Why Training Is At The Heart Of Bluebird's Home Care 

The first question asked by potential clients and their loved ones is often about the kind of training our carers undertake. They are, naturally, seeking reassurance that our carers are well trained, able, competent and safe. So, in this blog post, we will explain to you how our carers are trained and about the people who train them.

All our carers go through an intensive four-part training process, as follows: 

Part 1: Intensive online e-learning.  

This involves carers working their way through thirty-seven core subjects, each of which can take an hour or more to complete. Carers have to “pass” each subject, to demonstrate they have learned the content, before they can move onto the next stage of their training.  The core subjects include Health and Safety; Administering Medications; Manual Handling- Assisting and Moving People; and General Client Wellbeing and Care. 

Part 2: theory and practical hands-on learning practise for two full days in the office.  

This part of the training process is mainly hands-on and is provided by full-time Training Officer, Amjid Mahmood. Bluebird CEO Shabir Hussain also takes the opportunity to greet newcomers and explain the organisations’ vision, values and culture. Amjid then takes over and trains the carers in seven vital subjects: Basic Life Support; Catheter Care; Medical Management; Infection Prevention; Safer People Handling; Note Writing; and Phone Training. Looking specifically at just one of those, Phone Training: each carer is given a phone which holds complete care plans for all of their clients. This includes tasks to complete on the next visit, medication administering/monitoring information, rostering, location finding and even the client’s likes and dislikes.

Amjid explains more about Bluebird’s purpose-built facilities which he uses for training purposes: “We have a fully equipped training suite. It is equipped with a bed, hoist, various types of manual handling equipment and catheter care equipment. These are for new carers to practise with. We teach the skills that enable our carers to deliver care to our clients safely, competently and confidently.” 

Part 3: On the job training
On the job training is carried out by full-time Care Coordinator, Tracey Brown, who is assisted by other highly experienced care staff. This stage in the training process takes place in clients’ homes on actual service visits and allows new carers to begin to put into practice what they’ve already learnt. 

Firstly, the new Carer shadows Tracy (or another experienced carer) on a visit, observing whilst they provide the care. On the next visit, the new carer will be asked to provide the care themselves, with support, supervision and feedback from Tracey. The final stage sees the new carer providing the full care service with Tracey taking more of a back seat, but still observing and providing feedback. 

Tracey explains the kind of support that new carers receive: “There is always someone experienced they can call. We encourage all our staff to ask for advice or support if they need to. And we all meet regularly at social events, when they visit the office and via our WhatsApp group.” 

Part 4: A twelve-week probation period 

During this, the final stage of training, an experienced senior Care Supervisor will monitor the progress of the new carer, including unannounced spot checks of their care visits. This is to ensure that the new carer is consistently delivering a high quality of care and putting their training into practise. Further support and training can be carried out at this stage, where needed. 

Shabir Hussain, CEO at Bluebird, believes that having excellent training is essential to providing home care: “Clients want to know that our carers are highly competent. It allows them to safely transfer their trust for care to us. When Clients discover the variety, technical complexity and volume of training our Carers undergo, they often express surprise, as well as relief. Care is not amongst the highest paid of professions, and we find that sometimes there is an incorrect assumption that carers are not well trained. That certainly is not the case with us. We believe in investing heavily in our staff and their training.”