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Care certificate
Contents
Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health have worked together to develop the Care Certificate. The Certificate has been designed to meet the requirements set out in the Cavendish Review.
The Care Certificate is an identified set of standards that health and care professionals adhere to in their daily working life. Designed with the non-regulated workforce in mind, the Care Certificate gives everyone the confidence that health and care professionals have the same introductory skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high-quality care and support in their own particular workplace setting.
The Care Certificate is based on 15 standards, which individuals need to complete in full before they can be awarded their certificate.
Care Certificate Celebration Day - December 5th 2022
On December 5th 2022, Health Education England will be taking the opportunity to celebrate the Care Certificate and how it has been used by organisation to help staff to carry out their roles in a safe and effective way. Events will be taking place on and following the 5th of December, for more information please see below:
Events
Care Certificate Celebration Day Webinar
Monday 5th December 2022
10:00 – 11:30
Microsoft Teams Live Event – Registration link is here
You are invited to attend a national webinar on the 5th December 2022 to celebrate the Care Certificate and showcase its place in ensuring high quality patient care. Please share with your networks!
The event is a Microsoft Teams Live Event, which means that you won’t be able to be seen or speak, but there will be a Q&A bar to send in questions for discussion. The webinar will be recorded.
The Care Certificate is used by health and care organisations all over the country and is an identified set of standards that health and care professionals adhere to in their daily working life.
Designed with the unregistered workforce in mind, the Care Certificate gives everyone the confidence that health and care professionals have the same introductory skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high-quality care and support.
We want to share with you how far the Care Certificate has come, how provides a foundation for new Support Workers in health and…..
- Raise the profile of Support Workers – Hearing reflections from Support Workers on what achieving the Care Certificate means to them at the start of their career journey
- Raise the profile of the Care Certificate programme – reflecting on its development and how it future proofs the future workforce
- Raise the profile of Support Worker training and education - Organisational reflections from Care Certificate Leads and Educators- what they have achieved and how they maintain quality and relevant training for new recruits
Further Events
- 6th December Support Worker Voice – personal experience of completing the Care Certificate
- 7th December Care Certificate Leads sharing best practice
- 8th December NHSE Shared Decision Making Council
- 9th December NHSE Celebrating the Care Certificate
Please contact carecertificate@hee.nhs.uk if you would like any information on these events.
Further details will be published on this page as soon as they are available.
Care certificate review
The Care Certificate is regularly reviewed to ensure it reflects changes in the health and social care landscape and it remains relevant and effective. With the COVID-19 pandemic offering valuable learning, and a recent renewed focus on the recruitment, induction, and retention of healthcare support workers (HCSWs) across the NHS in England, Health Education England (HEE) in partnership with Skills for Health and Skills for Care has undertaken an in-depth review of the Care Certificate.
This review has been carried out to ensure the Care Certificate continues to offer a structured practical induction programme for new support workers to make sure they are effectively prepared for their role across all health and care settings.
As part of the review, we engaged providers, education teams and frontline staff from both health and social care across England, who use the Care Certificate as part of the induction process for their workforce. This feedback, alongside engagement with subject matter experts from both sectors, has led us to recommend updates and improvements to some of the standards.
We are currently making the relevant updates to the resources and will let employers know once the new version of resources are available.
Overall, the review established that the Care Certificate continues to be fit for purpose as a robust induction programme for support workers across health and social care settings and employers should continue to use the existing standards and resources until the updated resources are available. If your staff have completed the Care Certificate, there is no need for them to re-take it.
If you would like more information about the review or changes, contact carecertificate@hee.nhs.uk
The care certificate standards
Each standard is underpinned by full learning outcomes and assessment criteria. The 15 standards in the Care Certificate are:
Materials to support employers implementing the Care Certificate, including revised standards and guidance, are now available to download from the Skills for Health and Skills for Care websites.
- 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 disability
- Safeguarding adults
- Safeguarding children
- Basic life support
- Health and safety
- Handling information
- Infection prevention and control
Please be cautious of learning providers who may look to charge for this free information. Please read this important statement regarding commercial training providers offering Care Certificate products.
The e-learning is free to access for health and care professionals.
For more information about the e-learning programme, including how to access, visit: https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/care-certificate/
The materials are optional to use and are only suggestions to help you prepare. All information and documentation will need checking and customising for your own specific needs.
This guide was possible following a combined contribution from Trusts within north west London.
FAQs: These questions and answers have been produced in partnership with Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health. They were updated in March 2018 to reflect questions received through organisations supporting the Care Certificate implementation since these new induction standards were introduced.
Quality Assurance: This paper introduces quality assurance – the benefits of following toolkit guidance.
Mapping tool: Subject matter experts who currently deliver training for this staff group on induction, maps whether the current Induction training will cover the requirements of the Care Certificate and links to national mapping guidance.Workbook: A generic workbook with assessment criteria and action plan to be customised for your area.
Assessment guidelines: An example of what to consider, when and how assessment should take place.
Hints and Tips for assessing the Care Certificate in General Practice: During the piloting phase of the Care Certificate, colleagues in general practice put feedback to good use to make a hints and tips guide to assessing some of the standards of the Care Certificate in general practice. This may be used as a guide and in addition to the assessment criteria to help you think of scenarios or ways to demonstrate the HCAs understanding in the primary care setting. Acknowledging North West London CCG leads for sharing this resource.
Communication plan template: will help you to structure the publicity and information needed.
Timeline flow chart: another way to be able to plan with other multidisciplinary teams.
Local Ward/Dept staff Noticeboard poster: specific poster for advertising the named leads for the Care Certificate in areas or within the learning and development teams.
HEE North west London Care Certificate Leaflet: to help inform senior briefing and the context of the Care Certificate.
HEE North west London Information poster
HEE North west London Care Certificate pocket guide
Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Minimum Data Set: Initial guidance from NW England. This is work in progress but the following information may be used as a guide to what information needs to be collected by employers to evidence completion of the Care Certificate.
Recommendation of QCF levels: Guidance on understanding educational levels.