Further Resources

Related websites and resources

• A guide to good practice in the management of controlled drugs in primary care (England). Third Edition from the National Prescribing Centre (NPC)
• Building a Safer NHS for Patients, Improving Medication Safety
• Building on the best: Choice, responsiveness and equity in the NHS — response document 9/12/2003
• Care Standards Act 2000
• Care Commission Medication Guidance (Scotland)
• Care Quality Commission
• Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW)
• Managing medicines in schools and early years settings March 2005 DES/DH.
• Council for Disabled Children
• Essential standards of quality and safety (March 2010)
• National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC)
• Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
• National Practice Statements for General Palliative Care Homes in Scotland
• National Service Framework for children, young people and maternity services
• National Service Framework for long term conditions
• National Service Framework for mental health
• National Service Framework for Older People
• National Service Framework (Wales) relating to Children, Older People & Mental Health
• Nursing & midwifery council publications
• Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted)
• Remember, I’m still me: Care Commission and Mental Welfare Commission joint report on the quality of care for people with dementia living in care homes in Scotland Care Commission: Mental Welfare Commissioner for Scotland. 2009
• Regulations and National Care Standards, Scotland
• Regulations and National Minimum Standards, Wales
• Rights, risks and limits to freedom. Guidance for practitioners considering restraint in residential care. Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland. June 2006
• Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care
• Scottish Version of Schools and medication (SCRC)
• Skills for Care
• The Health and Social Care Act 2008
• World class commissioning: Improving pharmaceutical services

Appendix 1: Training of care workers for safe administration of medicines

When training of care workers for safe administration of medicines is planned or commissioned it should provide the care worker with knowledge and practical skills to select, prepare and give different types of medicines safely, a process that is referred to as ‘medicine administration’. The care worker should always be mentored until he/she is both confident in giving medicines and assessed as competent to do so correctly.

Basic training is necessary for the following:

• Establishing from the care home records which medicines are prescribed for a person at a specific time in the day
• Selecting the correct medicine from a labelled container, including monitored dosage systems and compliance aids.
• Measuring a dose of liquid medicine
• Applying a medicated cream/ointment; giving eardrops, nose drops or eye drops; and administering inhaled medication.
• Recording that a person has had the medicine or the reason for not administering it
• What to do if a person refuses medicine that the care worker offers
• Who to inform if a medication error occurs
• Who to inform if the person becomes unwell after taking his/her medicines.

The care provider and training organisation should ensure that training outcomes based on the needs of people receiving the service are achieved.

This will require that the care provider has:

• Identified what training needs the care worker has
• Put together a programme of training that will meet the needs of people they care for and care workers
• Provides a mentor for the care worker and keeps a record of the training process.

Some care workers may not be competent to take responsibility for medicine administration even though they have attended a training course.  It is an unacceptable risk to allow care workers who do not have the necessary skill to give medicines to people.

Appendix 3: Community pharmacy contracts England, Scotland and Wales  – comparison chart

Acknowledgements 

We are grateful to the following individuals and organisations for their input into the preparation of this package:

ENGLAND:

Darren Allsobrook, Derby City Council

Philip Banks, Tesco Stores Ltd

Hilary Moriarty, Boarding School’s Association

Veronica Cress, East Riding and Hull LPC

Dinesh Patel, Community Pharmacist

Shabnum Aslam, Derby PCT and Derby City Council

Kim Grove, UK Homecare Association

Colin Baldwin, Association of independent multiple pharmacists

Lelly Obah, London specialist pharmacy services Eastern & SE NHS and Lambeth PCT

John Boadle, Adult social services

Ray Perry. Lloyds pharmacy

Steve Baker, CSCI, regional lead pharmacist for North Eastern region

Tas Bhatti, Boots Pharmacy

Tracy Paine, CLS Care services group

Morag Ross, Primary and community care pharmacy network

Christine Short, East Sussex Downs & Weald PCT

Michael Levitan, Middlesex Pharmaceutical Group

Brian Brown, CSCI: Regional contact team, Bristol

Kim Hughes-Wright, Lincolnshire County Council

Jonathan Stanley, National Children’s Bureau

Jane Newman, Essex LPC

Stephen Roberts, Suffolk PCT

Clare Daly, East Anglia NHS Pharmacy Practice Unit

Geraldine Yates, CSCI

Chris Glass, Boots Pharmacy

Ellen Hill, Nottingham City Council

Lyz Warren, National care for excellence in residential child care

Pam Shepherd, Isle of Wight PCT

Janet Knock, National Care Specialist , Housing Association

Frank Ursell, Registered nursing homes association

Elizabeth Hodgson, CSCI, Eastern & west midlands regional lead pharmacist

Stephen Thomas, CCA

Sandra Sweeney, North Yorkshire & York PCT

Carole Brown, Calderdale PCT

Hazel Sommerville, CSCI

Tala Hobson, Nottinghamshire County Council

Helen Press, Sue Ryder Care

Mohammed Ibrahim, Nottinghamshire LPC

David Green, Primary & community care pharmacy network

Gerald Zeidman, Bedfordhire LPC

Kath Emarton, Skills for health

Lesley McCormick, Boots Uk

Helen Reilly, Oakdene Nursing Care Home

Dave Wilson, Lincolnshire County Council

Les Guiblin, Lincolnshire LPC

Gordon Ross, Nottinghamshire County Teaching PCT

Paula Wilkinson, Mid Essex PCT

Barbara Parsons, PSNC

SCOTLAND

Susan MacLean, Angus Council, Social Work & Health Care

Dorothy Kirkpatrick, Annandale & Eskdale Local Health P/ship

Catherine McLoone, Argyll & Bute Council

Daniela McKenzie, Argyll & Bute Council

Allan Thomas, Ayrshire & Arran

Diane Lamprell, Ayrshire & Arran

Alfie Francis, Care Commission

Amy Isaac, Care Commission

David Marshall, Care Commission

Gordon McIntosh, Care Commission, Aberdeen

John Rushforth, Care Commission, Aberdeen

Joanna Speirs, Connect, SAMH

Wilma Balfour, Cornerstone Services, Dundee & Perth

Francis Parry, Cornerstone Services, Tayside & Fife

Angus McNicol, Davidsons Chemists

Catherine Smith, Dumfries & Galloway

Alex Cook, Dumfries & Galloway Council, Castle Douglas

Ruth Gray, East Ayrshire Council

Catherine Rush, East Dunbartonshire Council

Margaret McCracken, East Dunbartonshire Council

Angela Fitzgerald, Eastend Carers UK

Annmarie Masterson, Eastend Carers UK

Carol Stewart, Eastend Carers UK

Jacqueline Colbert, Eastend Carers UK

Ann Broad, East Lothian Council

Fiona Ford, East Renfrewshire Council

Andrea Smith, Fife Health Board

Dr Jim Cowan, Firrhill Medical Centre, Edinburgh

Dan Wynn, General Medical Council Scotland

Ann Watson, Glasgow City Council Home Care

Caroline Hynd, Grampian Health Board

Glad McAnespie, Home Care Midlothian

Margaret McGillivray, Home Care Midlothian

Linda Aitken, Loretto Care

Valerie Munro, Loretto Care

Donna McKenna, MAISOP, Forth Valley

Liz McGhee, MAISOP, Forth Valley

Mary Morton, NHS Highland

George Lindsay, NHS Lanarkshire

Karen Simpson, NHS Lothian

Geraldine Smith, NHS24

Christine Davies, Orkney Islands Council

Joan Hay, Riverview House, Perth

Deborah Zuckert, South Central Edinburgh Local Health P/ship

Annette Fleming, Scottish Borders Council

Elaine Firth, Scottish Borders Council

Louise Brown, Scottish Borders Council

Alison Jardine, Stirling Council

Rhona Bremner, Stirling Council

Kate Wood, Tayside NHS Community Health Partnership

Ewan Jenkin, Tayside NHS APC

WALES

Pauline Batty, Manager of Community Meals Service & Domiciliary Care  Direct Care Services

Jane Chilvers, Port Talbot Local Health Board

Mary Daisley, Direct Care Services

Karen Davies, Care & Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)

Liz Davies, Wrexham Local Health Board

Mair Davies, Welsh Centre of Pharmacy Professional Education (WCPPE)

Carmel Donovan, British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Cymru

Claire Dumbl, Rhondda Cynon Taff Local Health Board

Olga Forsyth, Conwy Local Health Board

Beverlea Frowen, Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA)

Paul Gimson, Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW)

Brigid Grills, Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA)

Yasmeen Haq, Newport Local Health Board

Diane Heath, Welsh Assembly Government

Gareth Holyfield, Monmouthshire Local Health Board     

Sarah Isaac, Carmarthenshire Local Health Board

Lynwen Jones, Swansea Local Health Board

Maureen Lewis, Royal College of Nursing (RCN)

Sion Llewelyn, Gwynedd Local Health Board

Karen May, Vale of Glamorgan Local Health Board

Gareth Morgan, Welsh Assembly Government

Rachel Mortimer, Care Forum Wales & Academy of Care Practitioners

Rachel Murphy, Bridgend Local Health Board

Sarah O’Sullivan-Adams, Welsh Assembly Government

Phil Parry, Pembrokeshire Local Health Board

Martin Pengilley, Age Alliance Wales

Jenny Pugh-Jones, Ceredigion Local Health Board

Susan Schelewa, Cardiff City Council

Geoff Shackleton, H Shackleton Ltd

Anne Sprackling, Blaenau Gwent Local Health Board

Tanya Strange, Torfaen Local Health Board

Cherrie Temple, Alliance Boots

Wendy Tyler-Batt, Torfaen Local Health Board

Jonathan Simms, Aneurin Bevan Health Board 

Our particular thanks go to the members of the Steering group, Gillian Arr-Jones, Christine Clark, Diane Heath, Alison Rees, Hazel Sommerville and Heidi Wright