WORCESTER care homes will receive vital infection prevention training as part of the Covid-19 response.

Six trainers from Worcestershire County Council will be providing the training to care homes to ensure that they are fully supported with correct usage of PPE.

The staff are currently going through their training, which is being carried out by Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust. The training includes information on infection control, usage of PPE and caring for people who have symptoms of or have tested positive for Covid-19.

Following this, each trainer will then be allocated a small number of care or nursing homes, where they will deliver the training.

Councillor Adrian Hardman, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care, said: “This is yet another example of how we’re working closely with our NHS partners, as we do all we can to keep the county’s most vulnerable people and our staff safe during this outbreak.”

Sarah-Jayne Foster is the Learning and Development Manager for Social Care and Apprenticeships at the county council and will be one of the trainers supporting care homes.

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Sarah said: “We’re doing everything that we can to support care homes during these tough times. This training will provide vital support for residents and staff, on top of all the other proactive work that the council is already doing.”

The county council trainers will join staff from Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group in providing vital support to care and nursing homes across the county.

Each trainer will be responsible for up to eight care settings and will initially, provide the training to the lead infection prevention person in each care or nursing home. They will then be the first port of call for any enquiries and will carry out inspections to ensure infection prevention measures are being followed.