Health & Safety in Care Training

Learn how risk assessments support an occupational health and safety management plan, raise hazard awareness, identify who may be at risk, and reduce work-related accidents in care homes.

Identify risk as the chance that a hazard from your facility could harm an employee or bystander, and perform risk assessments to identify hazards and prevent harm.

Learn how to perform a five-step risk assessment by identifying hazards, deciding who may be harmed, evaluating risks, recording findings, and reviewing and revising the assessment.

The employer bears the responsibility for who carries out risk assessments; external contractors may be used if workers and managers stay closely involved and the assessor is competent.

Explore the most common risks at care homes, including moving and handling, slips and falls, water and hot surface hazards, and fire safety, with guidance on risk assessment.

Learn how to report workplace incidents and near misses, understand which events must be reported by law, and how records are kept and shared to improve health and safety.

Identify who should report incidents and how; employers, self-employed persons, or premises managers report death, specific injuries, or injuries lasting seven days online or to incident contact center by phone.

Maintain an incident book and three-year records of reportable accidents, diseases, or harmful occurrences with dates; deaths within ten days and injuries over seven days must be reported to authorities.

Explore food safety and hygiene basics for managers, chefs, and supervisors, including roles, detecting contamination, handling risks, preventing spoilage, waste disposal, and cleaning and disinfection.

Discover how a food supervisor leads staff, ensures hygiene and safety, and applies the four c's of hygiene—cleaning, cooking, chilling, and cross-contamination—within UK legislation and fsa standards.

Detect contamination risks from farm to plate, and prevent cross-contamination by testing with third-party laboratories and by washing hands, using separate utensils, and storing raw foods beneath cooked foods.

Identify food handling risks from hands, face, and clothing; enforce hand washing, clean nails, no nail varnish, avoid coughing or sneezing near food, use protective clothing, smoking areas, illness exclusion.

Identify spoiled foods by smell, appearance, or texture and outline six prevention strategies and six preservation methods, including low temperatures, heat, dehydration, chemical, acidification, and irradiation.

Manage waste disposal with lidded internal and external bins, and cleaning schedules, while using cleaning, disinfection, heat, steam, chemicals, and irradiation per four c's, uk legislation, and pest control.

Master medication safety by learning safe handling, medication and prescription supply, storage and disposal, and safe administration to prevent errors and protect patient health.

Learn to safely handle medications, understand what you administer, uphold clients' right to choose their supplier of pharmaceutical care, follow eight principles, manage inventory, storage, disposal, and discuss side effects.

Understand how care home workers manage medication and prescriptions, document changes and remote prescriptions, track text messages, protect resident confidentiality, and follow legal prescribing requirements.

Learn how to supply, store, and dispose of medicines in care homes, including labeling with patient name and date, usage instructions, lockable storage, temperature controls, and safe disposal.

Learn to safely administer medications by applying the five rights—right patient, drug, dose, route, and time—while maintaining records, storage, and side-effect monitoring in care settings.

Explore safety of hazardous materials and infectious diseases in nursing homes, including coshh assessments, specific hazardous substances, medicines, cleaning supplies, infection prevention and control, and Legionella.

Identify hazardous substances under coshh in care settings, assess cleaners and biological hazards, eliminate risks, label products, obtain data sheets, provide PPE and training, and ensure proper ventilation.

Explore specific hazardous substances, skin irritants, infections, and diseases, and learn skin protection to prevent dermatitis and urticaria from wet work and frequent hand washing.

Implement infection prevention and control policies in care homes, including hand-washing and isolation. Train staff, monitor and audit, and ensure personal protective equipment, sharps safety, waste disposal, and reporting.

Examine why medicines are hazardous; store them away from heat, moisture, and light. Note expiry with container or temperature shifts; insulin stores at 2–8°C and 28–30 days at room temp.

Prevent Legionella outbreaks by monitoring temperatures 20–45°C, maintaining hot water at 60°C, distribution above 50°C, and eliminating stagnant water and dead legs.

Explore health and safety in moving and handling for care home staff, addressing arrangements, equipment, and training to prevent injuries while assisting residents with daily tasks.

Address lifting, moving, and handling of goods and equipment in nursing home tasks to reduce injury and musculoskeletal problems, ensuring resident dignity and safety through in-house risk assessments and guidance.

Assess residents’ needs and plan transfers using hoists, slings, transfer boards, and electric profiling beds, following manufacturer instructions and safety procedures to prevent accidents and injuries.

Develop and implement comprehensive training on moving and handling risks, people handling, and equipment use to prevent injuries and uphold resident dignity in care settings.

Explore the safe use of bed rails in nursing homes, reviewing safety assessments, entrapment risks, and fall prevention to protect residents.

Assess bed rail safety by evaluating fall risk and asphyxiation hazards. Incorporate care plans, resident history, intended use, and bed, mattress, and rail system combinations to determine safe, appropriate options.

Ensure bed, mattress, rail, and accessories fit snugly to prevent entrapment and asphyxiation. Maintain gaps under 60 mm and follow British Standard guidelines for rail placement.

Ensure bed rails meet bsn 606012 52 2010 and bs 6601 252 2010 standards, keeping rails at or below 220 mm above the mattress to prevent falls and entrapment.

Explore slips, trips, and falls in care settings, highlighting causes, environmental and organizational factors, and prevention strategies to protect residents and staff.

Identify common causes of slips and trips, including water and fluids, floor pollution such as lint or talcum powder, impediments, uneven surfaces, unmarked ramps, and inadequate lighting.

Identify residents at risk of slips and falls and implement control measures. Understand how age-related factors and medications increase fall risk, and how organized work and footwear reduce it.

Identify environmental and organizational factors that cause slips and trips, implement slip resistant flooring, prompt spill containment, clear walkways, and provide appropriate footwear for a proactive safety culture.

Identify three types of falls in care settings—accidental, mental-state related, and deliberate self-harm—from windows, balconies, or staircases, risking serious or fatal injuries.

Prioritize fall safety by avoiding work at height and employing safe equipment to reduce fall distance and severity. Use ground-based work whenever possible and maintain equipment regularly.

Explore essential electrical, gas, and fire safety in residential buildings and identify hazards from fire to carbon monoxide poisoning, including radon.

Regular checks ensure electrical equipment is safe and prevent injuries, fires, or sparks. Train staff to power off before maintenance and use portable appliance testing by qualified personnel.

Ensure gas safety by employing a gas safe registered engineer to install and inspect boilers and heaters, maintain pipework, call 080111999 if a leak is suspected, and turn off supply.

Learn to assess fire risk in care homes by identifying ignition sources, fuels, and oxidizers, and implement prevention, detection, evacuation, and staff training with drills and maintained fire safety policy.

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that can accumulate in basements and ground floors; carry radon assessments and follow electrical, gas, and fire safety practices.