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Care Certificate
Health and Social Care Professionals
Question and Answers
These Questions and Answers were produced jointly in partnership with Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health. They were updated in February 2016 to reflect questions received to all organisations supporting the Care Certificate implementation since these new induction standards were introduced.
Section 1: About the Care Certificate
What is the Care Certificate? The Care Certificate is the minimum training, supervision and assessment that those staff new to care (health and adult social care) should receive as part of induction.
The Care Certificate is intended to be used at the start of a career in health and social care. It ensure that people joining the sector can receive appropriate training, support and workplace assessment before they start to deliver care out of the line of sight of more experienced workers.
It provides a foundation for those working in healthcare support and social care worker roles in England, ensuring that the new worker is able to provide a compassionate and caring service.
There are fifteen standards that must be completed, involving knowledge learning, practical skills development and workplace assessments. Completion of all standards is required to attain the Care Certificate.
Related Resource: Care Certificate Standards
What does the Care Certificate Cover?
The Care Certificate consists of the following 15 Standards:
- Understand Your Role
- Your Personal Development
- Duty of Care
- Equality and Diversity
- Work in a Person Centred Way
- Communication
- Privacy and Dignity
- Fluids and Nutrition
- Awareness of Mental health, Dementia and Learning Disabilities
- Safeguarding Adults
- Safeguarding Children
- Basic Life Support
- Health and Safety
- Handling Information
- Infection Prevention and Control
Related Resources : Care Certificate Standards, Care Certificate Framework, Self- assessment tool, Mapping document
Why was the Care Certificate introduced? Following the report of the Francis Inquiry in 2013 which identified serious failures in healthcare provision, Camilla Cavendish was asked by the Secretary of State to review and make recommendations on the recruitment, learning and development, management and support of healthcare assistants and social care support workers, to help ensure that this workforce provided compassionate care.
The resulting report, The Cavendish Review: An Independent Review into Healthcare Assistants and Support Workers in the NHS and Social Care Settings (July 2013) found that preparation of healthcare assistants and social care support workers for their roles providing care was inconsistent. The report recommended development of a Certificate of Fundamental Care – the “Care Certificate”.
Related resources: The Cavendish review: an independent review into healthcare assistants and support workers in the NHS and social care settings, The Francis Enquiry
Does the Care Certificate replace staff induction? No. The Care Certificate is part of a structured induction but does not replace all of the learning required for staff induction. As well as the Care Certificate standards new staff will
demonstrate that staff have, or are working towards, the skills set out in the Care Certificate, as the benchmark for staff induction.”
Related resource : CQC statement on the Care Certificate
What resources are available to support the Care Certificate?
The Standards – overview of what is covered by the 15 Standards
Care Certificate Framework (Assessor) – highlighting what needs to be assessed and how
Guidance Document – complementing the framework, this guidance explains more about training, support and workplace assessment
Care Certificate Overview videos – brief introductory videos explaining what the Care Certificate is for 1) new workers and 2) employers
The Care Certificate Workbook – covering the knowledge learning parts of the 15 induction standards
Care Certificate Presentations – downloads covering knowledge learning part of the induction standard, excluding Standards 10, 11, 12 and 13
Self-Assessment Tool – practical resource to support recruitment processes to help identify what past learning may exist
Mapping Document – practical resource to support recruitment processes showing the overlap between earlier induction programmes and Level 2 and Level 3 Diplomas in Health and Social Care
Certificate Template – for use by employers to complete once the new worker has completed their Care Certificate induction
Questions and Answers – this regularly updated questions reflects key points for employers, workers and learning providers
The Care Certificate and Learning Providers – this statement was issued to protect employers around miscommunications about what the Care Certificate was and how it can be delivered
Observation Record Template – practical resource to enable assessors to record observations as the new worker progresses through the induction
How long does it take to complete the Care Certificate? During the piloting of the Care Certificate in 2014, the indication was that for a full-time member of staff, the average amount of time taken to complete the Care Certificate was 12 weeks.
It is likely that employers will find that the time taken to complete the certificate will vary depending upon a range of factors, including; the hours worked by the learner, teaching methods chosen, previous educational achievement, resources and opportunities for assessment, and the availability of assessors.
Section 2: Who should do the Care Certificate?
New Workers, New to Care The Care Certificate is aimed at the following types of workers joining a health or adult social care organisation without any past training or sector experience.
Healthcare o Healthcare Support Workers / Health Care Assistants / Assistant Practitioners / any individual giving support to clinical roles in the NHS where there is any direct contact with patients.
Adult social care o Care Assistant / Care Worker / Homecare Worker / Care Support Workers. These workers will be giving direct care in in residential, nursing homes and hospices, home care workers, domiciliary care staff.
Related Resources : Care Certificate Standards, Care Certificate Framework
Should existing staff employed before the Care Certificate was introduced do the Care Certificate? The Care Certificate is aimed at those new to health and adult social care, with no previous experience. For staff employed before 1 April 2015, they will already have completed the previous training required for induction.
Employers are responsible for judging whether the jobs of individual staff require them to complete extra work to achieve the standards within the Care Certificate. If individuals have the competences and knowledge required for the Care Certificate the employer can choose to credit them with having obtained the Care Certificate.
Related Resources : Care Certificate Mapping Document, Care Certificate Self-Assessment, Care Certificate “Certificate”
Section 3: Sign Off and Portability
When should the Care Certificate be signed off? The Care Certificate can be awarded by the employer of any healthcare support or care worker who completes all standards. The Care Certificate should not be signed until the new healthcare support or care worker has completed all 15 of the standards.
It is strongly recommended that the health or adult social care organisation uses the national Care Certificate template. A PDF and Word version is available and the employer can choose to add their own logo onto the latter if they wish. The certificate should be given the health or adult social care worker. The employer may choose to keep a copy of the certificate.
Related resource: Care Certificate “Certificate”
Can learning providers sign the Care Certificate? No. The health or adult social care employer must take responsibility for final sign off. External learning providers who may have supported the training delivery should not sign and issue the Certificate.
Related resource: Care Certificate “Certificate”
If the Care Certificate was completed at a previous employer, are they not responsible for any training failings of our new worker? No. If the new workers past training does not appear appropriate to their role, additional training, supervision and workplace assessment should be arranged. If concerns are raised about the quality of past learning, the new employer may wish to repeat some or all of the Care Certificate.
Related resources: Care Certificate Standards , Care Certificate Framework , Care Certificate “Certificate”
Will there be a central register of staff who have been awarded the Care Certificate? No. There are currently no plans for a national register of healthcare support, care workers or similar.
Each employer is responsible for maintaining their own records. For Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulated providers, this is something that may be looked at as part of the inspection process.
For NHS organisations, the successful completion of the certificate should be documented on an employee’s NHS Electronic Staff Record. For adult social care employers, successful completion of the certificate should be documented in the National Minimum Data Set for
Social Care (NMDS-SC). Whilst for the users of this service, this creates a central record, employers are strongly recommended to keep their own evidence.
Related resources: Care Certificate Standards , Care Certificate Framework Care Certificate “Certificate”, NHS Electronic Staff Records (NHS organisations only), and National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC – adult social care organisations only)
Section 4: Quality Assurance
How is the quality of the Care Certificate assured? The employer is responsible for assuring the quality of training, supervision and assessment of ability of their healthcare support and care workers.
Providers of care have a duty to ensure that people are safe, and their health and welfare needs are met. They must ensure that their staff are competent to carry out their work and are properly trained, supervised and appraised.
Employers are responsible for assuring the quality of the teaching and assessment of the Care Certificate. It is expected that employers will use the standards to ensure that staff receive the training necessary so that they can develop the knowledge and competences necessary to provide safe and compassionate care of the highest quality.
Possession of the Care Certificate will be one part of the evidence that they may need to make that decision. However, employers will naturally want to understand more about their new workers and what additional training and support may be required.
Related resources: Care Certificate Standards , Care Certificate Framework, Care Certificate Mapping Document , Care Certificate Self-Assessment Tool
Should assessment of the competences specified in the standards be carried out in the workplace? Assessment strategies differ depending upon which part of the Care Certificate is being undertaken. The guidance document sets out what must be assessed and how it should be assessed.
Most assessment should be within a setting where care is being provided to service users/ patients, and should be completed face to face. More information is contained in the “Care Certificate Framework Assessor Document”. Learners can practice and develop their new skills in a classroom, skills lab or similar setting but the assessment evidence must be collected during real work activity.
Related resources: Care Certificate Framework, Care Certificate Guidance Document
Who can assess whether a worker has achieved the required competences? The assessment (including observing someone and assessing their competence) must be undertaken by someone who is 'occupationally competent', which means someone who has
providers can be assist in this process but the induction process must remain the responsibility of the health or adult social care employer.
The Care Certificate can only be awarded by the employer and they remain responsible for the decision to award it, irrespective of who undertakes the training, supervision or assessment of the certificate.
Related resources: Care Certificate Guidance Document, Care Certificate Framework, Care Certificate and Learning Providers Statement
Can e-learning / workbooks / films be used as part of the Care Certificate training delivery? Yes, but the Care Certificate cannot be fully achieved through the use of these training approaches.
E-learning, workbooks and films can all be useful approaches to cover some parts of the Care Certificate learning and a mixture of all approaches can be helpful. However, the Care Certificate includes skills that must be assessed in the workplace. The Care Certificate Framework providers further clarity.
Related resources: Care Certificate Framework, Care Certificate Guidance Document, Care Certificate Workbook and Presentations, Care Certificate and Learning Providers statement
What happens if the care we provide means some parts of the Care Certificate cannot be completed? Some health and adult social care providers may offer services that do not cover the full scope of the Care Certificate. If the worker is unable to complete all the standards and their related assessments successfully, the Care Certificate cannot be awarded.
Related resources: Care Certificate Framework, Care Certificate Guidance Document, Care Certificate “Certificate”
Section 6: Other
How was the Care Certificate tested prior to its launch? The Care Certificate was field tested with a range of employers across health and social care over the spring and summer of 2014.
The piloting involved 29 organisations and a total of 530 participants, including 16 adult social care providers and a total of 230 participants. A formal evaluation was published in autumn 2014.
Related resource: Care Certificate Pilot Evaluation Report
Can the Care Certificate be used by Individual Employers and Personal Assistants? Yes. Individual employers wishing to induct their personal assistants using the Care Certificate can do so. As individual employers are not regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the use of the Care Certificate to support the induction of new personal assistants is completely optional. How much of the Care Certificate training, supervision and workplace assessment can be undertaken by the individual employer may depend on their own training and experience. However, individual employers can use external learning providers to support this process.
Related resources: FAQs about Personal Assistants doing the Care Certificate
