The BBC have just reported that children in care in Nottingham were subject to abuse from carers for decades. It has been reported that hundreds of children were sexually abused by residential support workers and foster carers.

A report that has just been published clearly states that Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County council left vulnerable children exposed to repeated rapes and physical abuse. The report also states that sexual behaviour and abuse was overlooked by support workers and tolerated.

Sadly the report also states that the exploitation of children in the hands of carers was taking place for more than five decades going back to the 1970’s and late 1960’s, complaints of sexual abuse total over 350.

The report has found Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County council responsible for a number of failings from one, not recognising the scale of abuse taking place and taking no action to find out, and two, there were serious failings of scrutiny and governance.

ProCare Nursing take safeguarding very seriously

At ProCare Nursing all of our care support workers are DBS checked for previous criminal convictions.

If there is any sign of abuse taking place while service users are receiving care from our agency we take action immediately, we have all of the correct procedures in place to ensure any allegations are properly investigated. We do not over look anything or tolerate any form of abuse, we are an award winning health and social care agency and we are going to stay an award winning agency.

We provide solid and thorough training to all of our care support workers, we also re-train and update existing care support workers who have been working for us for many years, regular training in safeguarding ensures our care staff have all of the necessary skills to ensure high levels of care.

Here are a few photos of care support workers receiving training from theory to physical restraining techniques.

We carry out all of our training in-house and do not outsource to third party training companies, we do this to ensure quality control of the courses being taught ensuring all support workers are thoroughly trained and can deliver excellent care in any given environment.

ProCare Nursing provide quality care to its service users

ProCare Nursing have been established for over 20 years and was founded in 1997. We have over 100 care support workers and many qualified nurses delivering high standards of care in local communities all over Cardiff and Wales.

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If you have any queries with regards to care requirements then get in touch, we are a health and social agency that provides first class care to its service users, we safeguard all of our service users ensuring they are safe and well when receiving care from us.

We have been recognised by Agored Cymru an awarding body for education and training in Wales. Agored Cymru work with 200 centres in Wales including ours (pictured below).

One of Agored Cymru main goals is to develop talent across a broad range of sectors including the health and social care sector in Wales. The reason we have been recognised by Agored Cymru is because we are recognising the potential of talented care support workers. We go above and beyond training all of our care support workers ensuring they are equipped to carry out quality care for our service users in Wales.

On our website we advertise our care jobs as careers, we look for compassionate people who have caring values toward people who are committed as we are in delivering quality care. When support workers have demonstrated a commitment in delivering first class care we encourage our care workers to gain new qualifications, we recommend they continue from their mandatory care training and go on to complete a level 2 QCF qualification in health and social care. Gaining QCF qualifications can lead to other avenues in the health and social care sector.

QCF qualifications are available up to Level 5 in health and social care, this can lead to managerial careers within the health and social care sector. While carers are on the journey with us we also have our own internal recognition system for those achieving excellence when caring for our service users.

We have award winning Mental Health nurses

Ensuring that our care workers are motivated and recognised leads to quality care in the field. We know this because in 2017 Sara Wells our senior Care Support Worker was put forward by ProCare Nursing for an award. Sara walked away winning the award for “Excellence in Dementia Care Award” at the Wales Care Awards, this is a clear indication that care work is being carried out from our agency to a high standard. Here is Sara pictured furthest right with her award.

Happy and recognised care support workers lead to excellence in care support work.

Thorough in-house training leads to quality care

At ProCare Nursing we do NOT outsource any training to third parties. We do all of our mandatory training in-house, this ensures we maintain quality control of care training making sure care support workers are thoroughly trained to carry out effective health and social care work in the field.

Here are a few photo’s of a recent Prevention Management Violence and Aggression course undertaken at our in-house facility.

We ensure that all of our care support workers are fully equipped to protect themselves in conflict situations. The PMVA course teaches all aspects of confrontation scenarios from diffusing conflict through restraint and in a non-physical manner.

Conclusion

We have been recognised by Agored Cymru because we go to great lengths recognising the talents of care support workers.

Over recent weeks we have been talking about our Prevention Management Violence and Aggression course. This course equips care support workers with the skills to protect themselves in hostile environments. Due to the nature of the environment’s care support workers are delivering care aggression and conflict can be a high risk. This is why the PMVA course is so important.

Here are more photos of care support workers new and experienced receiving training in restraint techniques and how to handle particular situations.

Care support workers often work in Mental Health units, Mental Health NHS wards and residential homes where people have severe Mental Health conditions, it is no surprise to us that Mental Health patients can strike out in frustration putting carers at risk from injury. The Prevention Management Violence and Aggression course teaches how to avoid injury and how to diffuse volatile situations.

Not only does the PMVA course look at physical restraints but it also looks at ways to diffuse situations without restraints. We have seen on many occasions where there has been no need to restrain someone, you can also diffuse situations by talking calmly but firmly to Mental Health patients, reasoning and behaviour therapy can be applied in order to stop potential aggressive behaviour.

The PMVA course also looks at ways to avoid accusations made by service users which often are false accusations. Service users can deem restraints as physical assaults and in some cases sexual assaults that can be escalated, the PMVA course explains how to stay away from potential false accusations and show care support workers where their bodies and hands need to be positioned to ensure restraints are carried out professionally avoiding accusations.

We have overseen cases where accusations have been made by the service users against care support workers, the investigations last for months and most of the time the end result is the care support workers were simply doing their jobs, the PVMA course gives examples of these scenarios so that care support workers are ready and prepared knowing they have to do a professional job to avoid false accusations.

We teach our care support workers the importance of getting restraining techniques right, one for their own safety, but two, for the safety of the service user which is the priority, the last thing you will want to happen is a service user ending up with a broken arm or a broken finger, if restraint techniques are carried out correctly then injuries are avoided and this is what the PMVA course teaches.

If you think you would benefit from the Prevention Management Violence and Aggression course then get in touch, we run the PMVA course regularly and train care support workers from other agencies along with our own care support workers. We are an award winning agency with over 20 years experience in the health and social care sector and are here to help you with any training requirements you have.

We have been writing recently on how all care support workers in Wales need to be officially registered by April 2020. The reason for this new measure being introduced by the Welsh Government is to increase the professionalism in the health and social care sector, this new measure will also ensure workers get the recognition and training they need to carry out first class care.

At ProCare Nursing we recognise the efforts of our residential care workers and domiciliary care workers. We have our own in-house award scheme and issue certificates to our carers who have gone above and beyond their duty of care. Here is an example of a certificate of excellence we issued in November 2018 to one of our carers.

We like to reward our workers and recognise their efforts for providing quality care in our local communities in Cardiff. Here is a photo of Sam collecting her employee of the month certificate.

We firmly believe that recognising our carers and office workers efforts and high standards of work gives them pride in themselves, it also shows they are appreciated by the company and will add to their motivation continuing to deliver high standards of care to our service users.

ProCare Nursing have been established for over 20 years and are an award winning care agency, we walked away with the “Excellence in Dementia” care award at the Wales Care Awards in 2017. The reason we win awards is because we go above and beyond equipping our carers with the skills they need to be able to carry out quality care to the service user.

We have our very own training facility based at our offices in Canton. We carry out all kinds of courses from manual handling to Prevention, Management, Violence and Aggression courses. Here are a range of photos of course participants receiving training.

We carry out all of our training in-house to ensure quality control of every course taught. A lot of care agencies in Cardiff will carry out training off-site where free lancers teach health and social care skills. The problem with outsourced training is you cannot be sure if training is carried out thoroughly or if the free lancer is in the industry for a fast buck.

Not all but some free lance trainers may well just tick the boxes and say training has been carried out and do a mediocre job of it, the problem with this is carers will go into the field ill equipped and unable to offer high quality care. In-house training ensures that all training is taught to a high standard and all care workers have all the skills they need to carry out quality care for the service user.

We go above and beyond ensuring high standards are the name of the game at our care support agency. We take interest in our carers and want to to motivate them to carry out first class care in Cardiff and the South Wales area.

We wrote last week about the effects Brexit is having on the health and social care sector. When Theresa May began her premiership one of the things she was passionate about was Mental Health, however with the furious debate raging around Brexit sadly it looks as though this is an area that again has been neglected, with Brexit dominating the political atmosphere never mind No-Deal brexit our country is already experiencing serious harm.

It was reported by the BBC just this morning that in three years referrals for children aged 11 and under has risen by nearly 50% in three years, Theresa May began her premiership roughly three years ago which is an indication that while leading the country Mental Health is getting worse in the UK and that includes Cardiff and Wales.

We are not writing to attack Theresa May at all, the Brexit debate is an important time for the UK and it does need full attention especially when MP’s cannot agree on anything, but this surely is evidence in which Brexit is harming our country, MP’s are not debating enough about the health and social care sector because everything is dominated by Brexit.

How can ProCare Nursing play its part to help

ProCare Nursing is passionate about Mental Health full stop. We care about the care we provide to service users who have Mental Health conditions, we are passionate about providing Mental Health nurses to Mental Health units that have the experience needed to provide first class Mental Health care.

Here is one example of ProCare Nursing providing a senior Care Support Worker who works specifically in the Mental Health field. Sara work’s with people who have dementia.

Firstly what is dementia? Dementia is a Mental Health condition and is an umbrella term that covers 200 sub-types of dementia, other dementia sub-types are conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and mixed dementia.

Sara Wells works with people who have dementia and sub-types of dementia. We have many service users who have Mental Health conditions and Sara is qualified to carry out care that is effective and helps people suffering with dementia have a more dignified life.

To help people with dementia Sara carries out a wide ranging number of care therapies from talking therapies, counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy and cognitive stimulation therapy which helps keeps a persons mind stimulated and active.

Sara was recognised for the care work that she has carried out for our service users who have dementia. We put Sara forward for the “Excellence in Dementia Care Award” at the Wales Care Awards in 2017. Sara came away with the award and this shows we are an award winning agency with award winning Care Support Workers helping our service users with their Mental Health conditions. Here is Sara with her award at Cardiff City Hall pictured furthest right.

Conclusion

Yes Brexit is harming the Mental Health state of the UK, Wales and Cardiff, however, here at ProCare Nursing we will endeavour to always strive for excellence, we are here to improve health and social care standards especially in the field of Mental Health. If you have any care requirements get in touch we are here to help and support you.