Evaluating the Care Certificate: A Cross-Sector Solution to Assuring Fundamental Skills in Caring (ECCert)
Evaluating the Care Certificate: A Cross-Sector Solution to Assuring Fundamental Skills in Caring’ (ECCert), a study funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme, has recently commenced.
The Care Certificate is a set of 15 standards designed to provide a consistent approach to the training and induction of healthcare assistants and social care support workers for their roles within care organisations. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Care Certificate in achieving its intended outcomes which include improving the experience of induction, training and career development for healthcare assistants and social care support workers as well as improving care for patients. It will also explore the processes through which these outcomes are achieved and how different approaches to the implementation of the Care Certificate impact on these processes and outcomes.
Specific aims are to:
- Assess how successfully the Care Certificate meets its stated objectives to improve induction training and enable support workers feel better-prepared to provide high quality care
- Consider variations in implementation across the full range of CQC-registered health and adult social care services and organisations
- Explore areas for improvement in order to meet its objectives better
To meet these aims, a two-staged mixed methods approach will be adopted. In Stage 1, a telephone survey of a large number of care organisations will take place. In Stage 2, qualitative case studies will be carried out in a smaller number of care organisations to gain more in depth insight into the implementation and effectiveness of the Care Certificate.
For more information, contact Dr Elaine Argyle at Elaine.Argyle@Nottingham.ac.uk or on 0115 748 4298
[Updated: 14 September 2016]