Infection prevention and control (IPC) is vital to the wellbeing of people who need care and support, as well as paid staff and unpaid carers.
Infection prevention and control must be part of everyday practice and be applied consistently by everyone. There is guidance about IPC in adult social care available, including:
- The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) quick guide: .
eLearning
The Training Hub by 黑料不打烊 offers the ‘Introduction to infection prevention and control’ eLearning module, which helps workers learn how infections spread, apply standard precautions, and gain confidence preventing risks, responding to outbreaks and keeping everyone safe in care settings.
Standard infection control precautions
Standard infection control precautions should be followed by all workers at all times, regardless of whether an infection is known. These precautions must be applied based on individual risk assessments, taking into account the type of care provided, level of contact, number of people supported, and potential exposure to blood, body fluids, or other infectious materials. These basic measures are:
- hand hygiene
- respiratory and cough hygiene
- personal protective equipment (PPE)
- safe management of care equipment
- safe management of the environment
- management of laundry
- management of blood and body fluid spills
- waste management
- management of exposure.
Sources of infection include blood and other body fluids, secretions or excretions (excluding sweat), non-intact skin, or mucous membranes, and any equipment or items that could have become contaminated.
Employers also have an important role in helping their staff, people using their services and visitors be aware of and make decisions about vaccinations.
Useful resources
Inducting new staff
Standard 15 of the Care Certificate, the standards for new staff in health and social care roles, focuses on infection, prevention and control. We have practical resources and workbooks to help you to implement the Care Certificate as part of induction.
Find out more about the Care Certificate
DHSC: Every Action Counts
The Department of Health and Social Care produced a suite of resources to support adult social care providers achieve excellence in infection prevention and control.
You can download the video from .
IPC good practice guide
Professor Deborah Sturdy, the Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, has written an infection prevention and control good practice guide.
PDF document - 205Kb
This guide includes good practice examples of infection prevention control for care home and domiciliary care workers, and for infection control teams.