Reviews / 2013
The Cavendish Review
Baroness Cavendish · work from 2013 · published 2013
What this was
Review of the training and support of healthcare assistants in the NHS and social care, commissioned in the wake of Francis. It found a workforce doing intimate care with no common standard of preparation.
Why it sits in the hub
Support workers deliver a large share of hands-on care. The certificate Cavendish proposed became the Care Certificate. Later workforce plans still struggle with this part of the workforce.
Findings
Finding 1
Healthcare assistants were poorly defined, variably trained, and often invisible in workforce planning.
Recommendations in this hub
Paraphrase of the public recommendations, not the official text.
- 1AcceptedHealth Education England
Introduce a common Certificate of Fundamental Care before staff work unsupervised.
The Care Certificate was introduced. It is not a universal guarantee of competence.
- 2Partly doneEmployers and regulators
Be clearer about delegation and the boundary between registered and support roles.