Care Certificate John Buttle, Social Works Ltd

What is the Care Certificate?  Introduced in April 2015 as a result of the Cavendish Review  For all staff new to Care and employed after 1 st April 2015  Standardised, ‘portable’ & based on Knowledge and Competences  15 Standards across health and social care  All standards completed = Care Certificate  Mapped to existing QCF units  A key part of induction  A step towards meeting the standards required by CQC 2

A word of Caution… The Care Certificate is NOT a qualification  It is the CQC’s recommended route to assessing staff competency only  It is the evidence of assessing competency that CQC will want to see rather than a single piece of paper.  The registered manager is ultimately responsible for the overall quality of both knowledge and competency, so must be assured that everything is running as they want, and as they are happy to demonstrate to the CQC.

The Care Qualities Commission expects: employed#guidancehttp:// employed#guidance 4

The Care Certificate is NOT …a substitute for:  providers’ responsibilities to provide safe and high quality care and support;  commissioners regularly assuring themselves of the safety and effectiveness of commissioned services;  the Care Quality Commission (CQC) ensuring that regulated providers comply with the fundamental standards of care;  Everything else a care worker needs to know for work – is DOES NOT cover manual handling, administration of medication etc; 5

The 15 Care Standards – each standard has knowledge and competency elements 1.Understand Your Role 2.Your Personal Development 3.Duty of Care 4.Equality and Diversity 5.Work in a Person Centred Way 6.Communication 7.Privacy and Dignity 8.Fluids and Nutrition 9.Awareness of mental health, dementia & learning disability 10.Safeguarding Adults 11.Safeguarding Children 12.Basic Life Support 13.Health and Safety 14.Handling Information 15.Infection Prevention and Control

To achieve the Care Certificate it is necessary to:  Train new staff in all 15 standards’ KNOWLEDGE elements  Assess new staff in the workplace against all 15 standards’ COMPETENCY elements  Record everything and collect certificates and competency evidence in a portfolio for each learner  Print off the Skills for Care, Care Certificate to keep with the portfolio and ONLY sign off people as competent when sure about them and that all their evidence is in place  Only allow a member of staff to work UNSUPERVISED when the above is complete for them  Look VERY CLOSELY at any new staff turning up with just a care certificate – have a look at the SfC assessment tool. 7

Funding and QCF There is no funding available to help employers achieve the Care Certificate. HOWEVER:  All standards are matched to QCF units, which can be funded by Skills for Care (SfC) Workforce Development Funding (WDF).  BUT rules of QCF unit combination, verb definitions etc can make it impractical in many ways to achieve them all in a timely practical manner with WDF funding.  A good compromise is the L2 Preparing to work in Adult social Care Certificate – it covers 10 of the 15 knowledge standards and can be funded by Skills for Care Workforce Development Funding – as such it can give a core of funding for the overall knowledge training. This certificate is also the 1 st stage of an Apprenticeship programme and so can be funded via that route too.  Different local authorities may also offer some subsidised or funded routes for some or all of the knowledge standards.  You CAN convert QCF units to the Care Certificate, but NOT the other way around!

Achieving the knowledge elements

How to achieve the Knowledge elements:  Classroom training – following QCF or non QCF programmes. Options include Skills for Care materials, bespoke materials etc  E-learning/Distance learning – Highfield Awarding body and many others offer licences.  A mix of both classroom and e-learning 10

Knowledge training Things to consider:  Length of classroom training – is it sufficient? Some offer the Care Certificate over 1 day. That’s 20 mins per standard. Could you learn everything about standard 9 ‘Awareness of mental health, dementia & learning disability’ in 20 minutes?  Resources and skills for e-learning – do you have the tablets/PCs etc, are your staff IT literate?  Materials – think before you print – if doing in house, SfC materials are over 360 pages per learner  Is everything covered – the Care Certificate materials and QCF units do not currently include the Care Act 2014 universally – make sure your staff know how safeguarding, wellbeing etc has changed and are trained accordingly.  Quality of external training – does your learning provider know their business? Are you happy that they are teaching to YOUR standards?

Competency/performance Assessment Not so simples…

Key Questions There is no universal, simple workbook to follow for assessing and recording your staff’s competency assessment. Instead, you will need to agree a way internally for how you proceed based upon the SfC guidance. Key questions to address:  Who assesses competency/performance in your organisation?  What methods of assessment do you use?  How many observations do you need to do?  What do you do if you can’t observe?  How long will it take before a new worker can operate unsupervised?  How will you assess people who come to you with recent qualifications?  How do you recording competency assessments?

Who can assess competency/performance? A trusted manager with extensive care experience would normally be a good choice – as well as someone who can ensure that evidence of the assessment is well recorded and stored.  The person assessing competency in your workplace does not need to have QCF Assessor training.  The most important thing to consider is whether the person has the experience and competency themselves to assess staff.  The competency assessor will need the organisation’s trust and authority to sign staff members off as being able to fully demonstrate their understanding of the Care Certificate’ standards in practice.  Sometimes more than one assessor maybe needed – for example with Standard 12 Basic Life Support where the main assessor might not be qualified.  Good admin and record keeping can be delegated, but are vital

Key Components of competency/performance assessment evidence … evidence must be:  Valid – relevant to the standards for which competence is claimed  Authentic – produced by the learner  Current – sufficiently recent for assessors to be confident that the learner still has that same level of skills or knowledge  Reliable - genuinely representative of the learner’s knowledge and skills  Sufficient – meets in full all the requirements of the standards

What types of ‘evidence’ are allowed? The preferred and best way is through: Direct Observation Other types of performance evidence methods can be used where the evidence could not reasonably be observed in a real work situation or is unlikely to occur during the induction period. Please note:  Direct Observation or RPL only is allowed for Standard 12 Basic Life Support  It is not permissible to use Skype or other forms of video evidence when assessing. Other methods include: Oral Questions Professional Discussion Work Products Reflective Account Simulation or Role Play Recognised Prior Learning: Suitable almost exclusively for Standard 12 Basic Life Support where someone has a current and valid 1 st Aid certificate.

How to record competency evidence Firstly, check the latest version of the guidance on the SfC website (older versions may be superseded)  there is no one format to use to record competency evidence – so feel free to design your own - (we designed one for our customers use, so have other training providers and companies)  Use holistic observation whenever possible - this means you can collect evidence against a number of the 15 standards at one observation.  Whatever format you use, make sure it is fit for purpose and those using it, understand it  It is recommended to record observations as if you are ‘telling a story’. Please note: Keep in mind when you use work products or write on the Competency Assessment Sheet, there should not be any service user or other confidential information included. You will also need to have the permission of the service user when you go out and observe. When you give feedback to your member of staff after each observation, do not do this in front of the client.

How to collate and reference competency evidence You will need to set up a portfolio for each member of staff - this can either be a hardcopy (eg ring binder) or an electronic portfolio. It is recommend to have a portfolio content guidance in the front of the portfolio and to number each section in the portfolio. For instance: 1.Divider 1- Learners details, 2.Divider 2 – Knowledge and Performance Evidence, 3.Divider 3 – Reference sheets. You can use the reference sheets that SfC provide at the end of each standard workbook. Your reference sheet is like the Index at the back of the book – it shows people where in the portfolio they can find things. You need to number the learners individual evidence products and use this same number on the reference sheet, saying what type of evidence it is (eg, Observation, RPL etc).

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