L.O- 3.2 Overview of national initiatives Flashcards
Sandra is a childminder who cares for six children under 5 years old. Her recent OFSTED inspection report stated the following:
- the childminder has a first aid certificate
- the childminder has a level two childcare qualification
- there is a fully enclosed play area available for outside play
- children are not adequately protected from the childminder’s dog
- there are effective relationships with parents/carers of the children
- food preparation areas are not clean
- the childminder admits to sometimes falling asleep while caring for the children and so they are not always supervised
- written records of children’s accidents and first aid treatment are not available
- documents and policies required are not available for this inspection
- children’s interests, individual needs and stage of development are not considered
• there is no support for a child with disabilities or children with English as an additional language.
(b) OFSTED have graded the care that Sandra provides as ‘inadequate’. Describe two ways that national initiatives, such as OFSTED, can help practitioners like Sandra to improve the standard of care they provide.
Inspection reports, clear guidelines, targets set, provide guidance, legislation being followed, identify where staff training is needed, person-centered approach, special measures.
Emily is an alcoholic. She was admitted to hospital for an alcohol detox programme. During her stay in the hospital Emily was upset by the negative experience she had. When Emily arrived on the ward her prescribed medication was taken away from her which caused withdrawal symptoms and stress. The new medication she was prescribed for her alcohol withdrawal was sometimes provided up to five hours late. Emily found the nurses hard to approach because there was no opportunity to talk privately. Whenever Emily tried to speak to the nurses about her concerns regarding her medication they were quite aggressive and dismissive of her feelings and would not agree to a meeting to discuss her care because they were ‘too busy dealing with patients who were really ill’
(c) Identify and describe one way, other than observation, that a care organisation could use to monitor the care it provides.
Ways a care organisation could monitor the care it provides:
- Complaints procedure
- Quality assurance procedures
- Comment boxes
- Ask service users
- Service user forums/groups
- Ask staff
- Surveys/questionnaires
- Mentoring
- Staff meetings
Explain how implementing a confidentiality policy in a care setting helps to promote good practice.
A confidentiality policy helps to promote good practice by:
Providing guidance on how to maintain confidentiality
Providing guidance on when to maintain confidentiality and the circumstances when it is appropriate to break it / staff know how to handle situations
Helping to ensure everyone is working to the same standards / consistency of care for all
Ensuring staff know their responsibilities / what is expected / professional conduct is clear
Ensuring legal requirements are met
Providing a system of redress / gives rights
Helping prevent misuse of information / keeps information safe
Reassuring individuals that their information will be kept safe / confidential
Helps develop trust between SU and SP
Sharon works for social services as a care assistant. Her job involves visiting older adults in their own homes and helping them with daily living tasks that they can no longer manage for themselves, such as bathing, getting dressed, food shopping and preparing meals.
(b) Sharon has successfully completed the Care Certificate qualification. State two benefits for Sharon of having completed the Care Certificate qualification.
Benefits for Sharon of having completed the care certificate:
- confidence in knowing she can do her job to the required standard
- knowledge of how to provide quality care / fully trained
- know what it means to be caring
- skills to provided quality care
In a recent Ofsted inspection report, the staff at Checkleigh Primary School were praised for valuing the diversity of the children.
(b) Which of the following are examples of how Checkleigh Primary School could value diversity?
- welcome signs in a variety of languages
- treating everyone the same
- celebrating different festivals
- having girls toys and boys toys
- ensuring all children have the same food at meal times
- always providing information for parents in English
- challenging discrimination
- not treating anyone differently
- welcome signs in a variety of languages
- celebrating different festivals
- challenging discrimination
(1b) State three ways that national quality assurance initiatives in the care quality commission inspections can help to improve practice in health and social care services.
- Encourages a person-centered approach to care and provision
- Individual needs met – checks/monitors/standards
- Promotes empowerment
- Promotes accessible services
- Provides a system of redress if rights are breached/poor treatment
- Sets out the standards of care required
- Provides clear guidelines for practitioners to follow
- Raises standards of care by monitoring service provision
- Identifies policies organisational policies required - bullying, confidentiality, equal opportunities, data handling
- Targets set so care settings know how to improve
- Provides guidance / advice on how to improve and achieve high standards
- Inspection reports identify good practice / what needs improving
- Identifies where staff training is needed
- Ensures legislation is being followed / law upheld.
3 (a) Outline the role of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, (NICE).
NICE’s main responsibilities are to:
- assess new drugs and treatments as they become available
- provide evidence based guidelines on how particular conditions should be treated
- provide guidelines on how public health and social care services can best support people
- provide information services for those managing and providing health and social care
- to improve outcomes for people using the NHS and other public health and social care services
NICE considers whether a drug or treatment:
- benefits patients
- will help the NHS meet its targets, for example by improving cancer survival rates
- is value for money or cost effective
- should be available on the NHS
Oakleaf Nursing Home You are a care assistant at Oakleaf Nursing Home. You are concerned when you find a resident’s medical records file lying around in the lounge.
(1b) The resident, whose file was found in the lounge, is annoyed, upset and embarrassed that her personal information has been left lying around like this. She is worried it could happen again and wants to make a complaint.
Explain advice that a care assistant could give to the resident, to help her make a complaint.
Advice on options available:
• choose to make a complaint or not
• choose when to make a complaint – straight away or later
• who to complain to
• choose to take up issue with external input – e.g. solicitor, local health authority, CQC
Advice on steps to take:
• write down what happened / describe the incident
• fill in one of the settings complaints forms
• obtain evidence – witness statement from care assistant who found the file
• stay calm, reflect
• talk to someone in authority – e.g. nursing home manager
• take advice – e.g. from friends/family/Citizens Advice Bureau
• listen to other views / perspectives – e.g. the other residents / staff
Emily is an alcoholic. She was admitted to hospital for an alcohol detox programme. During her stay in the hospital Emily was upset by the negative experience she had. When Emily arrived on the ward her prescribed medication was taken away from her which caused withdrawal symptoms and stress. The new medication she was prescribed for her alcohol withdrawal was sometimes provided up to five hours late. Emily found the nurses hard to approach because there was no opportunity to talk privately. Whenever Emily tried to speak to the nurses about her concerns regarding her medication they were quite aggressive and dismissive of her feelings and would not agree to a meeting to discuss her care because they were ‘too busy dealing with patients who were really ill’.
(b) Gennelle joins the staff on Emily’s ward. She is an experienced nurse. She observes the way that the staff are treating Emily and decides to do something about the poor practice she has seen.
State two actions that Gennelle could take.
A confidentiality policy helps to promote good practice by:
- providing guidance on how to maintain confidentiality
- providing guidance on when to maintain confidentiality and the circumstances when it is appropriate to break it / staff know how to handle situations
- helping to ensure everyone is working to the same standards / consistency of care for all
- ensuring staff know their responsibilities / what is expected / professional conduct is clear
- ensuring legal requirements are met
- providing a system of redress / gives rights
- helping prevent misuse of information / keeps information safe
- reassuring individuals that their information will be kept safe / confidential
- helps develop trust between SU and SP
(1c) Many of the care assistants at Oakleaf Nursing Home have the Care Certificate. The care assistants follow the standards, set out by the Care Certificate, in their work with the residents. Some of the Care Certificate standards are:
- Privacy and dignity
- Safeguarding adults
- Health and safety
- Basic life support
- Your own personal development.
Complete the table.
examples standard
1)Always knocking on the
door of a resident’s room
before entering.
2)Attending a course
on manual handling
3)Transferring a resident from their bed to a chair, with the assistance of a colleague rather than doing it alone.
1) Privacy and dignity
2) Your own personal development / Health and Safety
3) Health and safety
Askew Trust Supported Living provides care and support for individuals who have a range of needs relating to learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities or injuries. Newly appointed care staff have an induction period. The induction is linked to the Care Certificate and includes shadowing an experienced member of staff. Compulsory training for all staff includes safeguarding procedures, medicines management, infection control, fire safety procedures and manual handling. Accurate medicine administration records are completed to show when medication has been given. Where people cannot communicate verbally, care plans guide staff on how each person prefers to communicate and any special methods of communication needed, for example, Sign Language, body language, hand signals or gestures are used. Individuals’ nutritional needs and preferences are outlined in their records. Some individuals have special dietary needs such as soft or pureed food to avoid choking and so a blender is used by staff so that the range of meals available is extended. Individuals are supported to make choices. Where needed care plans guide staff on how to support each person to make simple choices like what food they want and what to wear. For example, a care plan will state ‘Show two outfits and give time to decide’.
(c)* The staff induction at Askew Trust Supported Living is linked to the Care Certificate. Outline key features of the Care Certificate.
The Care Certificate
- Is a set of minimum standards that health and social care workers are required to work to in their day to day tasks.
- Aims to ensure that all care workers have the same skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high quality care and support.
- Consists of 15 standards including: (‘standards’ counts as one feature) Understand your role Your personal development Duty of care Equality and diversity Work in a person centred way Communication Privacy and dignity Fluids and nutrition Awareness of mental health, dementia and learning disability Safeguarding - adults and children Basic life support Health and safety Handling information Infection prevention and control.
- Care workers are assessed against the standards to demonstrate they have the required knowledge and skills to provide compassionate and high quality care.
- The assessment of the required skills must be undertaken in the workplace.
- The standards should be covered for anyone ‘new to care’ and should form part of the induction programme.
