The following statement has been issued by Skills for Health, Skills for Care & Health Education England
Shared Statement from
Skills for Health, Skills for Care & Health Education England
Regarding the Care Certificate and training providers including e-learning
(V.2 Updated November 2015)
We have been made aware of a number of training providers including e-learning providers making claims about their products in relation to the Care Certificate.
These claims include:
- That they have been ‘licenced’ by one or all of the organisations above to award the Care Certificate
- That they have been ‘accredited’ by one or all of the organisations above to provide training or e-learning related to the Care Certificate
- That the Care Certificate can be achieved by completing the providers e-learning or workbooks
- That by using their product the employer is complying with a mandatory requirement to ensure workers achieve the Care Certificate
- The Care Certificate must be achieved within 12 weeks of starting employment and the training provider ensures this will happen
The above are just some examples of the claims being made.
We have also been made aware that a small number of organisations appear to be selling Care Certificate materials that are freely available from the Skills for Health, Skills for Care and Health Education England websites
Skills for Health, Skills for Care and Health Education England would like to make clear the following:
1. No provider has been ‘licenced’ to award the Care Certificate. Such a licence does not exist.
2. No providers are accredited to deliver the Care Certificate. Some organisations may have had their training externally quality assured by a third party and we would encourage providers to explore this option but no provider has been ‘accredited’ to deliver the Care Certificate.
3. It is not possible to achieve the Care Certificate through completion of e-learning or completing a workbook alone. Whilst e-learning or workbooks can certainly support the acquisition of knowledge and the assessment of knowledge, the assessment of the required skills must be undertaken in the workplace unless simulation is explicitly allowed.
We would also encourage employers to look carefully at the quality of the learning materials and assessment being used in any products being marketed to them, and to consider carefully whether the assessment would comply with the assessment requirements. An example of this may be to consider whether it is possible to meet the Care Certificate assessment requirement to ‘Describe how the duty of care affects their own work role’ or ‘Explain why personal views must not influence an individual’s own choices or decisions’ by answering a multiple choice question.
4. The Care Certificate is not a mandatory requirement. However, the Care Quality Commission will expect that appropriate staff who are new to services which they regulate will achieve the competences required by the Care Certificate as part of their induction.
5. It is not a requirement that the Care Certificate is achieved within 12 weeks. The Care Certificate FAQ states: The experience of the pilot sites has shown that for full-time staff the average amount of time taken for an employee new to health or social care to demonstrate the expected competences and knowledge is 12 weeks. This will vary from organisation to organisation, and may depend upon a range of factors: the hours worked by the learner, teaching methods chosen, previous educational achievement, resources and opportunities for assessment, the availability of assessors.
6. A range of resources have been produced to support employers with implementation of the Care Certificate. These resources include the Standards, Guidance documents and the Workbooks. Other organisations may produce material to support employers and can charge for these. However, we would advise employers to exercise caution before purchasing and check the added value of these priced resources compared with the free materials already available.
We would encourage employers to regularly check our websites for any updates to the FAQs or related documents.
