Promoting the prevention and control of infection is a key concern for care services. On 1st April 2009,  regulations from the Health and Social Care Act 2008 came into force, which required all healthcare providers to ensure they protect patients, workers and others from the known risks of acquiring Health Care Associated Infections (HCAI). This course is designed to develop an individual who, as an appointed person,  will promote and maintain a culture in which infection prevention and control is of the highest importance.

To fulfil this role the ‘appointed person’ requires further knowledge of the principles of infection control than the basics,  in order to enable them to work with colleagues to improve infection control practices within the area they work.

N.B Staff should have some previous knowledge or training in infection control before attending this training session.

Understand how :

• To be the appointed person for infection prevention and control within the care setting

•To develop and maintain infection control standards and ensure national requirements are met

• To develop and maintain  infection control policy and ensure staff are aware of the policy

•To highlight what action is to be taken in the event of an outbreak

•To advise managers and staff as to how long staff should avoid work if they are affected

•To know what documentation needs completing and to ensure all staff have completed a ‘declaration of health’

• How to  audit and flag potential infection control risks in the setting

• To establish and monitor a robust domestic and clinical cleaning regime in the practice

• To ensure staff are appropriately trained in infection control, including hand hygiene training

• To have their name and contact details available as the named contact within the organisations health and safety structure