Managing regulation and governance processes in your service

Opus Pharmacy Services are a Skills for Care endorsed and CPD accredited provider that offer online medicines training delivered through pharmacist-led sessions, e-learning courses and self-study distance learning workbooks. The organisation has a full page of courses recommended specifically for care homes.

This course is suitable for care professionals and nurses who assess staff competence to administer medication. Through guided practice, you will learn how to observe staff administering different dosage forms and evaluate their performance using structured competence assessment checklists. The course is delivered online across two sessions, each lasting two hours.

Grace Cares is a not-for-profit organisation known for providing high-quality refurbished care equipment across the UK. 

They also host Caring For Tomorrow, a quarterly webinar series designed to support health and social care providers in developing, evidencing, and improving their sustainability and ESG approaches.

This practical one-day course teaches staff how to administer medicines in a systematic way to reduce the risk of errors. We assess staff competence at selecting the correct medicines using simulated medicines rounds. Staff must reach a certain standard by the last simulated medicines round to gain a certificate. For those who fail, we offer a follow-on online assessment for them to gain their certificate.

OPUS have developed a wide selection of free downloadable resources to assist care organisations in meeting their regulatory and legislative requirements. 

Good governance and management are the bedrock of adult social care services being able to provide good and outstanding care. Your service will need effective support and systems in place to ensure that the service is well-led.

In this edition of the MILE newsletter you’ll find guidance, training, and practical tools to strengthen infection prevention practices across care services. From national frameworks and new resources to local learning opportunities, this issue highlights the key steps and support available to help you maintain robust IPC standards this winter and beyond.

This guideline (SC1) covers best practice for managing medicines in care homes. It aims to promote the safe and effective use of medicines in care homes by advising on processes for prescribing, handling and administering medicines. 

Care Quality Commission (CQC) requires care providers to have a formal system to assess staff competence to administer medication. This course provides the knowledge and skills to enable care providers to create and manage a formal system to assess staff competence in administering medication.

This in-person course is funded for adult social care staff working for Brighton and Hove City Council, and staff working in adult social care provider services that contract with Brighton and Hove City Council.

This course will help you to develop and implement a medicines policy and associated audits, as well provide a general update on any new local/national legislation and guidance.

This in-person course is funded for adult social care staff working for Brighton and Hove City Council, and staff working in adult social care provider services that contract with Brighton and Hove City Council.

This course is aimed at senior staff who are responsible for assessing medication competencies with support workers.

This online workshop equips individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to manage medication safely, following legislation and best practices. The course is CPD accredited and Qualsafe certified, offering formal recognition of competence in medication management. 

In this masterclass, learn how to ensure that you, and your staff, are managing medicines correctly so that those you support are safe. You will also be introduced to a targeted in-depth audit tool that will help you meet and exceed the latest regulatory and best practice requirements to gain top ratings from the CQC.

This half-day virtual masterclass teaches how to manage, report, and learn from medication errors, by seeing them as opportunities to learn. It will enable you to provide the correct response to Safeguarding Teams and the Care Quality Commission. The course is suitable for managers, nurses, and senior staff with responsibility for managing/investigating medication errors.

This online training course will provide you with the essential procedures and techniques you need to know, as well as the key legislation relevant to medication. It also outlines your responsibility in relation to your role along with different types of medication and their uses.

This guide has been designed to be used when assessing competency relating to managing and administering medicines in adult social care settings. It includes template recording tools that aim to support care providers to improve patient safety.

The Care Quality Commission provides a dedicated webpage with detailed guidance to help adult social care services manage medicines safely, effectively, and in line with regulations. The guidance is organised by type of care setting.

On this page you’ll find our medicines management resources for adult social care. They include checklists for training and quality assurance, as well as guidance on how to assess competency with medicines management.

The resources have been developed for people who are responsible for purchasing and/or checking the quality of external or in-house medicines management training for care workers and managers.

This section of CMM’s website aims to help care providers stay up to date with changes to CQC regulation. Navigating CQC brings together:

• Key updates and guidance from the Care Quality Commission
• Expert analysis and practical tips around inspections
• A regular column from the CQC
• Links to external tools and organisations that support ongoing compliance

Whether you’re preparing for an inspection or simply want to keep pace with regulatory developments, this resource offers a central place to find trusted, sector-specific information.

This qualification aims to help learners develop:

• A general understanding of different types of medication and their use
• Knowledge of the procedures for obtaining, storing, administering and disposing of medication
• An understanding of legislation and the audit process related to medication and issues of responsibility and accountability
• An understanding of the record-keeping process for medication

The course is offered by a range of providers with both online and in-person options available.

The intention of this regulation is to make sure that providers have systems and processes that ensure that they are able to meet other requirements in this part of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (Regulations 4 to 20A). To meet this regulation; providers must have effective governance, including assurance and auditing systems or processes.

Governance can be defined as a collection of systems and processes concerned with ensuring the overall direction, effectiveness, supervision and accountability of an organisation or service. Within adult social care, good governance is paramount due to the nature of the work completed and the impact your management can have on people’s lives.

This guidance describes how providers and managers can meet the regulations. These include the fundamental standards – the standards below which care must never fall.

The Safe Management of Medicines for Social Care Staff elearning modules are aimed at the non-registered medicines workforce, focusing on the knowledge and skills necessary to handle and administer medicines safely in domiciliary and residential settings. It also explains some of the differences between handling medicines in residential care homes compared with nursing care homes. The materials are based on the requirements of the CQC and NICE.

This newsletter brings you the latest training and resources on safe and effective medicine administration in care home settings. High-quality training supports resident safety, ensures compliance with regulations, and helps reduce the risks of medication errors. The edition highlights courses and tools to strengthen accuracy, efficiency, and overall quality in your service.

Grace Cares have developed a practical, easy-to-use guide to support care managers and providers on their journey towards more sustainable, environmentally responsible practice. The guide breaks sustainability down into manageable steps, with real examples from care settings and simple workbook exercises you can apply straight away. There are several versions available, including a free taster edition, so you can choose what works best for you.