New Certificate in Care qualification aimed at 1.3million frontline staff
The Skills for Health Level 2 Certificate in Care Qualification is a new qualification to support the delivery of the Care Certificate, brought to you by SFJ Awards.
The qualification is aimed at the 1.3 million frontline staff who are not registered nurses but who now deliver the bulk of hands-on care in hospitals, care homes and the homes of individuals, and contribute to the creation of a flexible, caring workforce with a common base of skills, values and knowledge.
Created in response to concerns about the consistency of local assessment of learners undertaking the Care Certificate, Qualification is being awarded by SFJ Awards. The Qualification will provide robust and rigorous external quality assurance. It will provide confidence to learners, staff, employers and the public that those in caring roles have attained the primary skills, knowledge and competence associated with compassionate care. The qualification will support learners in their career by, not only assuring the attainment of the primary skills they need, but also by being transferable within and across the workplace.
The SfJ Awards “Skills for Health Level 2 Certificate in Care” is benchmarked against the 15 standards within the Care Certificate and will demonstrate that learners have met the standards of the Care Certificate. These standards include duty of care, equality and diversity, privacy and dignity, safeguarding adults and children, as well as awareness of mental health, dementia and learning disabilities. In order to achieve the qualification, learners will provide evidence that they have achieved the knowledge, understanding and skills required of the standards, through knowledge and competence assessment both in the learning environment and the workplace.
Adrian Jackson, Managing Director at SFJ Awards said: “We listened to the feedback from people receiving care, employers and their staff, and recognised that we needed to offer a nationally independent quality assurance process. This new qualification will ensure that the skills, knowledge and behaviour of those providing care are consistent with the Care Certificate Standards. We would acknowledge the current financial constraints of the health and care sector and aim to work in partnership with employers to deliver an affordable solution whilst maintaining rigour and high quality assessment provision. ”
John Rogers, Chief Executive Officer at Skills for Health said:” “We are passionate about the work we do towards ensuring that the workforce provides high quality standards of care. We are committed to helping employers develop their workforce so that individuals get the care they need, and workers feel supported. We welcome the launch of the SFJ Awards “Skills for Health Certificate in Care” as it will ensure that those achieving the qualification have the necessary skills and competence required to perform their role which will give employers and the public confidence in the care provided and received”.
