Education charity NCFE has become one of the first awarding organisations to regulate the new Care Certificate.

The Level 2 qualification, developed by Skills for Care and aimed at the 54% of the workforce entering the social care sector without a qualification, is set to launch this year. There will be an initial 37,000 funded places following a £53.91m investment from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Craig Wade, sector manager for health and social care at NCFE, said: “We know from our skills gap report last year that workforce retention continues to be a persistent problem in social care. According to Skills for Care, more than half of the current workforce don’t hold a relevant social care qualification, and of those that do, 2% have a Level 1 and 19% a Level 2.”

Training providers will be able to deliver the new Care Certificate from June 2024 onwards, with those currently delivering the existing Care Certificate able to switch to the new qualification.

The DHSC has confirmed that reimbursement for each learner will be up to £1,500.