Delivery is flexible to suit the individual apprentice and their employer. The apprentice will have a minimum of one tutorial per month either in person in the workplace or remotely via an online meeting. Group sessions may be available on some programmes.

• Candidates are expected to hold a Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care.
• For those with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or a legacy statement, the English and Maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3.
• British Sign Language qualifications are an alternative to English qualifications where this is the apprentice's primary language.
• Level 2 Functional Skills must be achieved prior to end point assessment (this content will be blended into the apprentice's study programme if it is required).
• Apprentices must be employed in order to study for this qualification. Please see our Apprenticeship vacancies.
• The apprentice must be at least 16 years of age.

• Tasks and responsibilities:
  • Understand their job roles and other worker roles relevant to the context of the service in which they are working, for example, supporting with social activities, monitoring health and assisting with eating, mobility and personal care.
  • Know both their own and other workers professional boundaries, limits of training and expertise.
  • Know the relevant statutory standards and codes of practice for their role and understand what the duty of care is in practice.
  • Be able to create and develop a care plan based on the person’s preferences in the way they want to be supported and how to monitor, plan and review a care plan in response to the changing physical, social and emotional needs of individuals.
  • Understand how to lead and support others to ensure compliance with regulations and organisational policies and procedures.
• Values and behaviours:
  • Ensure that dignity is at the centre of all work with individuals and their support circles.
  • Understand the importance of respecting diversity, the principles of inclusion and treating everyone fairly.
• Communication:
  • Understand the barriers to communication and be able to both identify and determine the best solutions to achieve success, when communicating with the individual they are supporting.
  • Be able to communicate clearly, both verbally and non-verbally, and able to influence others to maximise the quality of interaction.
  • Understand the role of advocates and when they might be involved.
  • Know their own and other workers’ responsibilities for ensuring confidential information is kept safe.
• Safeguarding:
  • Know what abuse is and what to do when they have concerns someone is being abused and understand the national and local strategies for safeguarding and protection from abuse. 
  • Be able to handle comments and complaints, ensuring appropriate and timely action takes place.
  • Understand how to recognise and prevent unsafe practices in the workplace and know the importance and process of whistleblowing, being able to facilitate timely intervention.
  • Understand how to address and resolve any dilemmas they may face between a person’s rights and their safety.
• Health and wellbeing: 
  • Champion the health and safety responsibilities of self, employer and workers, know how to keep safe in the work environment, what to do when there is an accident or sudden illness and how to take appropriate action. 
  • Be able to handle hazardous substances.
  • Promote fire safety and support others to so.
  • Know how to reduce the spread of infection and support others in infection prevention and control.
  • Understand how to use and promote with others, where relevant, risk assessments to enable a person centred approach to delivering care.
• Professionalism:
  • Understand what a professional relationship is with the person being supported and colleagues.
  • Know how to work with other people and organisations in the interest of the person being supported.
  • Be actively involved in their own personal development plan and, where appropriate, other worker’s personal development plans.
  • Demonstrate the importance of excellent core skills in writing, numbers and information technology.
  • Develop and sustain a positive attitude.
  • Address signs and symptoms of stress in self and other colleagues and be able to carry out research relevant to individuals’ support needs and share with others.
  • Know how to access and apply good practice relating to their role and how to access and apply specialist knowledge when needed to support performance in the job role.

• Tasks and responsibilities: 
  • Support individuals they are working with according to their personal care/support plan.
  • Take initiative when working outside normal duties and responsibilities and recognise and access help when not confident or skilled in any aspect of the role that they are undertaking.
  • Implement/facilitate the specialist assessment of social, physical, emotional and spiritual needs of individuals with cognitive, sensory and physical impairments.
  • Contribute to the development and ongoing review of care/support plans for the individuals they support, provide them with information to enable them to exercise choice on how they are supported, encourage individuals to actively participate in the way their care and support is delivered and ensure they know what they are agreeing to, regarding the way in which they are supported.
  • Lead and support colleagues to understand how to establish informed consent when providing care and support.
  • Guide, mentor and contribute to the development of colleagues in the execution of their duties and responsibilities.
• Treating people with respect and dignity: 
  • Demonstrate dignity in their working role with individuals they support, their families, carers and other professionals.
  • Support others to understand the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in social care.
  • Exhibit empathy for individuals they support, for example, understanding and compassion.
  • Show courage in supporting individuals in ways that may challenge their own cultural and belief systems.
• Communication: 
  • Demonstrate and promote to other workers excellent communication skills, including confirmation of understanding to individuals, their families, carers and professionals.
  • Use and facilitate methods of communication preferred by the individual they support according to the individual’s language, cultural and sensory needs, wishes and preferences.
  • Reduce environmental barriers to communication.
  • Demonstrate and ensure that records and reports are written clearly and concisely and lead and support others to keep information safe, preserve confidentiality in accordance with agreed ways of working.
• Safeguarding:
  • Support others to recognise and respond to potential signs of abuse according to agreed ways of working and work in partnership with external agencies to respond to concerns of abuse.
  • Lead and support others to address conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between an individual’s rights and duty of care.
  • Recognise, report, respond to and record unsafe practices and encourage others to do so.
• Champion health and wellbeing: 
  • Lead and mentor others, where appropriate, to promote the wellbeing of the individuals they support.
  • Demonstrate the management of the reduction of infection, including use of best practice in hand hygiene.
  • Promote healthy eating and wellbeing by supporting individuals to have access to fluids, food and nutrition.
  • Carry out fire safety procedures and manage others to do so, develop risk assessments and use in a person centred way to support individuals safely, including moving and assisting people and objects.
  • Manage, monitor, report and respond to changes in the health and wellbeing of the individuals they support.
• Professionalism:
  • Take the initiative to identify and form professional relationships with other people and organisations.
  • Demonstrate, manage and support self and others to work within safe, clear professional boundaries.
  • Take the initiative to evaluate and improve own skills and knowledge through reflective practice, supervision, feedback and learning opportunities and demonstrate continuous professional development.
  • Carry out research relevant to individuals’ support needs and share with others.
  • Demonstrate mentoring and supervision to others in the workplace.
  • Show good team/partnership working skills, and demonstrate contribution to robust recruitment and induction processes.

• Care:
  • Caring consistently and enough about individuals to make a positive difference to their lives.
• Compassion:
  • Deliver care and support with kindness, consideration, dignity and respect.
• Courage:
  • Doing the right thing for people and speaking up if the individual they support is at risk.
• Communication:
  • Good communication is central to successful caring relationships and effective team working.
• Competence:
  • Applying knowledge and skills to provide high quality care and support.
• Commitment:
  • Committed to improving the experience of people who need care and support ensuring it is person centred.

The individual must meet the 15 standards as set out in the Care Certificate, which is an agreed set of qualities that define the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of specific job roles within the sector. This will be done as part of induction training.

The Care Quality Commission expects providers, that employ healthcare assistants and social care support workers, to follow these standards to make sure new staff are supported, skilled and assessed as competent to carry out their roles.

• Situational judgement test
• Professional discussion