11 Principles for Better Training

Guidance for health and care professionals on the development and delivery of training for unpaid carers.

11 Principles for Better Training Document and Infographic

Many children with long term complex health needs require their medical needs to be met at home. Whilst some families are well supported, in some cases with continuing healthcare packages, others get very little, if any support at all.

As such parents and/or other family members are expected to learn and take on a significant proportion of this medical care and these unpaid carers undergo training in these interventions.

There is a paucity of literature on the accepted training content or methodology for these learners and from professional experience it is well understood there is wide variation in provision and practice.

In August 2015 WellChild coordinated a UK training summit to review practice in the training of unpaid carers to support these children and young people. The summit highlighted a lack of guidance for operationalising education, particularly for unpaid carers, and the challenges faced.

The summit also explored the lack of consistency and equity across the country and while it highlighted some excellent practice this was not widespread.

Purpose of this framework

The purpose of the framework is to provide guiding principles for health and care professionals on the development and delivery of training for unpaid carers. The content of this framework is a consensus of professionals actively delivering healthcare education.

11 Principles for Better Training Infographic