The 16 Care Certificate Standards (2025): Full List and Guide

If you are new to care work, or you manage people who are, you will hear about the Care Certificate almost immediately. It shapes induction in care homes, home care agencies, hospitals and supported living services across England. Yet many new starters are unsure what it actually is, whether it is a qualification, and what completing it involves day to day. This guide answers those questions in plain English.

What is the Care Certificate?

The Care Certificate is an agreed set of 16 standards that describe the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of people working in health and social care in England. It was developed jointly by Skills for Care, Health Education England and Skills for Health, and has been in use since April 2015. The standards were last updated in March 2025, when a sixteenth standard on learning disability and autism was added. Its purpose is simple: to make sure that everyone who is new to care work receives the same solid foundation, wherever they happen to work.

It is important to understand what the Care Certificate is not. It is not a formal qualification like a diploma, and it does not sit on a qualification framework. It is a structured induction standard: a way of proving that a new care worker has been trained and assessed against the fundamentals of safe, compassionate care. That distinction matters, because the Care Certificate must include assessment of practice in the workplace, not just completed coursework.

Who is it for?

The Care Certificate is aimed at people who are new to care: healthcare assistants, assistant practitioners, care support workers, support workers in the community, and anyone giving support to clinical roles where there is direct contact with people who use services. Employers also use it when experienced staff move into a substantially different role, or where there are gaps in previous training records. The Care Quality Commission expects providers to induct staff properly, and completing the Care Certificate is the most widely recognised way of evidencing that induction.

The 16 standards at a glance

1. Understand own role – duties, agreed ways of working, professional boundaries and career development.
2. Your personal development – supervision, reflection, learning plans and digital skills.
3. Duty of care – balancing safety with choice, duty of candour, complaints and incidents.
4. Equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights – inclusive, culturally appropriate care; recognising and reporting discrimination.
5. Work in a person-centred way – care built around the individual, including mental capacity (moved here in 2025).
6. Communication – listening, communication aids and digital tools, behaviour as communication.
7. Privacy and dignity – respecting private space, information, independence and personal choice.
8. Fluids and nutrition – supporting people to eat and drink well and safely, and reporting changes.
9. Awareness of mental health and dementia – recognising early signs and making reasonable adjustments.
10. Adult safeguarding – recognising, recording and reporting concerns, in line with the Care Act 2014.
11. Safeguarding children – responsibilities even in adult-focused services.
12. Basic life support – responding to emergencies, CPR awareness.
13. Health and safety – risk, moving and handling awareness, incident reporting, and your own mental health and wellbeing.
14. Handling information – confidentiality, records, data protection and reporting data breaches.
15. Infection prevention and control – fully revised in 2025: the chain of infection, hand hygiene, PPE and safe waste handling.
16. Awareness of learning disability and autism – new in 2025: learning disability awareness moved here from Standard 9, with autism now included, and the employer’s responsibility to provide appropriate learning. For staff who support autistic people or people with a learning disability, that means the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training.

What changed in the 2025 update?

In March 2025 Skills for Care, Skills for Health and NHS England published the Care Certificate standards updated 2025. The main changes, from their official summary of updates:

• A new Standard 16, Awareness of learning disability and autism. Learning disability content moved out of Standard 9, and autism is now included.
• New titles for Standard 4 (Equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights), Standard 9 (Awareness of mental health and dementia) and Standard 10 (Adult safeguarding).
• Mental capacity moved from Standard 9 into Standard 5, Work in a person-centred way.
• Infection prevention and control (Standard 15) was fully revised and expanded.
• Smaller additions across the standards, including digital skills, duty of candour, the data breach reporting route and looking after your own mental health and wellbeing.

The summary puts the responsibility on employers and learning providers to keep Care Certificate content up to date. If your staff completed the Care Certificate before March 2025, check that their training covers the new material – especially learning disability and autism, and mental capacity.

How is it assessed?

Each standard combines learning with assessment. The knowledge parts can be delivered through workbooks, e-learning, live webinars or classroom teaching. The skills parts must be assessed by observation in the workplace: an assessor watches the care worker carry out the relevant tasks with real people in real situations, and confirms they meet the standard. This is why the Care Certificate cannot be completed entirely online, and why employers play an essential role even when training is delivered by an external provider like KCP.

How long does it take?

Skills for Care suggests that a new starter working full time should be able to complete the Care Certificate within 12 weeks of starting their role. In practice the time varies with shift patterns, how quickly workplace observations can be arranged, and how much prior experience the learner brings. Structured delivery makes a real difference: learners who follow a planned programme of sessions and observations finish sooner and retain more than those left to work through materials alone.

What happens after the Care Certificate?

The Care Certificate is a starting point, not a ceiling. Care workers who complete it typically progress to specialist short courses – safeguarding, medication awareness, first aid, moving and handling – and then to formal qualifications such as the Level 2 or Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care. For staff working with people with a learning disability or autistic people, the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is now a statutory expectation on top of the induction standards.

Care Certificate FAQs

How many Care Certificate standards are there?

There are 16. Skills for Care, Skills for Health and NHS England updated the Care Certificate standards in March 2025. Learning disability awareness moved out of Standard 9 into a new Standard 16, Awareness of learning disability and autism, which now includes autism. Mental capacity moved into Standard 5, and Standards 4, 9 and 10 have new titles.

What if staff completed the Care Certificate before the 2025 update?

Skills for Care’s summary of the 2025 update says it is the responsibility of employers and learning providers to make sure Care Certificate content is up to date. If your staff completed the Care Certificate before March 2025, check that their training covers the new material, in particular learning disability and autism (Standard 16) and mental capacity (now in Standard 5).

Is the Care Certificate a qualification?

No. It is a set of 16 induction standards rather than a regulated qualification like a diploma. It evidences that a new care worker has been trained and assessed against the fundamentals of safe care; formal qualifications such as the Level 2 or Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care come later in a care career.

Is the Care Certificate mandatory?

The certificate itself is not named in law, but the CQC expects providers to induct new care staff properly, and completing the Care Certificate is the most widely recognised way to evidence that. In practice, most employers in England treat it as a requirement for new care workers.

Does the Care Certificate expire?

No – it does not expire, and it moves with you between employers. A new employer may still check your evidence and refresh specific subjects, such as basic life support or moving and handling, in line with their own policies.

Can it be done entirely online?

No. The knowledge parts can be delivered online or by live webinar, but each standard's practical skills must be observed in the workplace. That observation is what makes the certificate credible to employers and inspectors.