Clinical training and support for adult social care staff

The Care Academy works together with local partners and other organisations to offer training and professional development opportunities to clinical staff working in adult social care provision in County Durham.

Information and resources

• Florence Nightingale Foundation - Dedicated to supporting and developing nurses and midwives to improve care and save lives across the world, maintaining Florence Nightingales's legacy. 
• FoNS Clinical Supervision Resources  - The Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS) offer a fully-funded programme of Resilience-based Clinical Supervision specifically for nurses in England's social care sector. There are useful clinical supervision resources available too. 
• NECS good practice guidance and tools for care homes - The NECS Vulnerable Adults Workstream Group has produced a suite of guidance documents and tools that will be useful for care homes, based on national standards, legislation and guidance. 
• NECS Medicines Matters Newsletter - Medicines information for staff working in a social care setting.
• Nurse Lifeline - Nurse Lifeline is a national, free, confidential, peer-led listening service in the UK run by nurses and midwives, for nurses and midwives. Telephone Number: 08088 010 455 from 7.00pm - 11.00pm, Monday to Friday.
• Nursing and Midwifery Council - The independent regulator for nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England. 
• Person-centred, safe and effective delegation of healthcare activities to care workers can enable people to have more choice and control of when and how things happen, with an opportunity to provide a better experience of care. Skills for Care, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and partners have co-developed voluntary guiding principles to support person-centred, safe and effective delegation of healthcare activities
• QNI Care Home Nurses Network - The Care Home Nurses Network provides useful information and resources including the Care Home Nurses Information Hub. They also have a Care Home Nurse Forum to share ideas, innovations and research about your care home and access peer support.
• QNI Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Champions Network - The Queen's Nursing Institute has launched a new infection prevention and control (IPC) scheme for nurses and their colleagues working in adult social care settings. The new IPC Champions Network builds on measures already in place to maintain and continuously improve standards across the care sector. 
• Skills for Care Nursing  - Skills for Care Resources to support nurses and their employers in adult social care.

Opportunities

• Trainee Nursing Associates - The nursing associate is a clinical support role that bridges the gap between healthcare support workers and registered nurses. Created to deliver hands-on, person centered care as part of nursing teams. The Nursing Associate role works in a variety of settings in health and social care and with people of all ages.  
• If you are looking for a new nursing or clinical support role, NHS Jobs provides a useful job search tool. 
• The County Durham Care Academy works with our partners to offer training opportunities for all care home staff including nurses and clinical support staff.
• The County Durham Care Academy is also offering Care Home Assistant Practitioner (CHAPs) training to equip senior care staff with clinical and management skills.

Support

• The Domestic Abuse Fund for nurses and midwives - The Domestic Abuse Fund for nurses and midwives is here to support survivors of domestic abuse who are experiencing financial crisis or hardship as a result.