Care Certificate

Yes. Care Certificate is an accredited CPD activity with the CPD Standards Office, the UK's research-led CPD accreditation body. Lift College Limited is a CPD Standards Office accredited provider (provider number 51289), and your certificate carries the CPD Standards Office mark and our provider number so an employer or professional body can check it.

The Care Certificate had 15 standards until March 2025: understand your role, your personal development, duty of care, equality and diversity, work in a person-centred way, communication, privacy and dignity, fluids and nutrition, awareness of mental health, dementia and learning disability, safeguarding adults, safeguarding children, basic life support, health and safety, handling information, and infection prevention and control. The March 2025 update by Skills for Care, NHS England and Skills for Health added a 16th standard, Awareness of learning disability and autism, which reflects the learning disability and autism training requirement in the Health and Care Act 2022, and standard 9 became Awareness of mental health and dementia. So there are now 16 standards, and this course has one module for each.

You get a CPD Standards Office accredited certificate for the knowledge across all 16 standards. Your employer awards the Care Certificate itself, on the national template, once they have observed your practice.

Your employer. Skills for Care says the certificate can be awarded by the employer, and external learning providers must not sign and issue it. This is why the observed part happens at work.

Lift College's Care Certificate course costs £19.99, pay once, for one learner. There is no subscription and nothing added at checkout, and you can ask for a full refund within 14 days of paying. Caredemy charges £30 for its Care Certificate Course, CPD Online College £28.80 for its Care Certificate course and High Speed Training £24 for its Care Certificate Course, from their own websites on 22 October 2026.

Free training, such as NHS England's elearning for healthcare, suits people who can register for it. A paid course is worth it if you want short modules, unlimited free retakes, tutor support and a certificate your employer can verify. Lift College's course is £19.99, pay once, with human tutor support. Either way, your employer observes your practice and signs you off.

Not by law: no Act or regulation requires the Care Certificate itself. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) calls it the benchmark for staff induction and expects providers to show that new health care support workers and adult social care workers have, or are working towards, the skills it sets out, and Regulation 18 says staff must receive the training their role needs. That is why most care and health employers make it part of induction for new starters. This course gives you the knowledge for all 16 standards and a CPD Standards Office accredited certificate; it does not replace your employer's assessment of your competence at work, and your employer awards the Care Certificate itself.

No. This course gives you a CPD Standards Office accredited certificate that records the knowledge for all 16 Care Certificate standards. The Care Certificate itself is awarded by your employer, usually on the national template, after they have observed your practice at work.