Recommendation F211: Training standards for healthcare support workers
From Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, published 6 February 2013.
Recommendation
There should be a common set of national standards for the education and training of healthcare support workers.
In brief (written by this site)
In commentary provided in September 2024, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England stated that the Care Quality Commission continues to support and expect the Care Certificate to be used across health and social care (DHSC and NHS England, Feb 2026). In May 2024, the Thirlwall Inquiry legal team found that the Care Certificate had been introduced in April 2015 to establish fundamental skills, values, and behaviours for new healthcare assistants and social care support workers, replacing earlier minimum training standards (The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team, May 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.
Government response
Accepted.
The National Minimum Training Standards for healthcare support workers were published in March 2013. The Cavendish Review has also made a number of recommendations to improve the national standards on education and training, including a ‘Certificate of Fundamental Care.’
An amendment to the Care Bill was tabled updating the provisions in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 that would enable regulations to specify a body that would set training standards in respect of healthcare assistants and social care support workers. This issue was debated at Report Stage by the House of Lords on 21 October. In that debate, in advance of the formal Response to the Cavendish Review, Government asked Health Education England to lead work with the Skills Councils, other delivery partners and health and care providers to develop a ‘Care Certificate.’
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is volume two of "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777-II), the government's response to the Inquiry's 290 recommendations, published by the Department of Health on GOV.UK on 19 November 2013 and dated to that day here. The PDF the row links to is the accessible edition, whose title page reads "January 2014". The Department of Health has been the Department of Health and Social Care since January 2018. The volume says it includes accounts from each of the national organisations the recommendations name, but it does not mark which passage each organisation wrote, so every row is filed under the Department that published it.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
Government responded via "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (2014), a single document covering all 290 recommendations with a blanket acceptance. Individual recommendation responses were not broken out.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say in progress (27 February 2026)
The Thirlwall Inquiry has noted action taken in response to this recommendation following the conclusion of the Mid-Staffordshire Inquiry 2013.
Please also see our response to recommendation 210 above.
The CQC continues to support and expects to see the Care Certificate being used by providers across Health and Social Care.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented – Ongoing”. Table row: section 18.2 No. 211, PDF page 532.
Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (11 February 2015)
The Care Certificate sets out the fundamental skills, values and behaviours that healthcare assistants and social care support workers will need to demonstrate in order to provide safe, effective and compassionate care. This will provide a consistent and effective means for health and care providers to satisfy Care Quality Commission requirements that their care support workforce have the right qualifications, skills and experience. It will replace both the National Minimum Training Standards and the Common Induction Standards. Following the successful completion of pilots, the Care Certificate remains on track to be introduced for new healthcare assistants and social care support workers from 1 April 2015. From 2016 all NHS-funded student nurses in England will attain the Care Certificate within their first year of study, if they have not already achieved it. A wide range of employers and staff were engaged with the testing of the Care Certificate, the majority concluding that no radical revisions were necessary. Analysis of feedback received indicated that the draft proposals for the Care Certificate were suitable in terms of content and process
Health Education England has developed a draft set of standards in conjunction with Skills for Health, Skills for Care and other delivery partners. They were piloted across a number of health and social care providers during summer 2014. The Care Certificate is on track to be introduced for new healthcare assistants and social care support workers from 1 April 2015.
Site note: This is the supporting annex published on 11 February 2015 with "Culture change in the NHS: applying the lessons of the Francis Inquiries" (Cm 9009), attached to the GOV.UK page as "Culture change in the NHS supporting annex". The annex has no title page; that title is GOV.UK's and the PDF's own. Its table has four columns (No., Recommendation, Hard Truths Government response, Progress update), and the row carries the Progress update cell. No column says which organisation wrote an update, so the row is filed under the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), which published it.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government.
The National Minimum Training Standards for healthcare support workers were published in March 2013. The Care Certificate was introduced for new healthcare assistance and social care support workers from 1 April 2015, setting out the fundamental skills, values and behaviours that healthcare assistance and social care support workers would need to demonstrate. It replaced both the National minimum Training Standards and the Common Indication Standards, with all NHS-funded student nurses in England to attain the Care Certificate within their first year of study.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review colours its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green, which it uses to mark evidence, identified by the legal team, that a recommendation has been clearly implemented. Table row: section 16.2 No. 211, PDF page 494.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response, delivery statement - DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding