Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the minimum standards required to practice as a care worker are; and what steps he is taking to ensure online training courses in care work are regularly assessed and adequate to meet those requirements.

Ben Gummer

All providers of health or adult social care activities that fall under the supervision of the Care Quality Commission have a legal duty to ensure that all staff working to provide those activities have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience necessary for the work to be performed.

Health and social care support workers should meet the Care Certificate standards. The Certificate comprises 15 standards that cover the fundamental skills, knowledge and behaviours that are required to provide safe, effective and compassionate care.

The Care Certificate contains practical components that must be completed. There are a number of online commercial Care Certificate training products that do not make this clear. Health Education England and Skills for Care are working on online training materials to provide a free-of-charge and authoritative alternative to the current commercial offerings.