News Release - Health and Safety Achievement for Care UK

The Secondary Care Division of Care UK, which operates the Will Adams NHS Treatment Centre at Gillingham, has become one of just a handful of healthcare businesses to achieve Accredited Training Provider status from the Institution of Occupational Health and Safety (IOHS).

IOHS is the world's largest body for health and safety professionals and has over 35,000 members worldwide, including 13,000 Chartered Safety and Health Practitioners. It is the only organisation of its kind to receive a Royal Charter.

The accreditation means that Care UK can now provide its own health and safety training course designed specifically for healthcare professionals.

Care UK achieved the accreditation by writing a course entitled “Managing Safely for Healthcare Professionals” which was submitted, along with supporting material including delegate work books and lesson plans, to the training team at the IOHS for inspection and assessment.

Graham Cowan, health, safety, risk and incident manager for the Secondary Care Division of Care UK, commented: “My thanks and congratulations go to my colleagues who have worked hard with me to achieve this important accreditation. It allows us to provide recognised training for all members of staff within our treatment centres and is another example of our commitment to providing a safe environment for patients, visitors and members of staff.”

Jane Higgs, training verifier at IOHS, added: “As part of IOHS quality control, I visited Graham’s first Managing Safely for Healthcare Professionals course and witnessed training of a very high professional standard. Not only was the course well related to the delegates own work environment giving it credibility, it also incorporated a variety of training methods to suit all learning styles ensuring all were given the best possible learning experience.
 
“On a personal note I would add that both Graham and his delegates were very welcoming and it was a pleasure to attend the session.”

News of the accreditation comes hard on the heels of Care UK’s strong performance in the NHS Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) programme assessment of its services.

PEAT assesses every inpatient facility in England with more than 10 beds each year and gives ratings of excellent, good, acceptable, poor or unacceptable for overall environment, food, and privacy and dignity. The programme is run by the NHS National Patient Safety Agency.

Care UK’s ISTCs scored good ratings for all three categories in the PEAT programme, which for the first time this year assessed independent healthcare providers to the NHS.