As a personal assistant, continuous learning and professional development are crucial for providing exceptional service to your clients.
Skills for Care have created these free downloadable resources to assist you with developing the training of new personal assistants.
Contents
- Understand Your Role
- Your Personal Development
- Duty of Care
- Equality and Diversity
- Working in a Person-Centred Way
- Communication
- Privacy and Dignity
- Fluids and Nutrition and Food Safety
- Awareness of Mental Health, Dementia, and Learning Disabilities
- Safeguarding Adults
- Safeguarding Children
- Basic Life Support
- Health and Safety
- Handling Information
- Infection Prevention and Control
Understand Your Role
When you become a personal assistant employed by your service user, you should have been given a job description outlining your key responsibilities. Of course, it is almost impossible to include every single task that you will be expected to complete but it will give an overall idea of what the role entails.
This workbook outlines the rules and regulations that you should cover as standard.
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Your Personal Development
As a caregiver, it is important to set personal development goals and objectives to work towards meeting. This not only benefits your career path but will benefit those who are in your care.
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Duty of Care
When you become a carer you have a duty of care, which is a legal requirement. If you were to break this duty, it may result in legal action. It is your responsibility to pass on any concerns
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Equality and Diversity
In every workplace understanding equality and diversity is vital to avoiding discrimination and promoting inclusion. Discrimination isn’t always deliberate however, it is unacceptable to treat someone differently due to assumptions made about a person due to their differences.
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Work in a Person-Centred Way
This document outlines the vital values that health and social care workers must demonstrate within their role. Whilst these values you will most probably use in everyday life, it is important to understand how they relate to care.
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Communication
Effective communication is an essential skill for anyone working in a caregiving role. As a carer, being able to clearly convey information, actively listen, and respond with empathy is vital for providing quality care and supporting patients/clients.
You may also have to consider alternative options to communicate effectively with your client as verbal communication may not always be possible.
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Privacy and Dignity
Some clients may struggle with having someone caring for them as it means a lack of privacy and dignity. Being able to perform your job whilst keeping in mind your client’s feelings and treating them like a person still.
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Fluids and Nutrition and Food Saftey
There are several hazards that can come from simply eating and cooking food. Although we may think we are clued up about them all when we are preparing food for vulnerable clients we should take extra care as their immune systems may already be compromised.
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Awareness of Mental Health, Dementia, and Learning Disability
Having an understanding of mental health, dementia and different learning disabilities is valuable knowledge that you should have as a carer. As a caregiver, it is your responsibility to monitor your client’s mental health and watch for any new symptoms or changes. You should be familiar with your client’s baseline symptoms and medical conditions, as well as alert for any new or worsening signs that may require intervention and extra support.
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Safeguarding Adults
Every adult and child has the right to live a safe life, free from neglect and abuse as defined by the Care Act 2014. As their carer, it is not only your responsibility to ensure you are treating them fairly but also to watch out for warning signs that they may be mistreated by a family member or another carer.
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Safeguarding Children
Like the adult safeguarding laws outlined above, there are also strict legislations to protect the welfare of children. As a caregiver, you may not work directly with children, but you may interact with kids in the homes of clients. It is crucial to understand your duty of care towards these minors as well. While caring for your main client, you must also remain alert to the safety and well-being of any children in the environment.
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Basic Life Support
Knowing how to administer basic life support can save lives in any context of life, especially in the field of care. This booklet talks you through the basic knowledge you should have with helpful diagrams and photos to assist your learning.
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Health and Safety
Health and safety is of utmost importance in care environments to protect vulnerable patients and those caring for them from harm. Caregivers must follow protocols for infection control, medication safety, patient handling, fall prevention, fire safety, hazardous materials and incident reporting. This can be done by identifying and minimizing risks, providing proper equipment and training, and instilling a culture of safety, care facilities can greatly reduce injuries, illnesses, accidents and errors.
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Handling Information
Maintaining confidentiality is a critical responsibility in caregiving and essential for building trust with clients. All personal information shared by those receiving care, including medical history, treatments, and personal life details, must be kept strictly confidential. Breaking confidentiality betrays client trust and dignity. To uphold confidentiality, caregivers should keep records securely, not discuss clients with others unnecessarily, and only share information with relevant care team members.
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Infection Prevention and Control
Infection prevention and control is a crucial practice in healthcare and caregiving settings to protect clients and personal assistants. Caregivers must consistently follow infection control procedures such as hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment, safe handling and disposal of hazardous waste and disinfection of equipment and surfaces. Effective infection control relies on collective vigilance from all carers and visitors within the care setting.
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Disclaimer
The information and files provided are intended for signposting purposes. We strive to keep them up-to-date, but it’s the user’s responsibility to double-check the latest versions and information directly on the referenced websites.
Websites used include: Skills for Care, Acas, Gov.uk.