Welsh carers will benefit from qualification reform

Qualifications Wales has announced that new qualifications will be introduced from 2019 in the health, social care and childcare sector. Here, Kate Crabtree, QW executive director for policy and research, explains why

No matter how fit and healthy we are, there may come a time when we feel vulnerable and in need of care.

It may be when we reach the later stages of our lives, when failing health means we need help to carry on living as independently as possible.

Or it could be our children who need assistance to deal with a sudden upheaval in the family’s circumstances.

But it’s not only when events take an unexpected turn that we may need assistance.

We’re an ageing population – over the past 40 years alone, the number of centenarians in the UK has risen from fewer than 1,200 in 1970 to more than 14,500 in 2015. That trend is expected to continue.

It means there’s a greater demand for carers to look after our growing elderly population, both in residential homes and at home.

At the other end of the scale, there’s an increasing demand from working parents for high-quality childcare.

Different events can sometimes lead to a big change in our lifestyle, and that often means that we need to call on help from people outside the family.

When that time comes, we want to feel confident that the people looking after us, or caring for a relative or friend, are fully qualified.

That’s why it’s important that people working in the health, social care and childcare sector have top-quality training that leads to highly valued qualifications.

It’s the best way to ensure they do their job with confidence and, in turn, inspire confidence in those they care for.

When Qualifications Wales started work two years ago, we knew that the health and social care sector was one of the most important in the country, employing tens of thousands of people.

We reviewed qualifications in the sector to see if they were effective, or whether there was any way we could make things better.

We published our findings last year, and this month announced one of the biggest changes to vocational qualifications ever seen in Wales.

A suite of up to 20 new qualifications will replace more than 240 existing ones, with the new qualifications to be taught from September 2019.

The first certificates will be awarded to learners in 2020.

The move followed a procurement exercise to select an awarding body to develop the new qualifications. A consortium of City and Guilds and WJEC won the contract and will now work with us, Social Care Wales, NHS Wales, teachers, trainers and assessors to design and deliver these new qualifications.

The new qualifications are being introduced with the full support of our partners in the sector, who have a wealth of knowledge about the needs of employers, learners and the people they care for.

Moving to a single consortium from more than 20 different awarding bodies will make it much clearer for everyone to see which qualifications to take as they plan their careers.

They will be taught to learners aged 14 and over across Wales from September 2019.

They will reduce complexity, raise quality and increase coherence, and will only be provided by the new consortium of City and Guilds and WJEC.

This means they will be the only health and social care (including childcare) qualifications that can be used on publicly funded courses in further education and schools.

As of September 2019, these will also be the qualifications that feature in health and social care (including childcare) apprenticeship frameworks. The NHS will also fund parts of their workforce to take these qualifications.

Learners who register for study on or after September 1, 2019 will take one of the new qualifications.

The current qualifications will continue to be funded until the new qualifications are introduced.

There will also be a transition period to allow learners who are on existing courses to complete their qualifications.