Those that have the responsibility to sign off the Care Certificate must be confident that the new worker is competent in their job role.
The Care Certificate is endorsed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It's the beginning of the career journey for those new to care and acts as a foundation for health and adult social care integration.
The Care Certificate is a CQC expectation and all employers should now be offering it.
Delivery and assessment
Choose how the Care Certificate is delivered and assessed for example; in-house or by commissioning an external learning provider.
You must be confident that the Care Certificate assessor/trainer is occupationally competent in the standard(s) they are assessing or delivering.
To delegate assessment responsibilities you can question:
- Do they have a thorough understanding and direct experience in what they are assessing?
- Are they confident and competent in the skills required to assess in the workplace? (Remember they do not need a formal assessor qualification but some training about the principles of work-based sasess ment to a certain standrd is recommended.)
If you’re inducting a new manager, take a look at our Manager Induction Standards.
Resources
In addition to the Care Certificate workbook, we have developed a range of resources to help and inform you about the Care Certificate.
ZIP - 1.46mb
These group activities use real-life scenarios from social care settings to help you assess and develop the core skills of your workers.
ZIP - 224mb
We've developed a series of presentations to support the delivery of the basic knowledge required to complete the Care Certificate. These presentations complement the Care Certificate workbook.
Word doc - 62kb
Download a template of the certificate to award workers who have completed the Care Certificate. A editable version is also available to add your logo to the certificate. (only valid if the Care Certificate logo remains on the top right and your logo appears on the bottom right.)
Word doc - 177Kb
Future Directions has created a flowchart which can help you see the process you need to go through when putting workers through the Care Certificate.
PDF - 167kb
The Avalon Group have created a carer competency record to help monitor the progression and competency of carer's completing the Care Certificate.
Tailoring the Care Certificate
The ‘Tailoring the Care Certificate’ resources have been developed to support workers achieve the minimum standards of the Care Certificate in job roles where more specialist skills are needed. They can be used for workers who are new to care, or for workers who are moving from one area of care into a more specialised service.
They can be used in various ways; by learner, trainer and assessor; to enhance existing Care Certificate delivery and assessment. They aren’t a mandatory resource and don’t replace any aspects or content of the Care Certificate.
Download the ‘Tailoring the Care Certificate’ resources:
HEE e-learning
Aimed at students and their assessors. The e-learning portal supports theoretical knowledge for each of the 15 standards and post-session questions to encourage reflection and discussion about how to apply each standard in their place of work.
Developed using existing materials that were developed with the help of HEE, Skills for Care and Skills for Health.
The e-learning is free to access for health and social care workers via the e-LfH Hub:
Care Certificate (CCT)
Find out more information about the Care Certificate e-learning.
PDF - 2.19Mb
Produced by Shared Lives Plus and approved by us. Shared Lives Plus explain the Care Certificate, as well as practical guidance on the assessment of performance (observations).
Support for home care providers and recruitment agencies
PDF - 190Kb
This Guidance aims to highlight practical ways for homecare providers to deliver the Care Certificate.
Recruitment agencies
We’ve contributed to and recommend new guidance produced by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) the professional body for recruitment agencies in the UK.
Helping members and their clients understand who is responsible for delivering different aspects of the Care Certificate, and how collaborative working can be mutually beneficial.
We're aware of a number of training providers making claims about their products in relation to the Care Certificate. We'd like to reassure you that such claims are false. Please read our full statement before putting workers through the Care Certificate.