Qualifications Wales' review of qualifications in the Health & Social Care and Childcare sector found that a number of changes should be made to the qualifications to make sure that they meet the needs of both learners and employers in Wales.

The new qualifications will reduce complexity and raise quality of the learning outcomes and experience, which are so crucial to the best care and support. Social Care Wales and the NHS in Wales are fully supportive of this vision and are active partners in the development process.

The new qualifications will be available for first teaching from 1st September 2019.

Your organisation may be affected in the following ways:

• From 2019, the new qualifications will be available for public funding and will be the only integrated Health and Social Care, and Childcare qualifications available for public funding in Wales (with the exception of some more specialist qualifications in health);
• The subject content, structure and size of the new qualifications may differ from those currently available;
• A new core qualification will be introduced; this will align with revised induction standards to help streamline learning for new workers.

The new qualifications will be available to learners who register for study on, or after, 1st September 2019. Current qualifications will continue to be funded until September 2019, and there will be a transition period to allow learners who are already working towards a qualification to be able to complete their study. If your employee is already working towards a qualification, their learning will not be affected and they will continue their study until they complete their qualification.

Yes. We are working with a wide range of sector representatives, and Qualifications Wales to ensure that the qualifications contain relevant and up‐to‐date content and develop the knowledge, skills and competence needed within the workplace. Additionally, the introduction of the ‘core’ qualification will ensure that all learners develop the key knowledge and understanding needed to begin to work within the sector, and will support progression without duplicating learning.

Existing qualifications will continue to be valued and recognised, but continuing professional development is important to ensure that workers stay up-to-date with their knowledge and skills development.

We will be sharing details on how to register as a centre shortly. If you do have any questions in the meantime, please contact: centres@wjec.co.uk

Through the reform of Health and Social Care, and Childcare qualifications, Qualifications Wales will
be reducing the number of qualifications within the sector available for public funding from over 240 to just 19. Having a smaller more coherent suite of qualifications means that the new suite does not
offer a like for like replacement for all of the currently available qualifications. However, the suite
continues to offer learners the opportunity to access and progress through all currently available
routes to employment, further and higher‐level study. It also continues to allow learners at level 3
to access UCAS Tariff points.

The suite of new health and social care and childcare qualifications includes two level 3 qualifications
of 720 Guided Learning Hours (GLH) in size: one in Health and Social Care, and one in Children’s
Care, Play, Learning and Development. These qualifications are designed to be offered to learners
studying full‐time at an FE college, although they may also be of interest to other types of provider,
including schools.

The suite also includes an A level in Health and Social Care, and Childcare. This qualification
combines health and social care and childcare at AS, with a route of either health and social care or
childcare at A2. The A level is intended to complement either of the bigger qualifications to provide
a full 1080‐GLH programme of study similar in size to the extended diplomas that are currently
available.

The new qualifications will be approved by Qualifications Wales. This means that they will be eligible for public funding on programmes of learning for learners up to the age of 19. Some of the
qualifications in the new suite will be on apprenticeship frameworks for social care or children’s
care, learning and development. These will be funded through Welsh Government apprenticeship
schemes. Although funding will be available in different ways for each of the new qualifications,
learners and employers in certain circumstances may need to fund themselves or their employees in
order to complete the qualification.

During our stakeholder engagement we received mixed views in regard to a specific Level 1
qualification provision in Health and Social Care, and Childcare. As a result Qualifications Wales has
made the decision to give centres the choice of delivering either sector specific Level 1 qualifications
or more generic qualifications in Vocational Studies. The feedback from the sector suggested how
important it was to keep momentum in learners’ enthusiasm within the subject area and to support
those who may want to a consider a career in Health and Social Care, and Childcare. The full list of
affected qualifications can be found on the Qualifications Wales Website.