Guidance for registered Care providers on overseas workers and equivalent qualifications

Overseas workers with nurse qualifications in their country of origin, who are not able to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a candidate for Adaptation training, may be given work permits stating their home country qualification has been deemed NVQ 3 equivalent and as a result they are given a work permit to work as a Senior Care Assistant. They therefore “qualify” as part of the workforce 50% target deemed to be qualified to NVQ Level 2/3.

It should be noted that although care workers qualifications have been deemed to be equivalent to an NVQ 3 this does not necessarily make them competent to work in a particular environment and employers should ensure they are competent for the work they do.

Good care practice and ensuring the competence of a Senior Care Assistant would require that:

• Topss now Skills for Care Induction is undertaken
• Communication skills are of a competent standard and where additional help needed that the care assistant has been enrolled on an appropriate programme of learning.
• Training programmes offered to all Care staff should include overseas Senior Care Staff to ensure continuing professional development.

Some Senior Care will want to pursue a formal NVQ3 programme of training, and this should be encouraged. Some of their prior experience and learning can be recognised. The new Induction standards are mapped to relevant units of NVQ making this process easier.

Note the new Induction standards starting in September 2005 and mandatory from September 2006 require the Registered Manager to formally sign that the induction standards have been reached and that the care worker is competent and safe to work unsupervised. The new Induction standards are to be completed in 12 weeks and the Foundation programme has been discontinued.

Note different timeframes apply to Domiciliary Care Agencies.

European Care staff qualifications

European care staff with relevant qualifications who are working as Care staff and therefore are included in the 50% target for care staff to have achieved a NVQ Care qualification, must have their certificate of qualification translated into English to provide evidence of their qualification to Inspectors.

The same principles apply in relation to language, communication skills and continuing professional development as other non European care staff.