Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions has he had with Skills for Care on increasing training requirements for homecare workers from tier 1 to tier 2 in the care certificate.
In April 2015, the Department introduced a Certificate of Fundamental Care, now known as the Care Certificate. There is no tier 1 or tier 2 distinction in the Care Certificate. As of 1 April 2015, all new healthcare assistants and social care support workers are expected to attain the Care Certificate. It is a benchmark by which service providers can demonstrate they meet Care Quality Commission ‘staffing’ and ‘fit and proper persons employed’ requirements, and evidence of its use may be actively sought by inspectors.
In support of this, and to help ensure that care workers can deliver a consistently high quality standard of care, the Department continues to invest a significant level of funding in training and developing the workforce via its delivery partner Skills for Care.