Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2015 to Question 3195, if he will make it mandatory for care workers to obtain a Care Certificate; and if he will make a statement.

The Care Certificate sets out the fundamental skills, knowledge and behaviours that are required for healthcare assistants and social care support workers to provide safe, effective and compassionate care. It represents best practice and is the benchmark of quality fundamental training. Use of the Care Certificate may be looked for by the Care Quality Commission as evidence that service providers meet statutory requirements for training and induction.

There are no plans at present to mandate attainment of the Care Certificate by staff, or its use by provider organisations, mandatory, although we will keep this position under review.