Skin Care Champions education programme

Igniting the potential for great skin care in the social care sector

What is the Skin Care Champions education programme?

The pandemic highlighted the essential role that carers play in the healthcare system. It also showed just how important it is that social care workers have the training and support they need to deliver the very best care. The Skin Care Champions education programme was created to provide a trusted programme of cost-effective and easily accessible education and support with skin health and wound healing.

Our ambition is to create and empower a Skin Care Champion for every care home, home care, hospice or hospital that joins the programmes  – someone who can help to make sure that excellent care is provided to their clients and residents and be seen as a source of information and knowledge for their peers.

When does the programme start

We’re now looking for care homes, home care, hospices and hospitals to join our next programme which starts on Thursday 16 May 2024. At a cost of only £200 per year, that’s only £16.66 per month – don’t delay, places are strictly limited. Sign up instructions below

Training any time, any where

Training is delivered online, making it cost effective and convenient for participants. Members of the Skin Care Champions Programme get access to our clinicians and educators’ expertise, thoughts and ideas. All the educational material is evidence based, free of any product bias or promotion, and of the highest quality.

How does Skin Care Champions work?

The Skin Care Champions programme runs over one year. During that year the training covers the following six modules:

  • Module 1 – The skin
  • Module 2 – Acute wounds
  • Module 3 – Infection prevention
  • Module 4 – Pressure ulcers
  • Module 5 – Wound care
  • Module 6 – Lower limb

Training uses multiple media for delivery that can be accessed at times to suit the Champion and includes monthly meetings given over the Zoom platform by Heidi Sandoz, our Skin Care Champions Educator. Heidi has been a Tissue Viability Nurse since 2002 and her passions centre around education, improving services for patients and team development. She is published under the names of both Guy and Sandoz. As part of being a Skin Care Champion, you have access to all of the following:

  • Training sessions/meetings – Monthly for the Champions and quarterly for the Managers. These are all recorded so that if you miss one, you can easily catch up
  • Heidi’s ‘Expert Webinar Series’ – a series of live and recorded webinars that can be watched on demand covering a range of relevant topics with leading speakers in wound care
  • The modules – online resources which support all of the 6 modules above
  • The Skin Care Champions monthly newsletter – focuses on hot topics
  • The capability/competence assessment – tools and frameworks that help build education plans
  • Quality Improvement – a comprehensive selection of quality improvement tools from a variety of sources
  • Useful links – a whole range of useful links that will help with understanding skin health and wound healing
  • The News – keeping you up to date with the latest news in the skin health and wound healing world
  • Private website area – all assets mentioned above are stored in a private area on our website which is only accessible to Skin Care Champions and Managers. Over the course of the year, content is continually added as the modules progress.

The Skin Care Champions programme is a supportive community of like-minded people who have the opportunity to network and share experiences under Heidi’s guidance.

Visit the Private Area for Skin Care Champion members

What does it cost?

The programme costs £200 for the year for one Skin Care Champion and one Manager. If a Care Home nominates a registered nurse as their Skin Care Champion in addition to the manager, a free place is also available for a carer or support worker.

If you have already been a part of the Skin Care Champion Programme as an individual organisation (at a cost of £200), renewal costs just £150 for existing champions who have already done the programme once.

If you belong to an organisation that would like to have more than one Skin Care Champion we offer a group membership which is £750 for 5 Skin Care Champions and Managers. There is no further discounted cost for renewal for organisations as this is already a discounted rate.

Join the programme

If you’re ready to sign up, click the relevant box below and you can pay immediately by credit card to secure your place.

If you are interested but would like further information, please get in touch

The trainers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about providing exceptional skin care to residents

It’s more important than ever to be proactive in identifying areas of concerns and this programme will offer you the skills to do just that. The trainers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about providing exceptional skin care to residents. After completing the programme I’m now the key source of support for the whole team, and provide a link between the residents and local district nursing team.

Rebecca Etherington, Health and Wellbeing Lead, Abbeyfield (Lakeland Extra Care) Society

We have been discussing all sorts of things to do with skin care, sharing experiences with wounds.

It is nice to do something that can be shared that is for the good of the people we care for.

Wendy Woods, St Winifred's Care Centre

They have acquired the confidence to assess and refer, to support service users more effectively than before

I can say absolutely that the knowledge and skills that have been shared and the excellent resource folder has changed the way social care staff now engage in skin care and wound management. No longer stepping back to leave it to the professionals they are there on the frontline observing, asking questions and doing. The skin care champions have acquired the confidence to assess and refer, to support service users more effectively than before.

Kathy Chan, Limes Care Home

FAQs

I am interested but would like to understand a bit more or I have a question that isn’t covered here?
This is great. Please complete our expression of interest form at the bottom of this page and ask us to get in touch. Our Skin Care Champion Educator, Heidi Sandoz or one of the Society of Tissue Viability’s Trustees would be more than happy to meet online via Zoom or take a telephone call with you to discuss further.
How can we join the Skin Care Champion Programme?
If you would like further information, you can email the Society scc@societyoftissueviability.org or complete the expression of interest form on our website. If you're ready to sign up you can do so by clicking the relevant box towards the bottom of this page and making your payment.
What if I am struggling to keep up with the time needed to learn?
Let Heidi know, and she can work with you to guide you to spread the time further and understand which learning resources are essential for you and which may not be. Each Champion must have a manager who is also committed to the programme and therefore aware that time for learning must be given. We all work in an unpredictable field, health and social care doesn’t have an off switch and there are of course times when other aspects of your working day must take priority. The beauty of this programme is that the resources are always available, meetings are recorded and can be watched later, and you can always email Heidi to ask her anything or gain her support where needed.
How much time will a Champion need to commit to the programme?
Champions will need to commit at least one hour per week, preferably 2, in the first 6 months to keep up with the modules and learning opportunities that are provided to gain the most out of the programme. In the latter 6 months the learning can be consolidated, and resources can be reviewed and returned to if they were missed in the 1st 6 months. Being a Champion does require some commitment to finding time for learning. Heidi is available to Champions for the whole 12 months of the programme.
Who is the Skin Care Champion Educator?
Heidi Sandoz RN is our Skin Care Champion Educator. Heidi has been a registered nurse for over 35 years and a Tissue Viability Nurse for over 20 years. Her passion for tissue viability began in 1987 when she read an article about pressure ulcer and wound management and used this learning to change practice in the orthopaedic ward she was working on. This interest in educating, changing practice and tissue viability became her passion. She has both acute hospital and community experience, has been a lecturer practitioner with the University of Hertfordshire and is now an honorary lecturer for them and has lead tissue viability teams and services. She has supported national work and is currently working with the National Wound Care Strategy Programme supporting the Pressure Ulcer Surveillance workstream. She is an ex-Chair and Trustee of the Society of Tissue Viability. Heidi has multiple publications under the names of Heidi Guy and Heidi Sandoz and is a frequent presenter at conferences. She has been the Skin Care Champion Educator since the 1st pilot in 2021 and really enjoys this role. It has given her an opportunity to explore new ways of delivering education and to support learning to a mix of providers including care homes, nursing homes and home care. The wide and varied content of the programme as well as the need for it to be virtual has meant she herself has learnt many new things whilst supporting this programme. Her biggest pleasure is seeing the benefit gained by the Skin Care Champions and their organisations when engagement with the programme has been full. Heidi derives great pleasure and reward from feedback such as
The Skin Care Champions programme has given me great knowledge in dealing with tissue viability issues in my nursing practice and confidence to spread it among my colleagues” and “has given me the skills to carry out quality improvement projects within the home. The educators are highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about improving the skin and wound care provided to residents
What will the programme give our organisation?
The programme is run over one year providing between 70 and 100 hours of individual Champion learning depending on how much an individual Skin Care Champion and their manager participate. Delivered virtually, the programme uses a mix of learning platforms and resources to spread the learning over the year. The 1st 6 months are Modular with a topic a month for example: The Skin, Pressure Ulcers and Lower Limb care. These are supported by monthly Champion meetings. During the remaining 6 months monthly expert webinars are held where experts from around the UK deliver a one-hour webinar on a topic of interest. The Skin Care Champion Educator is also able to remotely support Quality Improvement projects (something we call Making Things Better) and resources to help with this are also provided. You will also be provided with a resource folder in which you can keep any printable resources. This can be shared with other colleagues. Here is what one Skin Care Champion said about the Resource Folder “the excellent resource folder has changed the way social care staff now engage in skin care and wound management”. A closed webpage within the Society’s website houses all meeting recordings, presentations, and resources so they can be accessed at a time that suits the Champion.
Who are the Society of Tissue Viability?
The Society is the oldest charity dedicated to tissue viability and has been in existence since the 1980s.  Its’ Board of Trustees is made up of healthcare professionals, university lecturers and commercial sector representatives. You can find out more about the Society here https://societyoftissueviability.org/about/what-we-do/
How much is it to join the programme?
The Skin Care Champion Programme is heavily subsidised by the Society of Tissue Viability and for this reason it is able to be run for £200 per year. This is less than £17 per month. If you belong to an organisation that would like to have more than one Skin Care Champion we offer a group membership which is £750 for 5 Skin Care Champions and Managers. If you have been a member of the programme before, you can renew for a cost of £150 per year.
What is the Skin Care Champions Programme and why should we join?
Skin Care Champions is a unique, virtual education programme that has been designed in response to the needs of the social care sector to support, develop and improve skin and wound care practice within care homes and home care agencies. The Society recognised that education in this field for social care was very limited and wanted to address that gap in a practical and affordable way. The Society believes that skin health is everyone’s business and we all should be informed and knowledgeable about how to care for the skin, what to look for when things might be going wrong and what to do about this when it happens. By joining the Society of Tissue Viability Skin Care Champions Programme you become part of a big picture and a skin and wound care trailblazer within your sector. This is what one provider had to say about the programme “The Champions have learned so much from the basics of skin care to the problematic long term wounds. No longer stepping back to leave it to the professionals they are there on the frontline observing, asking questions and doing. They have acquired the confidence to assess and refer, to support service users more effectively than before.”

Skin Care Champions

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Skin Care Champion membership 2024/25
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Skin Care Champion membership renewal 2024/5
£12.50 / month
£150 for access until 15 May 2025
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