New Workbook - 19/07/2010 Since Skills for Care released the refreshed Common Induction Standards at the start of June we have been busy revising both our assessments and the workbook that supports them. I am very pleased to say that the final draft of the workbook has gone out for final review and I am really looking forward to the feedback. All customers who have current license will automatically get a copy of the revised workbook free of charge. Watch this space for details of the final released date. The assessments have been tested and are now being added to all existing customers, however if you would like a temporary username and password to have a look at the new assessments please do get in touch via the contact us page.

NEW Common Induction Standards Latest - 30/06/2010 20 days after Skills for Care launched the refreshed Common Induction Standards we have uploaded the updated version of our online assessments! I want to extend a big Thank You to the team at http://www.cis-assessment.co.uk/ for all of their effort over the past three weeks. Over the course of the next two weeks we will be completing the final testing and review process before making them available to all of existing cutomers free of charge. If you would like to be part of the testing process during the next two weeks please get in touch via the contact us form http://bit.ly/bSXmlm Please do get in touch if you have any questions and once again a BIG thanks to everyone who has put in the effort since June 10th.

GMC "Extremely Concerned" - 18/06/2010 The General Medical Council according BBC 6 O'Clock News is "extremely concerned that there is a gaping hole in procedures and they cannot assess the competence of doctors coming to work here from Europe". Judith Morris on this evenings news was reporting on the death of David Gray who given a fatal overdose by a german doctor who has today been struck off at a GMC hearing. Andrew Lansley the Heath Secretary also said he would be "working closely with the GMC to ensure that foreign health workers are not allowed to practice unless they have proven their competence and language skills." Perhaps someone could give him our number?

Review of Child Protection - 17/06/2010 Eileen Munro has been asked by Michael Gove (Education Secretary) to "cut red tape, improve IT and build confidence" according to Community Care. http://bit.ly/b9RwDa Furthermore to look closely at the Hackney Model of Social Work, which interestingly is one of the London Boroughs that use our online assessments to support the Supervising Social Workers that work with their Foster Carers. In addition the Community Care article states "Another area Munro and her panel will examine is how IT systems can "contribute to strengthening good practice." CIS Assessments online assessments used in Hackney and many other Local Authorities across the country are used to ensure that staff have the knowledge required to do their job safely and knowledge in our opinion os the foundation of good practice. Does any one have Eileen's email address?

Time to raise expectations - 09/06/2010 I have just listened to the Radio 4 You and Yours program from Monday of this week, which is available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00slb6n Pamela Wells shared her experiences of the abuse and neglect that her husband faced over a 2 year period in a care home along with similar experiences that other people have shared with her since. Pamela has weritten a 17 page report about her experience which is available to download at: http://bit.ly/aJZUs7 What puzzles me is that these are all things that should never have happened if staff had been properly supervised, selected and trained; maybe the new Common Induction Standards will bring some focus to these issues when they are released tomorrow. Perhaps the new CQC quality ratings that Amanda Sherlock describes in the Radio 4 interview will also have some impact, because they are going to focus on what individuals in care actually experience. I also thought Amanda's comment that "we need to raise expectations" was interesting, does this mean that CQC are going to be more rigourous in their inspection regimen? From what Skills for Care say in their Refreshed Common Induction Standards document: The CQC Essential Standards of Quality and Safety highlight the importance and value of strong and comprehensive induction and they will need to be assured that all new staff have undergone a thorough induction process. You never know!

Bradford Council are part of the CWDC Case Studies for the Foster Care Training Support and Development Standards and have been using our assessments since the beginning. Read more about how our customers use the assessments on the CWDC website, or click on the contact us form and type in "Request case study"..

Click on the link for more.. Bradford Case Study.

The adult social care sector must ensure it can meet the needs of people with dementia as the numbers of those affected steadily rise, Carl Biddle highlighted to delegates at a recent south east event.

Addressing more than 80 social care employers and staff, the acting regional development manager for the south east, emphasised the valuable learning outcomes of the "Knowledge Set for Dementia" - read more here.

For more info on the CIS Assessment Knowledge Set assessments please click here.

CIS Assessment is proud to announce that there are now over 10,000 people using the assessments across many Local Authorities and hundreds of private, voluntary and independent organisations. Early in September we ill be launching a new version of the Manager Dashboard incorporating some of the features that our customers have requested over the past few months and work has started on developing new assessments for the mandatory courses and basic skills.

Is now in development and will include improvements that our customers have asked for including "save assessment", which means that a worker can effectively pause an assessment and return to it at their convenience. Version four will also include improvements to the randomisation and the accessibility options along with a full screen mode. Please do let us know if there is anything you would like to see in version 4, by visiting the feedback section of the support page.

Over the past few months we have been working on a number of new assessments and that work will soon be completed. Throughout the course of this summer we will be launching a number of assessments, including Managers Induction Standards and Safeguarding Children. Following hot on their heels later this year will be the rest of the Skills for Care Knowledge Sets and the Learning Disability Knowledge Sets.

Based on the Skills for Care Knowledge Sets we have recently launched assessments for Medication, Safeguarding and Infection Control and Prevention. The Knowledge Set assessments are designed to be used with all members of staff and in particular those who have responsibility for inducting or training staff.

CIS Assessment is proud to announce the launch of the assessment based on the Skills for Care Knowledge Set for Dementia. Skills for Care make it clear that training is a key part of workforce development and assessments is a vital part of the process, read more here.

Back in October of last year we posted a news item to announce that we had completed 10,000 assessments since we launched the assessments back in 2007. Just six months later we are proud to announce that we have now completed 20,000 assessments and with the launch of the Knowledge Set assessments set for later this month we hope that the next 10,000 assessments will be just around the next corner.

Care homes need to improve their approach to people with dementia, a report by a firm of health and social care analysts has concluded. Read More

Recent research published by the CIPD shows that organisations not investing in their people are twice as likely to fail compared to those that do. In previous downturns those that did invest in people development showed the most dynamic recovery.

Everyone at CIS Assessment would like to extend their congratulations to our customers who recently achieved a “Three Star” rating on the latest CSCI report.

Almost half of our customers improved their star rating; with most of our customers maintaining or improving their star rating from the 2007 report.

As we launch new assessments on Safeguarding, Dementia and the Knowledge Sets we will continue to support our customers to develop their staff and provide a quality service.

CIS Assessment is proud to announce that our customers have taken over 10,000 assessments since we launched our assessments at the beginning of 2007. With the new products that we are just about to launch on the Knowledge Sets, National Occupational Standards for Leadership and Management and the Skills for Care Manager Induction Standards we expect that the next 10,000 assessments are just around the corner.

The CIPD has published a case study, developed in partnership with Bracknell Forest Council. The case study describes how Bracknell Forest Council were able to reduce staff turnover by 50% by using our Common Induction Standards Assessments. Click here for a link to the case study.

In early August 2008 we launched our latest e-assessment platform. Once again all of the developments included in the latest version were developed based on customer feedback and include:

CIS Assessment is proud to announce that Skills for Care has published a case that we developed in partnership with Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.

You can find a link to the Case Study and the Skills for Care website here

Ceretas IT Innovator Award 2008 finalist

CIS Assessment have been short listed for the Ceretas IT Innovator Award 2008.

Directory of good practice in social care workforce development

CIS Assessment are now part of Learn To Care's directory of good practice in social care workforce development 2008.

New e-assessment platform

At the beginning of February we launched our new e-assessment platform. Almost all of the developments included in the latest version were developed based on customer feedback and include:

To complement our existing portfolio of assessments we will be adding the following assessments over the coming few weeks:

Internet access an issue? Don’t worry we can deliver the assessments, at your location even if you do not have any computers. Similar to an assessment centre, we will provide you with a detailed report on each worker at the end of the session.

We can also assist you to implement the Standards by facilitating a range of workshops, whether workers, managers or specialist areas like Foster Care.