Moving and Handling Course (Objects) For Carers & Care Workers

Moving and Handling – Online Course

Course overview
This online course explains safer approaches to moving and handling for carers and care workers, helping learners reduce the risk of injury through planning, risk assessment and appropriate handling techniques. It looks at how lifting, moving and assisting tasks can affect the body, and how posture, stability and teamwork support safer practice. The course takes approximately one hour, carries 1 CPD point and is CPD accredited.

Please note: This course provides online theoretical knowledge and awareness of moving and handling. It does not replace the practical, hands-on moving and handling training that an employer may require for a particular role.

What the course covers
• The costs of poor moving and handling, and common manual handling injuries
• The spine and other structures at risk, including bending, twisting and stooping
• Posture in moving and handling, including sitting posture and posture during movement
• Stability, and how gravity and holding a load affect posture
• Risk assessment, including the Manual Handling Operations Regulations (MHOR) and the five-step approach
• Ergonomics, the TILEO approach, and personal and formal risk assessment
• Individual risk factors
• Lifting a load from the floor, team handling, and pushing and pulling
• Working safely

Who is it for?
The course is suitable for anyone whose job involves moving people or objects as part of daily work. It is a practical fit for care and support staff, but also suits wider roles where lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling or assisting movement is part of the job. It is relevant to:
• Care assistants and support workers
• Nurses, healthcare assistants and therapists
• Social care workers
• Childcare providers and teachers
• Warehouse and manual labour staff
• Emergency services personnel
• Hospitality, retail and transport workers
• New starters, refresher learners and staff completing annual CPD

Practical benefits
• Reduce the risk of handling-related injury to yourself and others
• Apply safer body-mechanics principles to everyday tasks
• Contribute to risk assessments with a clearer understanding of the standards behind them
• Know when equipment or additional assistance may be needed
• Support refresher, induction and annual CPD requirements
• Study at your own pace on any device, with downloadable resources to aid learning
• Gain a free CPD-accredited certificate for professional development

What learners will be able to do
• Recognise common causes of handling-related injury
• Identify hazards before beginning a handling task
• Understand the principles of dynamic risk assessment
• Plan handling tasks to reduce avoidable risk
• Apply safer body-mechanics principles
• Understand when equipment or additional assistance may be required
• Recognise the limits of personal capability and competence
• Report unsafe conditions, incidents and changes in risk

Is this training a legal requirement?
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers must ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees, and moving and handling training is a key part of this. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1998 (as amended) set out specific requirements for safe manual handling. The supplied information states that moving and handling training is mandatory for most care providers in the UK, and that Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulations make manual handling training mandatory for care staff. How often refresher training is needed depends on the employer’s policy and the employee’s role. A refresher every one to two years is generally recommended for practical manual handling skills.

Assessment and certificate
Learners complete a multiple-choice quiz at the end of the course and can retake it as many times as they need, free of charge. After passing, they can download and print a CPD-accredited certificate for free straight away, and a hard copy can also be requested for delivery to a home or work address. Each certificate carries a unique reference number and a completion date, but no expiry date. The course is self-paced and available for 12 months, and internet access is needed to complete the assessment.