The Care Certificate is the most important piece of certification for anyone wanting to work in the care sector. It can be difficult to understand exactly what it is and what it includes, so the purpose of this article is to enable the prospective carer to understand what they are required to study in order to be able to work in their field.
What Actually is the Care Certificate?
The Care Certificate is a course undertaken by health and social workers as part of induction training in the care sector.
It is based on the set of standards that health workers and social carers are required to abide by as part of their daily routines in their work sector, and as such it is a required qualification.
Gaining accreditation through the Certificate is the only way to advance in any care based career, as it demonstrates your commitment to caring in a safe and healthy way.
The average time to completely demonstrate that candidates have the expected knowledge to pass the Care Certificate is around 12 weeks. If you are taking the Care Certificate course in conjunction with full time employment, it will likely take you significantly longer.
At Online Care Courses we offer a subscription that allows you to take the course at your own pace over a 12 month period, more than enough time to complete all 15 required modules. For more information go here – Care Certification.
Care Certificate Modules
The Care Certificate is split up into 15 different modules, each pertaining to a specific aspect of care work. Split up clearly, these modules are:
- Understanding Your Role: consists of being able to articulate what your own role in the care environment is, working in ways that have been agreed with your employer, working in partnership with others, and understanding the working relationships with clients in a health and social care setting.
Related courses include - Care Assistant Training, Social Care Courses, Carers Awareness
- Personal Development: Agreeing to a personal development plan that explains the importance of feedback and identifying sources of professional support, and a commitment to career wide CPD constitute this standard.
Related courses include - Customer Service course, Giving and receiving feedback, Personal Development training.
- Duty of Care: Demonstrating knowledge of the doctrine of duty, and knowledge on how to deal with comments, complaints, criticisms, breaches of duty, errors, confrontations, and incidents.
Related courses include - Duty of Care training, Handling Complaints, Conflict Resolution.
- Equality and Diversity: Describing the importance of inclusive practices, working in a way that promotes and demonstrates these values, have a knowledge of appropriate legislation, and explain how to access appropriate support related to this.
Related training includes - Equality and Diversity training, Preparing to work in care.
- Work in a Person Centred Way: Vitally important for working in a care environment, care workers must understand person centred values and working in a person centred way.
This can include making any necessary changes to environmental factors for the benefit of a patient, be aware of behaviours others have that may be causing distress to patients, supporting people so as to minimise pain, and helping them to maintain their individuality and self esteem.
Supplementary courses include - Person Centred Care training, Working in Care.
- Communication: Care workers must understand the importance of communication and have effective communication techniques with their team.
This includes understanding how to meet communication requirements or preferences, how to promote effective communication techniques.
You should also know how to support the use of appropriate audio/visual technologies, and verbal & nonverbal techniques.
Further communication training includes - Communication and Record Keeping course, Care Home Management.
- Privacy and Dignity: Knowing how to maintain the privacy and dignity of people, and understanding the underpinning principles of this, are vital.
Supporting individuals in their care choices, including demonstrating support for active participation in a private or professional capacity is of the the utmost importance.
Relevent training includes - Dignity and Respect training, Confidentiality in Care training.
- Fluids and Nutrition: You must have demonstrable knowledge of the principles of hydration, nutrition, and food safety, ensuring access to hydration in accordance with people’s care plans.
Food related courses include - Allergen Awareness, Food Safety training, Nutrition in Care.
- Mental Health, Dementia, and Learning Disability Awareness: Requires an understanding of the importance of promoting positive mental health, and of the needs of people with the aforementioned conditions.
You have to also demonstrate an ability to make any necessary adjustments to care practices for conditions such as psychosis.
Health related courses include - Mental Capacity Act Deprivation, Learning Disability Awareness training.
- Safeguarding Adults: Safeguarding adults requires knowledge of the main types of abuse, and of any particular definitions such as what constitutes harm. Understanding methods of risk reduction and crisis management is also key.
Further learning - Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults training.
- Safeguarding Children: The rules for safeguarding children depend on which sector the learner is working in.
If its a health environment, they must meet the most recent minimum training standards. In social care, they have to have knowledge of what to do if they suspect the child is being abused.
Children related training - Child Protection course.
- Basic Life Support: Care workers are expected to be competently qualified to perform basic life support measures for their patients, which means meeting the UK Resuscitation Council’s Guidelines.
First Aid related training includes - Basic Life Support course.
- Health & Safety: Carers must understand their own responsibilities, and the responsibilities of others in relation to health and safety procedures.
You must understand the process and requirements of risk assessments, the procedures of reporting accidents and injuries, and the legislation around moving & handling.
There is an expectation that you promote good fire safety procedures, stress management techniques, and hazardous substance handling methods.
- Information Handling: It is required that care workers comply with all relevant data storage regulations, also reporting if any agreed ways of working are not being followed.
Information control courses include - Data Protection in Care, Record Keeping, Confidentiality in care.
- Infection Prevention & Control: Describing the main ways infections can spread, and demonstrating knowledge of effective hand hygiene, health risks, soiled linen handling, and personal protective equipment usage are all very important aspects of care work.
Further specialist course - Infection control training.
Taking a course that covers these aspects of care will enable you to achieve the standards of care required to work within any care related field.
Further Care Certificate reading:
The Care Quality Commission’s position on the Care Certificate can be found here – CQC PDF
