Health and Safety
The Health and Safety Executive
For key information, advice and guidance about workplace health and safety law, national standards and guidelines, please visit the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website, by clicking here.
The HSE provides a wide range of guidance on particular topics and for specific industries. A basic guide to the legislation is available and they also break down their Health and Work Strategy Plans and lay out their individual Sector Plans for a healthier, safer working Britain. You can download their Health and Safety Toolbox or can find out how to report a workplace concern or a RIDDOR incident via their website.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is the Chartered body for occupational health and safety professionals. If you want to become a member of IOSH you can find a range of information, resources, events and news on their website.
Health and Social Care
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator responsible for registering and monitoring health and social care services in England. They set the Fundamental Standards which everyone has a right to expect, and below which care must never fall. You can find out about each of the Fundamental Standards on their website by clicking here.
On the CQC’s website, you can also find out information about how they carry out their inspections of health and social care services, how you can register as a care provider and how you can meet the relevant regulations for service providers and managers. You can also find out about the CQC’s five-year strategy for care and access a wide range of other information, advice and guidance.
Skills for Care
Skills for Care provides practical advice, tools and support to help organisations, and individual employers in the care sector to develop a well-led, highly skilled and valued adult social care workforce.
On their website, Skills for Care provides information about the Care Certificate, the set of 15 standards that all care workers must complete during induction and stick to in their daily working life, the current Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) and the new Regulated Qualifications Framework, which will replace the former by January 2018. They also provide useful advice about ongoing learning and development for the adult social care workforce, so that employers understand exactly how their workers can progress and how they should stay up-to-date and well-skilled.
Early Years, Childcare and Schools
Early Years Foundation Stage
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for the learning, development and care of children from their birth to the age of 5. The Early Years Foundation Stage profile: 2017 handbook is statutory for 2016 to 2017 academic year and must be used by local authorities, and early years education professionals with responsibility for assessing, reporting or moderating the EYFS profile. It supports practitioners to make accurate judgments about each individual child’s attainment.
The statutory framework for the EYFS also sets out standards for first aid training for all those who work with children. Following a consultation in 2016, it has been revised to state that newly qualified early years staff must have either a full paediatric first aid (PFA) or an emergency PFA certificate before they can be included in the adult: child ratios in early years setting. You can view the government’s full response to the consultation here.
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, or Ofsted, inspects and regulates services that care and/or provide education and skills for children and young people. They provide ratings, reports and statistical data sets and highlight outstanding providers as well as those who require improvement or need to be placed in special measures. You can view their annual report for 2015-16 here.
Ofsted’s school inspection framework provides guidance for inspecting schools under the common inspection framework, along with a mythbuster document. Ofsted also provides specific guidance for inspecting safeguarding standards in early years, education and skills.
Department for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is the government body responsible for education, children’s services, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England. On their website you can find statutory guidance for schools and guidance for early years and childcare providers. Statutory guidance on keeping children safe in education can be found and downloaded from the DfE website.