The Care Certificate is not a qualification, and it is not — strictly — required by law. But in practice, no reputable care employer in England will let a new worker support people unsupervised without it. It is the agreed set of standards that says a new care worker is safe, competent and ready to work. This guide explains what it is, the 16 standards it covers (a sixteenth was added in March 2025), and how it fits with the newer Level 2 qualification.
If you are starting in adult social care, or you are an employer inducting new staff, this is the baseline everything else is built on.
What the Care Certificate is
The Care Certificate is a set of 15 minimum standards that every new health and social care worker in England is expected to meet during their induction. It was introduced in 2015 by Skills for Care, Health Education England and Skills for Health, following the Cavendish Review into the quality of care given by healthcare assistants and support workers.
It is not an Ofqual-regulated qualification, and it is not a one-off exam. It is assessed in the workplace: a new worker is observed and signed off against each standard by an experienced assessor, so it confirms what someone can actually do, not just what they know. It is designed to be completed within the first 12 weeks of employment.
Is the Care Certificate a legal requirement?
Not directly — there is no single law that names the Care Certificate and makes it mandatory. What the law does require is that care staff are competent, suitably trained and supervised. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspects against this, and the Care Certificate is the recognised way employers demonstrate that new staff have been inducted to a safe standard.
So in reality it functions as a requirement: the CQC expects it, employers expect it, and staff who hold it are far more employable. Treat it as essential rather than optional.
The 16 standards
Since the March 2025 update, the Care Certificate covers 16 standards. Together they map out what a safe, caring, competent support worker needs to understand and do:
- Understand your role — your responsibilities, your employer’s expectations, and your terms of work.
- Your personal development — reflecting on and improving your own practice.
- Duty of care — always acting in people’s best interests and keeping them safe from harm.
- Equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights — treating everyone fairly, respecting their rights and challenging discrimination.
- Work in a person-centred way — building care around the individual, not the routine.
- Communication — communicating clearly and adapting to each person’s needs.
- Privacy and dignity — respecting people’s privacy and supporting their dignity in everything you do.
- Fluids and nutrition — supporting people to eat and drink well.
- Awareness of mental health and dementia — understanding these conditions, their early signs and their impact.
- Adult safeguarding — recognising and reporting abuse and neglect of adults.
- Safeguarding children — recognising and reporting concerns about children.
- Basic life support — responding to an emergency and knowing your limits.
- Health and safety — working safely and protecting yourself and others.
- Handling information — recording, storing and sharing information correctly and confidentially.
- Infection prevention and control — stopping the spread of infection.
- Awareness of learning disability and autism — added in March 2025, and linked to the legal duty on CQC-registered providers to give staff learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role.
Read down that list and you can see it is deliberately broad — it is the whole foundation of safe care in one framework, which is exactly why it is done first.
How the Care Certificate is assessed
Each standard has learning outcomes and assessment criteria. Some knowledge can be covered through study — reading, e-learning, discussion — but a good portion must be assessed in practice, with the worker observed doing the task competently in a real setting. An assessor with the right occupational competence signs off each standard, and the worker keeps a portfolio of evidence.
Because part of it must be observed on the job, no online course can award the full Care Certificate on its own. Online learning is how you build the underpinning knowledge; the workplace sign-off completes it.
The Care Certificate and the new Level 2 qualification
From 2024 a new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification began to be rolled out in England — an Ofqual-regulated qualification built on the Care Certificate standards, with funding available for eligible workers. This is a genuine regulated qualification, which the original Care Certificate is not.
The honest position: the two overlap heavily in content, but they are not the same thing. If your employer or a funding stream specifically requires the regulated Level 2 qualification, an awareness course will not substitute for it. Where the need is solid underpinning knowledge of the standards, awareness training is a sensible, low-cost way to prepare.
How it connects to the rest of care training
Several Care Certificate standards are whole subjects in their own right, and understanding them well makes the induction far smoother:
- Standard 5 is person-centred care — the approach that runs through everything else.
- Standard 9 covers dementia awareness; since the 2025 update, mental capacity sits in Standard 5, alongside the Mental Capacity Act and DoLS.
- Standard 10 is safeguarding — recognising and reporting harm.
Further reading
Frequently asked questions
What is the Care Certificate?
The Care Certificate is a set of 15 minimum standards that every new health and social care worker in England is expected to meet during induction. Introduced in 2015 following the Cavendish Review, it is assessed in the workplace — a new worker is observed and signed off against each standard by an experienced assessor. It is not an Ofqual-regulated qualification and is designed to be completed within the first 12 weeks of employment.
Is the Care Certificate a legal requirement?
There is no single law that names the Care Certificate and makes it mandatory. However, the law requires care staff to be competent, suitably trained and supervised, and the Care Quality Commission inspects against this. The Care Certificate is the recognised way employers demonstrate new staff have been safely inducted, so in practice it functions as an essential requirement rather than an optional extra.
What are the 16 standards of the Care Certificate?
The 16 standards are: 1) Understand your role, 2) Your personal development, 3) Duty of care, 4) Equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights, 5) Work in a person-centred way, 6) Communication, 7) Privacy and dignity, 8) Fluids and nutrition, 9) Awareness of mental health and dementia, 10) Adult safeguarding, 11) Safeguarding children, 12) Basic life support, 13) Health and safety, 14) Handling information, 15) Infection prevention and control, and 16) Awareness of learning disability and autism, which was added in March 2025.
Can you complete the Care Certificate online?
Not fully. Some standards can be covered through study such as e-learning and discussion, but a portion must be assessed in practice, with the worker observed performing the task competently in a real care setting and signed off by an assessor. Online learning builds the underpinning knowledge; the workplace observation and sign-off complete the Care Certificate.
Is the Care Certificate the same as the Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification?
No. From 2024 a new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification began rolling out in England — an Ofqual-regulated qualification built on the Care Certificate standards, with funding for eligible workers. It overlaps heavily in content with the original Care Certificate but is a formal regulated qualification, which the Care Certificate is not. If an employer or funding stream requires the regulated Level 2, an awareness course does not substitute for it.
Care Certificate training
Our Care Certificate course covers the knowledge behind all 16 standards, so new care workers arrive ready and induction is faster.
Related: Person-centred care · Mental Capacity Act · What is DoLS? · Safeguarding
£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100 % online, verifiable e-certificate on completion. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18.
Please note: this is a CPD-accredited awareness course and general information, not a substitute for the full Care Certificate (which includes workplace observation and sign-off) or the Ofqual-regulated Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification. It builds the underpinning knowledge of the 16 standards; it does not replace supervised practice or an employer’s own induction and competency sign-off.