Resources for training providers
Group sessions and self-study distance learning are a great way for carers to learn and be empowered to cope more effectively with their caring situation.
Before 28 September 2010, group sessions and distance learning were available through the Caring with Confidence programme.
Although Caring with Confidence groups sessions and distance learning modules are no longer run by a government-funded programme, many organisations wish to continue providing some or all of the training that was available through Caring with Confidence.
This material have been made available for anyone to download free of charge through the Carers Direct website as part of the NHS Choices programme.
Caring with Confidence also ran an online self-study programme. You can access a similar scheme through our interactive carers education programme.
About the course materials
If you are considering running a course for carers using these materials, please read read these tips for organisations wanting to deliver learning and training to carers(PDF, 63kb), devised by academics at the University of Leeds, based on early evidence from the National Evaluation of the Caring with Confidence programme.
You should also read the facilitator development guide (PDF, 311kb), which takes you through the requirements of training facilitators to run courses.
These course materials were developed by the Caring with Confidence programme to enable training providers to run group sessions for carers. They constitute an archived 'snapshot' of the training materials as they were available in September 2010 and will not be centrally updated subsequently.
The Department of Health (DH) accepts no liability whatsoever for any training courses or the content of any training materials for the Caring with Confidence programme from 28 September 2010. Training providers are free to use the training materials. However, the DH in no way whatsoever endorses the training provider. Any complaints about the course should be made to the training provider and not to the DH.
Before you decide to run a course you may want to read the research into carers' study programmes that was carried out for Caring with Confidence. This research comprises:
You may also find it useful to read A Study of Training for Carers in Scotland(PDF, 362kb), August 2006, which made recommendations that were reflected in the Caring with Confidence programme.
Download the generic group session documents(ZIP, 1.4MB) for running the Caring with Confidence group sessions here. The downloads are large ZIP files, each containing several PDF documents.