginning of each training year a senior member of staff will hold a meeting with each employee to identify and prioritise which topics/courses should be undertaken or refreshed according to their training needs.
Mandatory Courses
The following Mandatory courses are undertaken by all members of staff and are refreshed either yearly or 3 yearly depending on guidance requirements.
- Food Safety and Catering
- Safeguarding of Adults
- Medication
- Manual Handling
- Health and Safety in the workplace
- Fire Training
- Emergency First Aid at Work
- Person Centred Care
Independent Learning Time Topics:
Each month staff are allocated time within their shifts to study different topics from our Learning Time Boxes. Each box will contain various reference materials in the form of DVDs, articles, web sources etc, which staff can study at their own pace. The time can also be used for e-learning and workbooks for both mandatory courses (e.g. medication) and special interest topics (e.g. autism).
For example staff have looked at;
- Personality Disorder
- Mental Capacity
- Huntington's Disease
- Electrical Safety in the Workplace
- Dignity and Respect
- Alcoholism
- Duty of Candour
- Cultural Diversity
- Mental Health User Experiences
- Care/Support Dilemmas for staff
- Mental Capacity Act 2005 & DOLS
- Cultural Diversity
- Risk Assessment
- Infection Control
- Challenging Behaviour
- Strokes
- End of Life
- Human Rights
- Schizophrenia
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Internal Staff Training Meetings:
Internal Staff Training Meetings are held at Sunny Bank for all available staff every 7 weeks. They will be presented either by a senior member of staff or by an external speaker and will cover a number of different topics such as those listed below.
For example in 2015/16 staff attended Internal Training on the following topics;
- End of Life Care
- Managing Challenging Behaviour
- Dementia Awareness
- Use of Inhalers, Creams, Eye & Ear Drops
- Diabetes Awareness
- Clients Personal Needs
- Fire Prevention & Safety
- Diabetic/Glucometer training
- Duty of Candour
- Safeguarding Children Training
External Courses:
All members of staff at Sunny Bank are given the opportunity to further their training development by attending external courses.
We use a number of different organizations / training providers for these courses such as; Bury Adult Care Training Partnership, Age Concern, Skills Development Service, Primary Care Training Group, The Jewish Federation, Creative Support, Early Break, Pennine Acute Hospital Trust, First Response Training, St Johns, Uclan Training and Business Solutions. Below is a list of just some of the topics attended by staff in 2015/16.
- Assertiveness
- Autism Awareness
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards / Mental Capacity Act
- Drugs & Alcohol Awareness
- Hearing Voices Workshop
- Jewish Awareness
- Affective Disorders
- Leadership Skills
- Understanding Learning Difficulties
- Psychoactive Substances Training
- NVQ level 2 Care
- Out of Control / Challenging Behaviour, Aggressive Patients
- Personality Disorder
- Self Confidence Building
- Skills for Care Road Show
- Schizophrenia / Psychosis
- Keeping Children Safe