Evaluating the roll out of the Care Certificate in a local health area

Context: In December 2014 we were commissioned by Health Education North Central and East London (HENCEL) to evaluate the implementation of the Care Certificate within the Islington Community Education Provider Network (CEPN). The idea of the Care Certificate was developed from the Cavendish report into the training and regulatory needs of the country’s growing, and at present unregulated, support workforce in health and social care. Islington CEPN approached the Care Certificate with a strong commitment to providing integrated training across the sectors where support workers are employed: the acute sector, community services, general practice, care homes and social services. The challenge is to devise and deliver a single input that both is relevant to workers in these sectors and dovetails with the varying in-house induction that support workers are given by their employers.
Methods: Our evaluation was qualitative in character and involved interviews with a selection of those involved in four different organisations across Islington:
• the manager or other person with lead responsibility for the Care Certificate;
•an assessor/assessors;
•a trainer/ trainers (both within the organisations and external providers);
•staff undertaking the Certificate;
•a supervisor(s)/mentor(s).
Recommendations: A dedicated, adequate and sustainable resource needs to be available to coordinate and quality-assure the continuing implementation of the Care Certificate. Clear attention needs to be given to the design of the Care Certificate so that it meets the requirements for HCAs from different organisations and sectors. Terminology regarding the Care Certificate and the various roles involved needs to be agreed across organisations and disseminated well. An effective forum for continued discussion across organisations and sectors needs to be maintained to deal with emerging problems and issues and could be essential if an integrated approach is to be maintained.