Carers UK: bringing its training to your desk or into your home

Carers UK has launched a suite of e-learning courses for unpaid carers and the people who support them  – from commissioners and policy makers to front line practitioners in health and social care.

Working with embrace-learning, one of the UK’s leading providers of e-learning for health and social care, Carers UK has developed four courses designed to deliver its wealth of expertise directly to a PC or laptop, giving flexible access to a range of resources aimed at supporting carers and building good practice.

A key course focuses on the requirements of the new Care Act, which was passed for Royal Assent on Wednesday 14^th May. Care minister Norman Lamb said the Act, “represents the most significant reform of care and support in more than 60 years”. The Act introduces numerous changes including putting personal budgets on a legal footing and placing a duty on councils to provide preventive services to support people’s health.

The legislation also introduces a national minimum eligibility threshold for council-funded social care and a limit on the amount people will have to pay towards their own care costs.

Key changes for carers in the Care Act will include:

• An assessment without having to request it
• Recognition of their health and wellbeing needs
• A right to support if they are eligible
• Rights on a par with disabled people

This represents a key challenge for local authorities and CCGs to:

• Ensure staff involved in providing support to carers are trained to understand and implement the changes
• Promote health and well-being in the unpaid carer population

Carers UK’s e-learning courses include:

• The Care Act Unpacked: frontline support for practice

A detailed overview of the new Care Act and its requirements.

• About Me: building resilience for caring

A resource for carers to help them recognise their own needs, develop self-care strategies, build help networks and find support.

• Carer Awareness: supporting frontline practice

An overview of the challenges faced by carers and the ways in which they can be supported

• Supporting Carers at Work: a line manager’s guide

A resource to help line managers identify and support carers in the workplace

Other Carers UK training

Carers UK has more than 30 course titles covering community care, supporting carers, advocacy, mental capacity and benefits. Its training draws on extensive research on caring, policy development, knowledge of good practice and provision of advice and information to carers and professionals. Courses can be delivered at our central London training suite, or in-house at your own location. Carers UK is committed to ensuring that its training translates into delivery and will agree learning outcomes and mechanisms for evaluation and feedback.

For more information go to: http://www.carersuk.org/for-professionals/training-consultancy/training