The Care Certificate standards: a checklist to track each new starter

The Care Certificate is a set of 16 standards for new support workers in health and adult social care in England, such as care assistants, home care workers and healthcare assistants who join without past training or experience in the sector. Skills for Care updated the standards in March 2025 and added a new standard on learning disability and autism.

The standards are part of a structured induction, not the whole of it, and they don't replace your statutory and mandatory training. CQC-registered providers must give staff the training they need to do their job under Regulation 18, and Skills for Care says the standards can be used as a framework for that.

Each new starter has to show knowledge and competence in all 16 standards before the full certificate can be awarded. Use the list as a checklist, or download the tracker to record both for every standard.

Knowledge can be assessed from written or verbal evidence, such as answers to questions, a discussion, case studies or multiple choice questions. eLearning can show knowledge but not skill, so it can't complete the standards on its own. Practice has to be observed by the assessor in the workplace, during real work, unless simulation is specifically allowed.

The employer signs off the Care Certificate once all 16 standards are complete, even when a learning provider has helped with training or assessment. External learning providers must not sign and issue the certificate. Without a registered manager, Skills for Care recommends the most senior person signs it off.

Skills for Care strongly recommends the national Care Certificate template. Give the worker their certificate and access to their evidence portfolio, so it goes with them if they move on, and keep the records you need for regulation and audit.

Keep the evidence with each person's record, so a manager or inspector can see how each standard was met without hunting through folders.

The Care Certificate is used in England. The other nations have their own induction frameworks, which you can track in the same way: one record per new starter, with each part dated and signed off.

In Wales, Social Care Wales publishes the All Wales Induction Framework for Health and Social Care. In Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland and the SSSC run the National Induction Framework, free eLearning for new adult social care workers. In Northern Ireland, the Social Care Council's Induction Programme for Social Care Practitioners sets out what a new worker needs to know to work safely in their first six months.

Start from the editable care starter setup, with example roles and training, then set the requirements your organisation uses for new starters. Starter setups and the training matrix are on every plan. The starter setup is a starting point, not a prebuilt standard-by-standard Care Certificate assessment programme. Your provider sets the requirements and completes the assessments.

Keep written answers, observation records and the signed certificate as evidence on each person's record, and see each new starter's progress in the training matrix.

From Growth, competency and reviewer sign-off activities record the assessor's observation and the manager's sign-off, and an ordered Pathway can group the steps with a complete-within period you choose. Professional adds the dedicated Competence workflow, with assessment evidence, outcomes and reassessment dates.

After the Care Certificate, the refresher training that follows stays in date: Starter shows due dates and sends standard due and overdue email reminders, and Growth adds configurable reminder schedules, recipients and templates. SkillProof doesn't assess, award or sign off the Care Certificate.