Care Certificate 15 Standards
- Holly S
- Aug 18, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 15
The 15 Care Certificate Standards are an induction training programme for those working within health and social care.
15 standards of the Care Certificate are:
Understand your role
Your personal development
Duty of care
Equality and diversity
Work in a person-centred way
Communication
Privacy and dignity
Fluids and nutrition
Awareness of mental health, dementia and learning disability
Safeguarding adults
Safeguarding children
Basic life support
Health and safety
Handling information
Infection prevention and control
The Care Certificate 15 Standards is an essential starting point for leaders and managers of care services to ensure that all their front-line staff deliver care that is safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well led.
All leaders in adult care must ensure that each member of their staff undertakes the Care Certificate before the staff member is allowed to work unsupervised with any client, patient, or service-user.
The 15 Care Certificate Standards online courses delivered by Courses For Jobs Ltd provide comprehensive training that ensures staff induction meets the stringent requirements of CQC, making it perfectly tailored to support professionals and managers in training their workers.
The 15 Care Certificate courses are available with different study options which can be seen at
15 Care Certificate Standards courses Bundle, plus Health & Social Care course provides 15 Care Certificate courses and two additional courses in a learning bundle with 17 separate courses. Each Care Certificate Standard is a separate course with a separate certificate of completion.
15 Care Certificate Standards courses plus Health & Social Care, Mental Health & Wellbeing is a learning bundle with 18 separate courses
Care Certificate 15 Standards courses bundle PLUS Level 2 Health and Social Care certificate courses bundle is a learning bundle with 31 separate courses
Care Certificate full 15 Standards courses PLUS Level 2 Health and Social Care diploma courses bundle is a learning bundle with 40 separate courses
The Care Certificate was originally intended as an induction programme for new starters in health and social care, however the Care Certificate provides comprehensive training for all staff and it is recommended for all staff at all levels.
What is the Care Certificate?
The Care Certificate is an identified set of care induction standards to enable staff working in health and social care to understand the minimum standards they must adhere to in their daily working life.
The Care Certificate enables individuals working in non-regulated job roles to receive minimum training and induction before they actively provide care support to service-users, in order to avoid causing harm to service-users and to maintain minimum quality standards.
Although the Care Certificate was originally intended for the non-regulated workforce, the Care Certificate is recommended for everyone who works in any area of health and social care, whatever their level.
History of the Care Certificate
In the early 2000s, many scandals emerged regarding abuses and ill-treatments by care workers and hospital staff against patients and service-users within hospitals and social care settings.
One of these scandals led to the Francis Review Inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
As more reports emerged of failings in other hospitals and care homes, Jeremy Hunt, Conservative MP, the then Secretary of State for Health in 2013 asked Baroness Camilla Cavendish, a British journalist, who was a contemporary of the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, to review what can be done to ensure that unregistered staff in the NHS and social care treat all patients and clients with care and compassion.
The Cavendish Review found that most of the failings were due to untrained healthcare assistants performing a lot of tasks that used to be carried out by nurses and even doctors, There was no compulsory basic training for non-regulated staff, and this patchy training was leading to harm and deaths of patients.
The Cavendish Review found that induction, training and development of staff in health and social care settings were inconsistent, inadequate, and in some organisations, completely non-existent.
In her Review, Baroness Cavendish proposed new common training standards across health and social care, along with a “Certificate of Fundamental Care,” written in plain English, to make a positive statement about caring. And she asked that the CQC should require that all workers have achieved this Certificate before working unsupervised.
Following the findings of the Cavendish Review, published in July 2013, regarding serious cases of repeated abuse and harmful behaviour by care staff on patients, residents and clients, the then government in 2013 responded to the Cavendish Review findings by tasking the Sector Skills bodies to come up with a solution.
Skills For Care, Skills For Health, and Health Education England worked together to create the Care Certificate for minimum training for inducting new care staff
Who developed the 15 Care Certificate Standards?
The Care Certificate Standards was jointly developed by the Sector Skills Councils namely Skills for Care (Sector Skills Council for Adult Social Care), Skills for Health (Sector Skills Council for Health) and Health Education England.
Sector Skills Councils create National Occupational Standards (NOS) for different job roles drawn from employers and the NOS are used to develop recognised and accredited competence-based national qualifications in the UK.
The Care Certificate is a set of 15 Care Certificate Standards that were created by these Sector Skills bodies for induction of all new care staff in all health and social care settings in the UK.
The Care Certificate applies to all areas of care, including health care, social care, community care, etc.
The Care Certificate gives everyone the confidence of knowing all those workers who undertake the Care Certificate have studied the same introductory skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high quality care and support.
The Care Certificate:
applies across health and social care;
links to competences and National Occupational Standards for care job roles;
covers what is required to be caring;
will equip workers with the fundamental skill they need to provide quality care; and
gives learners a basis from which they can further develop their knowledge and skills as their career progresses.
All new staff should undertake the 15 Care Certificate Standards, regardless of their previous job roles or their seniority.
Why everyone must undertake the Care Certificate
Experienced care staff, including care managers, moving to a new job should also undertake the Care Certificate as a refresher.
Regulated staff such as Doctors, Nurses, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists etc often assume that they have gained similar skills and knowledge to the Care Certificate within their professional training, and they assume that they do not need to also achieve the Care Certificate as part of their induction, but that is an incorrect assumption.
Although health care and social care are closely related systems that work together to improve people's well-being, but each sector has a different focus.
Health care settings include GP services, hospitals, dental services, and rehabilitation services.
Health care is focused on medical and nursing needs, such as treating injuries, diseases, or disabilities, nursing care during and after treatment, and preventive measures like vaccinations and health education.
The training of health care staff is focused on medical and nursing needs as detailed above, and delivering that health care within a health care environment. Such training of health care staff are not focused on social care because that is not where they will work.
Social care services are usually provided in people's homes, care homes, or elsewhere in the community.
Social care focuses on supporting the individual with personal care and social support, such as helping people with daily activities, maintaining independence, promoting social interaction, and protecting people in vulnerable situations.
The training of social care staff is focused on delivering social care support as detailed above, and delivering that social care within a social care environment, which is often in the client's personal home, or in a residential care home which simulates the client's own home.
This difference in the basic training of health care staff, including highly qualified professionals such as nurses and doctors, is the reason why many health care staff struggle to adequately deliver social care aspects of care, or make adequate provision for social care of their patients.
This lack of knowledge and understanding of basic social care training and delivery is also a key contributing factor for poor CQC ratings of some care services run and managed by medical and nursing staff.
It is a good idea for all staff to undertake the Care Certificate as a refresher of basic training what is required in social care.
How the 15 Care Certificate Standards should be used
Anyone intending to work in care should start their own training by undertaking the Care Certificate.
People must never overestimate their own knowledge because they have a university degree. Someone's life depends on knowing the right thing to do!
Care support is fast moving and dynamic work, and even the smallest mistake can result in serious harm or even death of a client. Therefore, everyone must ensure they undertake the appropriate Care Certificate basic training in order to provide safe care and support.
The 15 Care Certificate Standards provide training approved by Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the sector skills councils being Skills for Care, and Skills for Health.
The Care Certificate is a key component of the overall induction that employers must provide to their staff, legally and in order to meet the essential standards set out by the Care Quality Commission.
The Care Certificate is an agreed set of standards that define the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of specific job roles in the health and social care sectors.
The Care Certificate is made up of the 15 standards that should be provided during induction training for those new to care work, and ideally also for those changing jobs, and should form part of a robust induction programme.
Managers and Leaders of care settings must ensure that all their staff undergo the Care Certificate training and demonstrate knowledge and competence in the 15 Standards before the staff member is allowed to work unsupervised with clients and patients.
The Care Certificate is line with the latest UK legislation and meet the requirements set out by Skills for Care and endorsed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and other professional and regulatory bodies in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
The Care Certificate is not a qualification.
The Care Certificate course is not regulated in the way that recognised qualifications are regulated. In recent years this non-regulation of courses has resulted in some courses being sold by some people as being the Care Certificate even when their stated course does not deliver the official Care Certificate 15 Standards, as required.
Naming of the Care Certificate
In the UK Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF), the size of the qualification determines the name and title it is given, whether it is an Award, a Certificate or a Diploma.
Under RQF, there are three sizes of qualifications depending on the Credit Value and the Total Qualification Time (TQT) in hours.
Award is a qualification between 1 credit to 12 credits, with a TQT value of 120 hours or less
Certificate is a qualification between 13 credit to 36 credits, with a TQT value between 121 hours to 369 hours
Diploma is a qualification with 37 credits or more, and with a TQT value of 370 hours or more
The Care Certificate is a small course, it doesn't have a credit value, and the whole course often takes learners between 15 and 30 hours to complete.
The name "certificate" attached to the Care Certificate is a misnomer, and it confuses people who don't fully understand what it is or how the Care Certificate came about.
If the rules governing naming of UK learning programmes were followed, it would have been named an "Award" or even something else, because the title "certificate" conveys something that the Care Certificate is not.
Updates to the Care Certificate
In 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care commissioned Skills for Care and Skills for Health, to align the existing Care Certificate Standards with developments in the health and social care sector. This has led to the development and launch in June 2024 of the new Ofqual-recognised qualification, Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification, which is a 36 credit qualification.
The new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification is a regulated qualification, which is smaller than the Level 2 Diploma in Care (RQF) which is 46 credits, but is larger than the Level 2 Certificate in Preparing to Work in Adult Social Care (RQF) which is 20 Credits.
The Care Certificate Standards are due to be updated in 2025, by the Sector Skills Councils. In the meantime, the Care Certificate 15 Standards course will continue to be offered in its current form.
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