Infection control in schools becomes the focus of new research

The Department of Health has announced that it is sponsoring an investigation into how infection control can be improved in schools, hospitals and other public places.

A knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) is being established with the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in order to appoint a microbiologist in a 30 month post to research how infection control can be improved in settings such as schools. It will receive partial funding from the Department of Health.

Schools are faced with a number of issues relating to infection control, including how to prevent cross-contamination from high risk areas such as washrooms and kitchens and how to reduce cross contamination between pupils and other users. Schools need to determine best practice for infection control and continue to have discussions regarding whether they should educate pupils in proper hand hygiene principles and promote regular use of accessible hand cleaning facilities in order to combat infections and improve pupil attendance rates.

Dr Ron Cutler, Deputy Head of Biomedical Science, who will supervise the project at the School of Biology and Chemical Sciences, explained: “Infection threats to schools are influenced in part by external changes, such as increased international travel, antibiotic misuse and resistance to antibiotics. Climate change may also be the catalyst for increasing levels of sickness and more unpredictable infection threats in the future. This recent appointment will go a long way to helping us provide schools with the scientific insight and guidance they need.”

First Response Training offers an Infection Control training course, which is mapped to national guidelines and has links to NVQ and SVQ standards. It is a vital seminar aimed at providing training and information in the essentials of infection control.

Charlotte Potter, the Head of Quality and Curriculum at First Response, explains: “Infection control is a popular training course within the care sector, especially because it forms part of the Skills for Care Common Induction Standards and is a mandatory course. However, it is an important training course for people working in a range of sectors and it is often overlooked in schools, even though it is an ideal course for staff and pupils. Observing good infection control principles could help to dramatically reduce the amount of pupil absences, especially at times when illnesses such as the flu are running rampant and causing lots of children to miss vital lesson time.

“We often hear about infection control standards in hospitals, so it is great to see the media also focusing on schools and realising that it is an important issue for consideration outside of the care environment.”

First Response’s Infection Control training course is 2-3 hours in duration and covers topics such as the principles of infection control, the relevant legislation surrounding the issue, common infectious diseases, immunity and immunisation, personal hygiene and incident reporting.

For more information, please call us today.