Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress he has made on the implementation of the new Care Certificate; and what recent estimate he has made of the number of health and care workers who are making progress towards obtaining that certificate.

The new Care Certificate was introduced on 1 April 2015. It comprises 15 standards developed jointly by Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health and which were extensively tested through a pilot exercise running from April to September 2014. New healthcare assistants and social care support workers starting on or after 1 April will be expected to demonstrate that they meet the standards and attain the Care Certificate. The Care Certificate is not mandatory, although health and care providers must be able to demonstrate that they meet an equivalent standard of training and induction for their new healthcare assistants and social care support workers.

The Department does not collect data on the number of care staff who have attained the Care Certificate or who are currently undertaking it.