Online training platform helps almost 50,000 NHS & social care staff with moving & handling knowledge

An online training platform with a comprehensive range of educational manual handling resources has released two videos for free directly relevant to healthcare professionals providing care to COVID-19 patients.

Following the outbreak of coronavirus and the subsequent disruption to face-to-face manual handling training, with many care organisations putting training on-hold to observe social distancing measures, care providers have searched for alternative ways to deliver training.

With thousands of new staff joining the social care sector to help meet increased demand and the CQC still requiring new employees to be educated and competent in the area of manual handling, A1 Risk Solutions has moved to make its extensive online training library easily accessible to care organisations.

Having been providing manual handling training courses to organisations across its managed, traceable online system for years, A1 Risk Solutions realised it had a vast supply on web-based multimedia online learning which could prove valuable to care organisations throughout the crisis.

Established by Deborah Harrison, A1 Risk Solutions works extensively across the specialised fields of manual handling, ergonomics and vocational rehabilitation within the health, social care and education sectors.

“In February 2020, I realised I was sat on a valuable resource,” Deborah explained.

“It would have been criminal not to share the content with others across health and social care and so I pledged I would make it as accessible as possible for the whole of the industry to use.”

Deborah realised two particular videos could be especially helpful to care providers working with patients with coronavirus.

“Educational videos created using learning theories need to be aligned with individual needs. I realised early on that the COVID-19 post-ICU patients were requiring support in prone lying and was tasked by the Welsh palliative care network to create techniques for proning in the community,” she continued.

“The A1 Risk Solutions team came together and developed these innovative and very specific techniques and video content. We decided that these videos and the ICU video should be Free of Charge to access for everyone (videos can be found here).”

Across the entire A1 Risk Solution online educational system, the facility houses over 340 instructional training videos, as well as accompanying safe systems of work with both picture and written guidance of how to carry out each task.

Since the crisis, the system has seen a dramatic surge in users, assisting nearly 50,000 NHS and social care staff.

“Unfortunately, we are not in the position to give the whole system away as I still need to pay newly employed staff wages and other vital business expenses. Instead, we have decided to do a not-for-profit offer (the equivalent of £0.50 per person) for corporate purchase bundles,” explained Deborah.

“We have been excited to assist several local authorities by ultimately reducing the risks associated with employing staff who were totally new to care. This meant introducing a standardised approach across Boroughs with a means of providing safe and effective moving and handling training where face-to-face training could not be possible.”