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 are useful resources about IPC in adult social care available, including:
Standard infection control precautions
Standard infection control precautions (SICPs) are to be used by all workers for all people whether infection is known to be present or not. Workers in different types of social care will need to apply these precautions in a way that makes sense for their situation. How you apply these SICPs is based on assessing the risk to and from people. This includes the nature of the support you are providing, the level of interaction, the number of people you support, and/or the anticipated level of exposure to blood and/or other body fluids, or other potentially infectious material.
These basic IPC 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
DHSC: Every Action Counts
In 2021 the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) adapted the 'Every Action Counts' suite of resources to support adult social care providers achieve excellence in infection prevention and control. The resources include posters, digital key cards and hints and tips, supporting compliance and awareness, leadership, morale and wellbeing, training and operational interventions.
The 'Every Action Counts toolkit' was developed to support adult social care providers to use the resources effectively.
'Every Action Counts' resources:
You can download the video above 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.
Prevent infection quick guide
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have produced a useful quick guide called .
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