Who is responsible?

The third situation is particularly important.

A personal assistant employed directly by an individual is not in the same position as a new care worker employed by a CQC-regulated care provider. Skills for Care provides separate Care Certificate guidance for individual employers and personal assistants.

The short answer, whichever type of agency you are

Three rules make Care Certificate responsibility much easier to understand.

1. The employer makes the final Care Certificate award

The full Care Certificate can be awarded by the employer once the worker has successfully completed and been assessed against all 16 standards.

The health or adult social care employer must take responsibility for final sign-off.

2. Training, supervision and workplace assessment can be commissioned externally

An employer does not have to personally deliver every part of the learning or carry out every individual assessment.

Skills for Care confirms that employers can outsource Care Certificate training, supervision and workplace assessment.

However, outsourcing those activities does not outsource the employer’s responsibility for deciding whether the full Care Certificate should be awarded.

3. External learning providers must not sign and issue the Care Certificate

This is one of the most important distinctions for employers and care workers to understand.

Free PDF download – Who provides the care certificate?

External learning providers must not sign and issue the Care Certificate.

A worker may complete comprehensive online learning and pass knowledge assessments through an external provider. That can provide important evidence towards Care Certificate achievement.

It does not automatically mean the worker has completed the full Care Certificate.

If you are a recruitment agency supplying care staff

Recruitment agencies can play a valuable role in preparing workers for placements, but they need to be precise about what has been completed and what remains outstanding.

What a recruitment agency can do

Depending on its arrangements and the competence of the people involved, an agency can:

• provide learning covering Care Certificate knowledge requirements

• assess knowledge using appropriate assessment methods

• identify previous learning and relevant experience

• support workers to build evidence

• use appropriate self-assessment or gap-analysis processes

• maintain records of learning and assessment

• identify outstanding requirements

• provide evidence to the receiving care provider.

This can help prevent unnecessary duplication.

If a worker already has relevant, current and reliable evidence, that evidence can be reviewed rather than automatically making the worker repeat learning they have already completed.

The important issue is the quality and relevance of the evidence, not simply whether a certificate exists.

What a recruitment agency should not claim

A recruitment agency should not represent:

• e-learning completion as automatic achievement of the full Care Certificate

• a course attendance certificate as evidence of workplace competence

• a knowledge assessment as proof of practical competence

• an incomplete set of standards as the full Care Certificate

• workplace observations as completed if they have not actually taken place.

Care Certificate assessment distinguishes between knowing something and demonstrating that you can do it.

Where an outcome requires knowledge — for example, explaining, describing or identifying something — an appropriate knowledge assessment may provide the required evidence.

Where an outcome requires the worker to demonstrate practical performance, that performance generally needs to be demonstrated and appropriately assessed in real work.

A good recruitment agency should therefore be able to tell its client:

This is what the worker has already demonstrated.

And, just as importantly:

This is what still needs to be assessed.

If you are a domiciliary care agency

If your organisation provides regulated personal care in people’s homes, Care Certificate responsibility sits directly with your organisation.

CQC Regulation 18 requires regulated providers to ensure workers receive appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal.

Training and development needs should be assessed when someone starts and reviewed at appropriate intervals.

Where appropriate, staff must remain supervised until they can demonstrate the level of competence required to carry out their role without that level of supervision.

Who can assess the Care Certificate?

The person carrying out an assessment needs to be competent in the standard they are assessing.

Skills for Care states that an assessor must have a thorough understanding of and direct experience in what they are assessing.

This is sometimes described as being occupationally competent.

Importantly, there is no general requirement for somebody assessing the Care Certificate to hold a specific assessor qualification.

That does not mean anybody can carry out an assessment.

The employer must be satisfied that the person has the appropriate knowledge, skills, experience and competence to make a reliable assessment decision.

In simple terms:

No assessor qualification required does not mean no assessor competence required.

You may need different assessors for different standards

The same person does not necessarily need to assess every Care Certificate standard.

An assessor may be competent to assess most areas but not have the necessary competence to assess a specialist area.

Basic Life Support — Standard 12 — is a useful example.

A different appropriately competent person may need to assess this standard if the main Care Certificate assessor does not have the necessary competence.

The correct question is therefore not:

“What is the assessor’s job title?”

It is:

“Is this person competent to assess this particular standard?”

E-learning is not the same as workplace competence

Different evidence demonstrates different things.

Skills for Care is clear that e-learning can support the knowledge requirements of the Care Certificate, but e-learning alone cannot provide full achievement.

Skills have to be demonstrated and assessed through real work activity where the standards require this.

When can a new care worker work without direct supervision?

A new support worker should not simply be sent out to work alone because they have finished an online training course.

The Care Certificate standards combine knowledge with practical competence.

CQC Regulation 18 also states that, where appropriate, workers must be supervised until they can demonstrate acceptable levels of competence to carry out their role unsupervised.

What is direct supervision?

Direct supervision means the supervisor is sufficiently present to observe the worker’s practice and intervene when necessary.

This matters particularly for a worker who is new to care and has not yet demonstrated competence in an activity.

What about indirect or remote supervision?

As the worker demonstrates competence, the level of supervision can change.

Before working with indirect or remote supervision, the worker should have:

• received appropriate training

• demonstrated competence for the relevant task

• understood their own limitations

• known when they need help or advice

• known how to obtain that support.

Competence therefore means much more than remembering information from a course.

It combines the worker’s knowledge, skills and behaviours with their ability to apply them safely in practice.

Competence can be signed off progressively

A worker does not necessarily become competent in every activity at exactly the same time.

For example, a new domiciliary care worker may demonstrate competence in one routine care activity before they are ready to perform another without direct supervision.

The level of supervision can therefore be reviewed as individual competencies are demonstrated.

This prevents the Care Certificate becoming an unhelpful all-or-nothing exercise.

The practical principle is:

Competence should be assessed before a worker carries out the relevant care or support without the level of supervision they require.

And achieving the Care Certificate does not mean that supervision stops permanently.

Ongoing supervision, competency checks, spot checks and other appropriate monitoring can still be needed to ensure competence is maintained.

What if a worker cannot complete every Care Certificate standard?

If a worker cannot successfully complete all 16 standards and their related assessments, the full Care Certificate cannot be awarded.

This is an important rule that is sometimes overlooked.

An employer can record the individual elements that have been successfully completed, but this must not be presented as achievement of the full Care Certificate.

If an employer chooses to provide a certificate recording only the elements completed, the Care Certificate logo must not be used on that partial certificate.

The employer should instead document:

• standards or outcomes already achieved

• outstanding standards or evidence

• why they remain outstanding

• additional learning required

• additional assessment required

• any restrictions on the worker’s duties

• supervision required in the meantime

• who will reassess the worker

• when the situation will be reviewed.

If practical competence has not been demonstrated for a particular activity, completing the theoretical learning does not make the outstanding competency issue disappear.

The objective is not simply to get a certificate into the staff file.

It is to establish that the worker can provide safe and appropriate care.

Agency and bank staff: who is responsible for their training?

Using agency, temporary or bank staff does not remove a regulated provider’s responsibility to ensure people delivering care in its service are appropriately skilled and competent.

CQC Regulation 18 requires providers to deploy suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff.

The provider should therefore establish whether a temporary worker has the training, knowledge and competence required for the duties they will perform.

That does not mean ignoring everything an experienced worker has already achieved.

A sensible process is:

Check existing evidence → verify relevance → identify gaps → provide local induction → assess required competence → determine appropriate supervision → permit appropriate duties → retain the evidence

Previous Care Certificate evidence should be considered.

Skills for Care’s current guidance says that a worker who already has their Care Certificate should not normally need to retake the entire certificate simply because they move jobs.

A new employer may, however, need the worker to demonstrate how their previous learning applies to the new role and may identify refresher or additional learning.

This creates an important distinction:

Care Certificate evidence is portable. Competence for every future role, service and person being supported cannot simply be assumed.

What can an external Care Certificate training provider actually do?

An external learning provider can remove a significant amount of the learning and assessment workload, but there is a clear boundary between supporting Care Certificate achievement and making the employer’s final award decision.

Skills for Care specifically confirms that employers can outsource training, supervision and workplace assessment, but the employer remains responsible for the decision to award the full certificate.

For an external learning provider, this creates a clear handover point.

Where Caredemy hands the process back to the employer

Caredemy can support the knowledge-learning and assessment-evidence elements of the Care Certificate.

However, there are points at which the process belongs back in the workplace.

A useful way of looking at the responsibility split is:

This is where a responsible external learning provider should be clear about the boundary.

The aim should not be to sell an employer a “Care Certificate” and imply the process is finished.

The aim should be to provide clear evidence of what has been completed and what, if anything, still needs to happen in the workplace.

What does Care Certificate sign-off look like in practice?

In practice, Care Certificate completion is better viewed as a process than as a single training event.

A useful six-stage approach is:

Verify → Map → Identify gaps → Top up → Assess → Record and sign off

1. Verify existing evidence

The employer establishes what evidence the worker already has.

This might include:

• a previous Care Certificate

• previous training certificates

• relevant qualifications

• knowledge-assessment results

• competency records

• practical observations

• relevant work experience.

The aim is not to make experienced workers unnecessarily repeat everything.

It is to determine what evidence can reasonably be relied upon for their current role.

2. Map the evidence against the current 16 standards

Existing evidence should be compared with the current Care Certificate standards.

This is particularly important when reviewing older Care Certificate evidence because the standards changed in March 2025.

There are now 16 standards.

3. Identify the gaps

The employer distinguishes between:

• requirements already adequately evidenced

• knowledge requiring refreshing

• organisation-specific induction

• practical competencies not yet demonstrated

• evidence that cannot be verified.

Instead of asking only:

“Has this person done their Care Certificate?”

the better questions are:

“What has this person already demonstrated?”

and:

“What still needs to be demonstrated?”

4. Provide learning and induction

Where knowledge gaps exist, appropriate learning can be provided internally or by an external learning provider.

However, completing the learning does not automatically resolve outstanding practical competence requirements.

For example, passing an online assessment about dignity and person-centred care may demonstrate understanding.

It does not, by itself, demonstrate how the worker protects dignity and applies person-centred principles when supporting a real person.

5. Assess workplace competence

Where a standard requires practical performance, an appropriately competent assessor must establish that the worker can perform the activity to the required standard.

This is why the process should distinguish between:

Previous evidence → Learning/top-up → Workplace assessment → Sign-off

A tick against training completed should never automatically become a tick against competent in practice.

6. Record the decision and sign off

Once the required evidence has been gathered and all 16 standards successfully completed, the employer records the final outcome and completes the Care Certificate award.

Relevant records may include:

• evidence reviewed

• assessments completed

• workplace observations

• gaps identified

• additional learning

• reassessment

• assessor details

• final sign-off

• date of completion.

This is the point at which the process moves from learning evidence to Care Certificate achievement.

Real-world Care Certificate sign-off example

Editor’s note: replace this box with a genuine, de-identified Caredemy-supported worker example before publication. Do not present an illustrative scenario as a real case.

The published example should show:

Worker: [Anonymised]
Role: [Actual role]
Provider: [Named with permission or anonymised]
Learning provider: Caredemy
Workplace assessor: [Actual role]

Then document:

1. why the Care Certificate was required

2. what previous evidence the worker had

3. what learning Caredemy provided

4. what evidence was handed to the employer

5. what required workplace observation

6. who carried out the assessment

7. whether any competency was initially not signed off

8. what happened next

9. who completed final sign-off

10. what records were retained.

When a genuine example is available, add:

This example is based on an actual Care Certificate completion supported by Caredemy. Identifying details have been removed.

How should Care Certificate completion be recorded?

The employer should maintain an auditable record of Care Certificate assessment and achievement.

Relevant records can include:

• Care Certificate assessment evidence

• knowledge-assessment results

• workplace observations

• competency assessments

• assessor decisions

• assessor details

• dates of assessment

• additional support or reassessment

• local induction records

• final Care Certificate

• supporting portfolio.

Skills for Care recommends using the national Care Certificate template.

The completed certificate should be made available to the worker, together with access to their supporting portfolio or evidence, which can help when they subsequently move between employers.

The employer should also retain the associated records needed for regulatory and audit purposes.

Recording the Care Certificate in ASC-WDS

Adult social care employers can also record Care Certificate progress within the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS).

This can help organisations maintain an accurate picture of workforce development.

However:

Recording somebody as having completed the Care Certificate in ASC-WDS does not itself award the Care Certificate.

The underlying learning, assessment, evidence and employer sign-off still need to be in place.

Why do some Care Certificate articles say there are 15 standards?

You may still find websites, PDFs and older guidance referring to 15 Care Certificate standards.

That information reflects the previous framework.

The Care Certificate standards were updated in March 2025 and there are now 16 standards.

The additional standard is:

Standard 16: Awareness of learning disability and autism.

Skills for Care itself notes that some previous Care Certificate resources were not refreshed as part of the March 2025 update and directs employers to the current supporting information.

That is why the date of Care Certificate guidance matters.

Where an older FAQ, article or training resource conflicts with the current 2025 standards and supporting guidance, employers should check the latest primary source.

Guidance checked: 28 August 2026.

Care Certificate FAQs

Does a recruitment agency or the care home provide the Care Certificate?

If a recruitment agency supplies a worker to a care home, completing training through the agency does not automatically award the Care Certificate. The health or adult social care employer must take responsibility for final sign-off after the worker has successfully completed and been assessed against all required standards.

I run a domiciliary care agency. Am I the employer for Care Certificate purposes?

If your domiciliary care organisation provides the workers delivering your regulated personal care service, your organisation is the care provider responsible for ensuring appropriate induction, training, assessment, supervision and competence. Being called an “agency” does not move that responsibility to somebody else.

Can I outsource Care Certificate training?

Yes. Employers can commission external organisations to provide Care Certificate training, supervision and workplace assessment. However, Skills for Care states that the employer remains responsible for deciding whether to award the full certificate, regardless of who delivered the training, supervision or assessment.

Can a training provider sign off the Care Certificate?

An external learning provider must not sign and issue the Care Certificate. External providers can support learning and assessment, but the health or adult social care employer must take responsibility for final sign-off once the worker has successfully completed all 16 standards.

Do I need to be accredited to deliver Care Certificate training to my own staff?

The Care Certificate standards are not themselves an accredited qualification. Employers can deliver Care Certificate learning internally, provided they ensure appropriate teaching and assessment. This should not be confused with the separate Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification, which is an Ofqual-regulated qualification.

What does “occupationally competent” mean?

An occupationally competent assessor has sufficient relevant knowledge, skills and practical experience to make a reliable judgement about the area they are assessing. Skills for Care requires assessors to understand and have direct experience of what they assess; a specific assessor qualification is not automatically required for Care Certificate assessment.

Who signs the Care Certificate in a care home?

The adult social care employer takes responsibility for final sign-off. Current guidance places this with the registered manager in adult social care and provides recommendations for an appropriate senior person where the registered manager is absent. Individual standards may be assessed by different appropriately competent assessors.

Do agency and bank staff need the Care Certificate?

Providers must establish whether agency and bank workers have the training and competence required for the duties they will perform. Existing Care Certificate evidence should be considered rather than automatically ignored, with local induction, additional learning, assessment or supervision provided where genuine gaps are identified.

What happens if a worker cannot complete all 16 standards?

The full Care Certificate cannot be awarded if the worker has not successfully completed all 16 standards and their required assessments. An employer may record individual elements that have been completed, but Skills for Care says the Care Certificate logo must not be used for a certificate of partial completion.

Do personal assistants need the Care Certificate?

Not automatically. Skills for Care provides separate guidance for individual employers and personal assistants. An individual employer may decide that completing some or all of the Care Certificate is appropriate depending on the PA’s existing knowledge, skills, experience and training needs.

The key responsibility to remember

The Care Certificate is not simply an online training certificate.

It is based on 16 standards defining the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of specific health and social care roles.

Workers need to be assessed on both what they know and what they do.

Employers can use external providers to deliver learning and support assessment, but they should always be able to answer four questions:

What has the worker learned?

What has been assessed?

What has been demonstrated in practice?

Who took responsibility for final Care Certificate sign-off?

For regulated providers, this sits within the wider responsibility to ensure workers are appropriately trained, supervised, skilled and competent to provide safe and effective care.

How Caredemy can support Care Certificate learning

Caredemy can support care providers with the knowledge-learning and assessment-evidence elements of Care Certificate training.

Where workplace assessment or employer sign-off remains outstanding, this should be clearly identified rather than presenting completion of online learning as completion of the full Care Certificate.

The objective should always be the same: credible evidence that a worker has the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to provide safe, high-quality care — not simply another certificate in a training file.

About this article

Written by Caredemy

Caredemy provides online healthcare and social care training to organisations and individual learners across the UK, including learning supporting the Care Certificate standards.

Reviewer declaration: The reviewer has checked the practical guidance in this article relating to Care Certificate assessment, workplace competence, supervision and employer sign-off against their professional experience and the current Skills for Care and CQC guidance cited below.

Last reviewed: 28 August 2026
Jurisdiction: England

Primary sources and further guidance

Skills for Care — Care Certificate standards
Current Care Certificate standards, updated in March 2025, including the 16 standards, assessment resources and national certificate template.

Skills for Care — Care Certificate Assessor and Employer Guide
Detailed guidance on knowledge and skills assessment, e-learning, workplace evidence, assessors, supervision, portfolios and employer responsibilities.

Skills for Care — Questions and answers for health and adult social care professionals
Current supporting guidance on outsourcing training and assessment, incomplete standards, final sign-off and external learning providers.

Skills for Care — Care Certificate guidance for personal assistants and individual employers
Guidance covering the different position of directly employed personal assistants.

Care Quality Commission — Regulation 18: Staffing
Regulatory requirements concerning sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff and appropriate training, development and supervision.

Skills for Care — Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS)
Workforce data guidance relevant to recording Care Certificate status.

Important: Care Certificate guidance has changed over time. This article uses the current 16-standard framework and current guidance available when it was reviewed on 28 August 2026.