12 Maintaining standards, safeguarding care
Resolution submitted by the RCN Salisbury and South Wiltshire Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress requests RCN Council to mount a campaign to get government to establish a national standard for advanced health care assistant (health care support worker) training and assessment, with those who reach competence being registered and regulated by a national body independent of employers
Work led by the RCN Public Policy Committee.
Speakers at Congress 2008 expressed the view that as there is no regulation of senior Health Care Assistants (HCA) and Assistant Practitioners (AP) there is a risk to patients that registered nurses removed from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register can continue to work delivering health care as an HCA or AP. This view was also expressed in relation to senior HCAs and APs who have their contact of employment terminated by an employer for poor practice. Currently they can seek employment elsewhere and this raises concerns about patient safety.
The other issue debated was the needs for a national training programme for HCAs and APs. Without such a programme for senior HCAs and APs it was suggested that they will continue to struggle to move easily from one employer to another as their skills and current qualifications are not always acknowledged.
The RCN is working to ensure that the public are cared for by health care assistants who have been appropriately educated and trained to undertake their role. To enable the RCN to articulate effectively the views of health care assistants and assistant practitioners in relation to regulation, a MORI poll of HCAs and APs was conducted to establish their views. The RCN's HCA adviser has also promoted issues relating to the regulation of HCAs and APs, actively seeking contributions to the debate and further canvassing viewpoints on regulation.
An article on regulation appeared in the British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, and an interview in the Nursing Standard further highlighted issues relating to the training and education of HCAs. The RCN, as a member of the Apprenticeship/CPD Steering Group at the Department of Health, has ensured issues relating to training and education for HCAs are being addressed.
RCN Northern Ireland has joined a DHSSPS working group reviewing the issue of public protection - as part of a wider process of reviewing health care regulatory arrangements in Northern Ireland. Having launched a new support network for HCA members, RCN Northern Ireland is now surveying HCAs to explore current education and education opportunities; this work will be widened later in 2009.
A paper is being prepared for the RCN Nursing Development Committee, requesting the RCN policy document on HCA regulation be amended to include Level 3 HCAs in the professionally regulated National Career Framework.
In November 2008, as part of RCN Wales' Get it right campaign, actions to support HCAs were launched, while in Scotland, the RCN is contributing to an initial scoping exercise on workforce planning and educational provision for health and social care support workers.
A plenary session on the regulation of HCAs and APs will be delivered at the Congress 2009 HCA UK conference, and work to look at the development of the AP role across the UK will continue through 2009.