Conclusions
The research outlined in this paper has demonstrated that in the data extracted from the limited number of responses, staff who possess formal qualifications are significantly over represented among those who have abused older people in private sector care and nursing homes for older people. Though further research into this finding is clearly warranted, results from the study presented here indicate that it cannot be assumed that once staff have received training they will not perpetrate abuse. However, the requirement for care homes to repeat or augment the training they provide to their staff as an outcome of safeguarding enquiries and SCRs[6] continues to be common, though the occurrence of abuse may frequently be, in part, as a result of other factors operating within the care home that may lead to the principles of training to be set aside, by individual or collective groups of staff. Insufficient time and high levels of stress among care staff who are in a powerful position when compared to that of residents, as discussed above, are but some examples of the factors that are often left unaddressed.
Though further research into the multiple factors likely to be involved in the occurrence of abuse of older people in care and nursing homes is clearly indicated, until national policy addresses the uneasy tension between providing care in residential and nursing homes, and the necessary pursuit of profit by their operators in a business environment where fees paid to them by public sector purchasers are perceived by providers as too low, it remains likely that abuse will continue, despite the plethora of staff training that is available. It would also make eminent good sense for all local authorities to record the qualifications of those staff who have been found to be responsible for abuse so that further determination of the effectiveness or otherwise of training as a preventative measure may be achieved.
