Infection prevention and control is vital to the wellbeing of people who need care and support.
In order to receive safe and effective care, infection prevention and control must be part of everyday practice and be applied consistently by everyone.
Standard infection prevention control precautions include:
- good hygiene (hands and respiratory)
- personal protective equipment (PPE)
- environment: cleaning, disposal of waste
- staying safe – social distancing, testing, self-isolating.
Useful resources
DHSC: Every Action Counts
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has adapted the 'Every Action Counts' suite of resources to support adult social care providers achieve excellence in infection prevention and control. The resources include posters, digital key cards and hints and tips, supporting compliance and awareness, leadership, morale and wellbeing, training and operational interventions.
The 'Every Action Counts toolkit' has been developed to support adult social care providers to use the resources effectively.
'Every Action Counts' resources:
You can download the video above from .
IPC good practice guide
Professor Deborah Sturdy, the Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, has written an infection prevention and control good practice guide.
PDF document - 205Kb
This guide includes good practice examples of infection prevention control for care home and domiciliary care workers, and for infection control teams.
Prevent infection quick guide
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have produced a useful quick guide called .
Infection, prevention and control – CQC assessment focus
ÁÕÀÅÊÓƵ’s GO Online: Inspection toolkit includes a section looking at the new Infection, prevention and control Quality Statement. The toolkit features recommendations, practical examples and resources to help meet CQC expectations.
GO Online: Inspection toolkit
Inducting new staff
Standard 15 of the Care Certificate, the standards for new staff in health and social care roles, focuses on infection, prevention and control. We have practical resources and workbooks to help you to implement the Care Certificate as part of induction.
Find out more about the Care Certificate
Finding a learning provider
If you’re looking for a learning provider to support you in this area, take a look at our online directory which features our recommended learning providers – those who we recognise as delivering high quality learning and development to the social care sector.
Guidance for the Safe Management of Linen in Residential, Nursing or other Social Healthcare Environments
The guide for residential care covers the safe handling and storage of clean linen; safe handling, segregation and transportation of used and infectious linen to the laundry; provision, risks associated with laundering etc. chemicals. For those using the guide, please provide feedback using this short .
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