Maintaining your certification with RESPECT Training

Our priority is to maintain safety for all.

It is clear that there have been many challenges regarding training, but if staff supporting patients or service users are using RESPECT physical intervention techniques, they must maintain their competencies.

This point has also been highlighted in the NHS England bulletin on Friday 11 December 2020:

NHS England:

“We have had reports from the Care Quality Commission and Ruth May’s CNO BAME advisory group of staff being expected to work in areas and engage in the physical restraint of patients without the required training, this is unsafe for patients and staff. We understand the need to balance risk and specifically the requirement to reduce face to face contact due to COVID-19, however, a risk assessment should be undertaken within your areas and the necessary steps are taken to provide a COVID safe environment to enable the continued training of staff.”

To ensure safety and competence moving forward, we are proposing that all courses are conducted in a face-to-face manner. This will allow for interventions to be taught and fully evaluated alongside values discussions and assessment.

This includes Refresher Courses, however, a slight extension to the annual review date may be considered. The rationale for the delay will need to be discussed and documented with the RESPECT team. A plan will be implemented to ensure that all training is brought up-to-date as soon as practicably possible.

Instructor Recertification may be completed via Zoom with support from other instructors in the room to manage camera angles if it is not possible to complete training in a face to face manner. Any physical intervention will be observed and talked through in full to evidence competency. Zoom calls may be recorded for additional quality assurance purposes.

No new skills will be taught online.

Do you use agency staff?

All staff who are likely to use restrictive interventions must have training that is certified as complying with the RRN training standards − this includes temporary staff, staff employed through an external agency and floating or bank staff. It is the responsibility of the agency to ensure any temporary staff sent to work in a service have had the appropriate certified training and experience for that population and setting. Full details of the new RRN standards can be found here.

If you use RESPECT and have agency staff, please ask your agency to contact RESPECT on 01472 583030 to arrange appropriate training to ensure your service users are fully supported.

Get in touch to discuss your recertification

RRN TRAINING STANDARDS UPDATE