The Care Certificate isn’t a new concept, but what does it mean to you? Do you know how it applies to you and your practice? Have your Healthcare Assistants (HCAs) and Assistant Practitioners (APs) completed the Care Certificate? Did you know they had to (well, those employed since April 2015 have to)?

Then there’s the subject of vicarious liability; employers are accountable for the actions and omissions of their employees. It’s not all down to the employer, though; the HCAs and APs have a duty of care and a legal responsibility to the patients they deal with.

Moving on to delegation, if a registered nurse delegates a task to a HCA or AP, that nurse is responsible for ensuring the safe delegation of that task (in accordance with the NMC Code of Conduct). That’s a lot of responsibility for both the employer and employee!

There’s also CQC compliance. The CQC will expect to see that HCAs and APs have received the necessary training for all aspects of their role.

So, what can you do to help your team? Well, you can get them to complete the Care Certificate eLearning course, available as part of Practice Index Learning, within the HUB.

Our Care Certificate eLearning course consists of 17 fact-packed, interactive and engaging modules, which will provide learners with an understanding of all 15 Care Certificate Standards, as detailed below:

• Care Certificate Standard 1 – Understand Your Role
• Care Certificate Standard 2 – Your Personal Development
• Care Certificate Standard 3 – Duty of Care
• Care Certificate Standard 4 – Equality and Diversity
• Care Certificate Standard 5 – Working in a Person-Centred Way
• Care Certificate Standard 6 – Communication
• Care Certificate Standard 7 – Privacy and Dignity
• Care Certificate Standard 8 – Fluids and Nutrition
• Care Certificate Standard 9 – Awareness of Mental Health, Dementia and Learning Disability
• Care Certificate Standard 10 – Safeguarding Adults
• Care Certificate Standard 11 – Safeguarding Children
• Care Certificate Standard 12 – Basic Life Support (Adult) and Basic Life Support (Children)
• Care Certificate Standard 13 – Health and Safety
• Care Certificate Standard 14 – Handling Information
• Care Certificate Standard 15 – Infection Prevention and Control

All of the content has been aligned with the standards developed jointly by Skills for Care, Health Education England (HEE), and Skills for Health.

Even if you’re working with a team of experienced HCAs and APs, the Care Certificate eLearning course will be a really useful refresher. Afterall, you must be able to demonstrate your team’s competence throughout their employment, and one way of doing this is through training updates.

In addition to the Care Certificate course, you will need to monitor your team’s progress and ensure that their competency is assessed in the working environment. To support you in doing this, the student will need to download and complete the Care Certificate workbooks (this can be done digitally). They will also need to share a link to their progress, mapping and sign-off documents with their line manager (which can also be completed digitally). All of these are linked at the end of each module.

To enrol your team on to the Care Certificate eLearning course, log in to the HUB here.

If you are not subscribed to Practice Index Learning you can sign up here.