Training

WWW.IIRSM.ORG MARCH 2014

WWW.IIRSM.ORG MARCH 2014

Training

Stamp of
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Flying the ag
IIRSMs mission is to provide recognition, information, support and enhancement of the status and reputation of health and safety professionals worldwide through the benets of membership.

L A V O R P AP
organisation the international stamp of approval, as it aims to expand overseas. The accreditation with the Institute came through Caremarks eLearning courses and blended learning system, authored by Lynda and written specically to suit the home care environment and reect the Caremark system, policies and procedures. Working in partnership with Karen Hoskins, manager of the health and safety team with the Essex Chambers of Commerce, the course was underwritten by the health and safety team. and incorporates all aspects of the Caremark system, as well as health and safety and risk management in line with current legislation, explains Lynda. With previous experience of using eLearning in her earlier career, Lynda knew the value of online learning for staff working in home care. The care service is a 24-hour business, which makes it difficult to bring together all staff in the training room at any one time. Having an online system of learning enables staff to study and learn at a time to suit their individual schedules. Since launching the e-Learning package close to 2,500 users have provided feedback, most of which has been very good. When I wrote this course I had to take into account that everyone has different learning styles and, of course, they are all learning remotely. The eLearning represents the theory side of their training. Their knowledge is assessed online but they also have to complete a practical competency assessment on their seven mandatory subjects. Known as blended learning, it ensures practitioners are knowledgeable and competent. There are plans in place to extend the basic training in the future, introducing different specialist modules to suit more diverse client groups and requirements. For Lynda the merging of the two worlds of health and safety and social care is really important. We need to bring the awareness of health and safety into the social care world, she adds, as care will affect everyone at some point in their life.

Demonstrating standards
The Training Approval scheme was introduced in 2011 to help training centres, and other training providers, demonstrate that their training satises the high standards needed to meet the membership requirements of the Institute. Available as a package of Approved Centre, Trainer and Course, the scheme also provides a unique selling point, particularly for international centres seeking to establish the credentials of their training courses in what is a very competitive training market. International centres with qualications fully accepted in their home countries and with demonstrable experience in delivering specialist qualications in the eld of health and safety, environmental, re prevention and safety risk management may be approved by IIRSM if they satisfy the content and quality control criteria.

Lynda Goldsmith SIIRSM shares her experience of the Institutes training approval process.

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ost businesses know the importance of having a robust health and safety policy in place to help ensure a safe working environment for their staff. However, when it comes to applying this to the world of home care, the situation becomes a little more complex. Unlike staff working within the residential care settings, care and support workers delivering care services to individuals at home are at the mercy of many different environments; each situation and client must be risk-assessed according to their unique circumstances. Home care provider Caremark, a franchisor offering domiciliary care, personal support, home help and companionship services, was recently recognised as an approved centre of training by IIRSM. Health and safety is a massive part of our job when we deliver care to adults and children, says the companys national training manager, Lynda Goldsmith SIIRSM, who has also been recognised by the Institute as a recommended safety practitioner. As well as being regulated by the Care Quality Commission, we are also governed by health and safety legislation to ensure people whom we support are safe. Not many people realise this people tend to think that applies only to more industrialised working environments. But as well as safeguarding our clients and care workers, we have a duty of care to our franchisees as well, to ensure there is health and safety guidance in place within their offices. Franchisees must risk assess their offices for their employees as well as the workplace of their care workers, which are of course, clients homes. The latter is more challenging because one cannot regulate someone in their own home.
Beyond the screen

Enhancing reputation
The scheme aims to both enhance the reputation and competitiveness of training providers who receive the Approved Centre, Approved Course and Approved Trainer awards by providing an external, professionally based, quality assurance process. In turn, this will also facilitate alumni to gain internationally recognised and approved membership of IIRSM. In doing so, centres and trainers will be able to demonstrate that they meet the exacting requirements and provide the highest levels of training and internationally recognised qualications in the exacting area of occupational safety and health. By doing so, they will enhance the future employment prospects of their alumni by offering approved high-quality qualications that meet internationally dened criteria.

Every home is different, health and safety risks to both care worker and client vary, and therefore the training has to be aimed at working in a unique environment
Being a dispersed workforce, home carers have different training requirements to that of those delivering a service within a care home, says Lynda. Every home is different, health and safety risks to both care worker and client vary, and therefore the training has to be aimed at working in a unique environment. The new training tools have been developed over a period of months, after extensive research into the existing models already used within the care sector. Having a tailormade system of online learning enables all staff to be consistently trained to the same high standard across the network, ensuring Caremarks standard of excellence in care is maintained throughout its franchised offices. Through working collaboratively we have been able to produce a system of eLearning which is modern, easy to use

Get approved
To gain approval, training centres must be able to demonstrate a high level of governance, experience, expertise, nancial stability and quality assurance. See www.iirsm.org/training_approval for more information.

* Please note that IIRSM is neither an examining body nor a certication body. Approval does not guarantee acceptance of your course at any particular membership level because short courses and non-certicate, nondiploma courses are also open to the scheme.

Caremark undertook the IIRSM accreditation process to achieve its approval status for its health and safety training to give the