Working on the care certificate together

Gary Bourlet on working with Skills for Care and others on the Care Certificate

Me and my personal assistant Anna have been working with Skills for Care over the past few months.

They are making an information and resource pack that can be given out to support those that are working on completing the Care Certificate.

The care certificate is a set of standards that lay out the knowledge and skills that is expected of someone going to work in the social care sector.

They must show they have this knowledge by answering a number of questions that relate to each standard.

Skills for care want to provide extra information and support needed to help carers and support workers work on the care certificate, who are going into work with people with learning disabilities.

They are not trying to change the care certificate itself, although they do recognise it needs improvement, but want to provide an extra material that will help them apply it to their area work.

They want to make one of these resources for people working in several areas, this includes; Mental Health, Dementia and learning disability support services

Anna and I as well as other people in the who work in support services, helped them work on the learning disability resource. We wanted to do what we could to help staff who work in this area and help them carry out the care certificate standards as we think most of them do an amazing job.

Lots of the care certificate was quite difficult to apply to those who are working with people with learning disabilities and was directed mainly at those working with older people. So, without changing what was said, we wanted to explain each standard in simple terms. As a group we decided that adding case studies into each area would help carers apply it to their situation.

It was really good working with Skills for Care and me and Anna got a lot out of it. We think it’s great that they have recognised that people working in these areas need that extra support.

Work like this is essential if we are to give the best possible care for people with learning disabilities in this country and ensure they have respect, dignity and compassion.

Anna said:

‘I loved working on this project. My second job is working as a carer for elderly people with dementia, so this work was close to my heart. I thought being able to provide a carers perspective on the care certificate was useful as I had to fill one out when I started my career. A resource pack like the one Skills for Care are producing would have really helped me.’

Some people, including Learning Disability England members who employ staff, are testing the new resources now. We will share more information or any updates as we get them