Accredited courses 2025
The Clinical Audit Support Centre are one of the only training providers to offer accredited training courses in clinical audit and patient safety. Working with our partners at AIM Qualification and Assessment Group (see below) our courses are rigorously reviewed to ensure they meet the highest standards. We are an accredited training centre through AIM plus our trainers hold relevant teaching qualifications and subject specific experience. We offer training delivery in a variety of different formats: face-to-face, virtual, via distance learning and through online access anytime learning platform. If you are a healthcare organisation that require training in clinical audit, QI methodologies or patient safety techniques, then please contact us.
Background
The Clinical Audit Support Centre excels in the delivery of high-quality training courses. The CASC co-Directors have facilitated training since the mid-1990s and CASC courses are accredited. Accreditation enables learners to gain certification for their work but also means CASC courses are externally assessed and meet the requirements of the AIM Qualifications and Assessment Group. Our courses provide learners with key information in an understandable format and we focus on ensuring our courses meet all learning styles by making them practical, interactive, fun and inspiring. We have developed a range of training courses that cater for healthcare professionals of differing abilities and experience. Many clinical audit, QI and patient safety professionals have attended our courses over the years.
Who delivers our courses?
Tracy and/or Stephen deliver all CASC courses, although from time-to-time we may ask other experts in their field to partner with us. All tutors on our accredited courses are required to hold 1) qualifications in the discipline in which they are teaching and 2) a nationally approved teaching qualification. CASC co-Directors have considerable experience in delivering training and both helped compile the Clinical Audit Teaching Toolkit (commissioned as best practice in the field by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership). CASC tutors have experience of training staff from a variety of healthcare settings and across a range of countries.
What do attendees think of our courses?
As part of our work, the Clinical Audit Support Centre evaluates all training and teaching workshops that we deliver. After each course, all learners receive a report that features feedback from learners plus signposting to additional materials. All learners who attend our training are invited to provide detailed feedback which we periodically review. Across our portfolio of courses, feedback is typically very positive with over 99% of learners recommending our training to others. Despite this, we review content of our courses periodically to make sure 1) the information we share is current and up-to-date and 2) our training methods engage all learning styles.
Our courses: available to all or run in-house
We offer a range of courses that focus on improving patient care and enhancing patient safety within a healthcare setting. Our public, available to all courses are held regularly in Leicester, but we can conduct in-house training to save time and expense. Since the pandemic we have adapted our training courses and materials to ensure that they can be delivered virtually. The only course that we are not able to facilitate online is Train the Trainer in Clinical Audit. This course is highly interactive and hands-on, so must be delivered face-to-face. We now deliver our virtual training via Healthcare Conferences UK (HCUK). HCUK are award winning healthcare training and conference providers. If you have any queries about our courses or would like to discuss the creation of a bespoke course, simply contact the CASC team and we will be happy to discuss your needs with you. Below are a list of our most popular courses:
Clinical Audit Masterclass
The Clinical Audit Masterclass course covers everything you need to know about clinical audit in one-day! The course explains the clinical audit process in detail and attendees will leave with a full understanding of clinical audit and will be able to project manage their own clinical audit projects. Advanced Clinical Audit also covers challenging issues that audit professionals face, e.g. overcoming typical barriers to successful audit and how to get patients involved. The course is accredited at Level 3. To find out more or book your place, click here.
Train the Trainer in Clinical Audit
This is the ideal course for those who train and inspire others to participate in clinical audit. Content for the course focuses on how to use the Clinical Audit Teaching Toolkit that we created for HQIP. As part of the course learners will understand how to: develop lesson plans, profile learners, assess learner needs, get the environment right for learners, etc. Delegates receive their own copy of the Teaching Toolkit. Delegates are also given an opportunity to practice their training techniques by delivering a ‘mini-teach’ in a safe environment. The course is accredited at Level 2 and further details are available from the Clinical Audit Support Centre team. Click here, for an overview of the course. Please contact us if you would like more information. Note: this course is highly interactive and can therefore only be offered on a face-to-face basis.
PSIRF and Clinical Audit
This half-day masterclass is designed to showcase why clinical audit is a key tool that underpins the implementation of the new Patient Safety incident Response Framework (PSIRF). While NHS England have focused on lots of techniques within their PSIRF Learning Response Toolkit, clinical audit has been rarely mentioned. However, clinical audit is an established discipline that provides key data to support the effective delivery of PSIRF. Sophisticated clinical audit systems should be intelligent enough to raise red flags where care is sub-standard and national clinical audit data allows teams to evaluate their care against others and best practice standards. The new focus on ‘work as done’ in comparison to ‘work as imagined’ is important and clinical audit is perhaps the best mechanism for measuring these elements integral to ongoing safety. To find out more or book your place, click here or contact the CASC Team.
Clinical Audit Skills Distance Learning Course
If you need support to deliver a local clinical audit project and / or want to know more about clinical audit but can’t attend an external training session, then this course is perfect for you! The Distance Learning course allows staff to learn about clinical audit by carrying out a project in and relevant to their own workplace. All learners receive a comprehensive learner pack and are assigned a tutor who assists them in delivering a successful project over a period of up to 12 months. The course is accredited at Level 3. To find out more or book your place, click here.
Fundamentals of Clinical Audit online certificate
This comprehensive online Fundamentals of Clinical Audit Certificate course provides learners with a full understanding of the importance of clinical audit and how it is used. By undertaking the course learners understand how to lead and conduct a clinical audit project relevant to care provided. The course commences by looking at a history of clinical audit and learners are guided through the benefits of audit and shown how to utilise audit in meaningful and effective ways. Learner’s work through a series of in-depth modules that teach them the stages of the clinical audit process. With worked examples, downloadable supporting materials, checklists and self-assessment opportunities, this step-by-step online training has been designed to give learners a thorough overview of clinical audit. To find out more or book your place, click here.
After Action Review: Improving Patient Safety
This one-day masterclass focuses on the increasingly popular After Action Review (AAR) process that enables healthcare teams to come together in a safe environment to rapidly review a local patient safety incident. After Action Reviews have gained considerable momentum since being named as a PSIRF learning response tool and this course will provide everything you will need to organise and manage your own AAR meetings. The course is highly interactive with lots of case studies and discussions for leaners to engage in. Plus, Stephen and Tracy are joined by an AAR Facilitator who will provide her personal insights and experiences. Moreover, CASC have created a series of useful additional AAR resources that learners will be able to access. To find out more on the one-day course, click here. To find out more about the online certificate, click here.
Root Cause Analysis Masterclass
This one-day intensive masterclass will provide Root Cause Analysis Training in line with the 2019 Patient Safety Strategy and subsequent PSIRF guidance. The course will offer a practical guide to RCA with a focus on systems-based patient safety investigation as proposed by the forthcoming National Patient Safety Incident Response Framework which emphasises the requirement for investigations to be led by those with safety investigation training and expertise, and with dedicated time and resource to complete the work. This course will include an opportunity for learners to gain a Level 3 qualification in RCA skills. RCA is approved by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement and is the ‘go to’ problem solving tool used across the globe by healthcare organisations to understand why incidents occur. To find out more or book your place, click here.
Significant Event Audit Masterclass
CASC provide half-day and one-day training courses in Significant Event Audit (SEA). This is an established and approved process that has been used extensively by primary care teams across the UK for over two decades. SEA was endorsed by the National Patient Safety Agency, is advocated by NHS Scotland and teams utilising SEA are frequently commended by the Care Quality Commission. SEA is an inclusive team-based process looking at local incidents. There is a clear framework for undertaking an SEA and this is backed up by extensive best practice documentation. SEA is a rapid process that helps teams understand why an incident has occurred. The SEA process helps teams to problem solving with emphasis on implementing actions that will minimise the likelihood of similar incidents being repeated. Significant Event Audit and After-Action-Review (AAR) are similar processes, but there is much more healthcare data and best practice available that explains why SEA is impactful in healthcare settings. To find out more, click here. Please contact us if you would like more information.
Other courses
If you would like training and the course you are looking for is not listed above, then please contact us. We work with a wide range of training providers and so we are often able to put you in touch with others who can deliver precisely what you are looking for.
Accreditation provided by AIM
Almost all CASC training courses are now accredited. This is vitally important to us as it 1) provides learners with the opportunity to obtain academic certification for their hard work and 2) it demonstrates that we have been thoroughly assessed by an external agency to ensure our training meets a minimum standard.
Since CASC was established in 2006 we have worked with several accrediting bodies – both academic and healthcare-related. Our courses are currently accredited by the AIM Qualification and Assessment Group (a body that emerged when our previous accrediting body, Open College Network West Midlands, partnered with another educational provider). AIM Qualification and Assessment Group is a leading awarding and end-point assessment organisation. AIM have over thirty years’ experience developing high quality qualifications that meet the needs of employers and learners. AIM have assessed and approved CASC to ensure that all our accredited courses and qualifications are fit-for-purpose and meet national educational standards.
We have a strong working relationship with the AIM and learners now typically wait just four to six weeks from sending us their assignments to receiving their certification. To find out more about the AIM Qualification and Assessment Group, please click here.