Care Certificate warning issued over bogus provider claims

The organisations charged with implementing the Care Certificate have issued a warning over claims being made by a number of training providers about their products in relation to the qualifaction.

In a statement released today, Skills for Health, Skills for Care & Health Education England have said no organisation has been ‘licensed’ or ‘accredited’ to deliver the qualifaction.

Other claims being made by training providers relate to completing the qualification by eLearning alone and as a mandatory requirement the certificate must be achieved within 12 weeks of starting employment.

In a statement, Skills for Health, Skills for Care and Health Education England have issued guidance and are asking students to adhere to the following:

• No provider has been ‘licenced’ to award the Care Certificate. Such a licence does not exist.
• 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.
• It is not possible to achieve the Care Certificate through completion of e-learning alone. Whilst e-learning 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.
• 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.
• 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.

For more details, FAQs and related documents, visit: http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/standards/item/216-the-care-certificate