This section details specific health care tasks, which may be carried out by members of Supported Lives staff in order to minimise disruption to the service user.
There are important conditions attached to each category of task, which must be fulfilled before Supported Lives staff undertake any care.
The responsibility and accountability for all delegated health care tasks remains with the health professional (most commonly the GP or district nurse) who is delegating the task to a Supported Lives staff member. The health professional is responsible for ensuring that the Supported Lives staff member is trained to undertake the delegated task and if an incident should occur when that staff member is undertaking the task for which they were trained and is working to the agreed care plan, the liability rests with the relevant PCT. If a Supported Lives staff member works outside the care plan or undertakes a task that they have not been asked nor trained to do then that individual may be liable Supported Lives may commence disciplinary procedures.
Supported Lives staff are employed primarily to provide social care and support and should not undertake tasks, which would normally be completed by trained nursing/medical personnel, even though some staff members may have nursing qualifications. Parents/relatives/carers should be made aware that nursing care will not be provided by Supported Lives staff.
NB This policy and associated procedures applies to any staff member employed by Supported Lives .
Supported Lives staff should refer to the policy appropriate for their work situation or setting for guidance on the administration of medicines.
Supported Lives staff must have received appropriate training and the required protocol must have been established before the tasks listed in Category 1 and 2 are undertaken. Examples of protocols can be found in the appendix.
Tasks listed in Category 3 are not to be carried out by Supported Lives staff and are identified as tasks that must only be carried out by a trained health care professional.
Before carrying out any of the clinical tasks that have been identified as being within Supported Lives , it must have been agreed that:
The tasks identified in Categories 1 and 2 all require training to have been given first hand by a health care professional. However, tasks in category 1 can take the form of generic training in how to carry out the identified task, whereas tasks identified in category 2 must be trained specifically in relation to the Client for whom it is to be carried out.
Supported Lives Staff are not permitted to pass on any training they have received for these tasks to other staff. Competence to complete these tasks must be re-assessed annually by the health care professional delegating the task and this should be recorded. A review of training needs must take place whenever there is a change in circumstances or where there is concern expressed about the ability of the member of staff to perform a specific task.
In case changed local or national guidance requires urgent re-training, Team Leaders must be able to easily access information as to which staff are trained to perform a particular task.
Acceptable: The task is within the range of activity normally undertaken by Supported Lives staff as long as they have received the appropriate training.
Negotiable: Supported Lives staff may perform these health care tasks where the individual staff member feels confident and willing to carry out this higher level of task. This will have been negotiated between the health care professional (who remains ultimately accountable) and the individual staff member, their line manager, the service user and/or their carer prior to the service being provided.
CATEGORY 1
Acceptable
CATEGORY 2
Negotiable
This list is not exhaustive and there may be occasions when the operational manager would be willing to negotiate to establish an individual protocol, based on the experience and willingness of their staff to be trained and the nature of the task.
CATEGORY 3
Not to be performed by Supported Lives staff in any circumstances
Procedures relating to invasive personal care tasks such as inserting and removing tampons are dealt with in the Intimate Personal Care policy.
An emergency is defined as a life threatening situation so there will be occasions when a clients personal safety may be at risk and where urgent intervention is required. However, whatever the circumstances, staff should not put themselves at risk.
If a staff member is seriously concerned about a Client's physical condition and they have had the appropriate first hand training from a health care professional and feel confident of intervening in an emergency situation, they can do so only as a first aid measure, and whilst ensuring that an ambulance is called through the 999 emergency service.
The preferred course of action is for an ambulance to be called using the 999 emergency service.
In all circumstances the Client's GP and family or carer should be informed.
In the event of a Client appearing to suffer a cardiac or respiratory arrest, an ambulance must be called using the 999 emergency service.
If there is concern about the likelihood of cardiac or respiratory failure in a seriously ill or profoundly disabled person, then the clients doctor must give written guidance as to what procedure is to be carried out. It will be kept with the Client's medication profile.
At no time must staff make a decision themselves based on the clients physical condition or age whether to resuscitate and they should therefore always call the ambulance service as stated above, unless otherwise advised by the doctor.
Care should be taken by Supported Lives staff not to confuse intimate personal care tasks with clinical tasks. Intimate personal care will however often be necessary to allow a clinical task to be carried out.
For further clarification refer to the Intimate Personal Care policy.
This document was updated in January 2007
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Supported Lives is the trading name of Supported Lives Ltd (company reg. 5101897) and Supported Lives Services Ltd (company reg. 5660222). The registered address is: Rebecca House, Rebecca Street, Bradford BD1 2RX.
