Report: UNISON’s Homecare training survey

The safety of elderly and disabled people who rely on homecare is being put at risk because staff are receiving inadequate training, according to a UNISON study.

This survey of more than 1,000 care workers employed by councils and private firms across the UK, found that staff are increasingly being asked to perform intimate procedures that would previously have only been carried out by registered nurses.

Inadequate training can leave care users in significant discomfort and vulnerable to infections. And, worse still, insufficient training on how to administer medication could lead to fatal overdoses, says UNISON. 

Meanwhile, homecare workers are being denied access to vital knowledge, new skills and career opportunities, the survey finds. 

Of the homecare workers surveyed who regularly carry out the following tasks:

• Almost six in ten (59 per cent) had received no training in how to attach or change a convene catheter. 
• More than half (52 per cent) had not been shown how to perform stoma care. 
• More than four in ten (45 per cent) had not received training in how to change a catheter bag.
• More than a third (38 per cent) hadn’t been showed how to carry out peg feeding. 
• Almost a quarter of staff (24 per cent) administering medication had received no training, despite some of them distributing drugs such as liquid morphine and insulin. 
• More than two thirds (69 per cent) said they cared for people who suffer from dementia. Despite this, more than a quarter (27 per cent) had received no training in how to work with people with this illness.   
• More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of respondents had asked for extra training to help them carry out their increasingly demanding roles, but less than half (49 per cent) had received any.

To download the full report, visit the link below.