Health Education England’s (HEE) Chairman Sir Keith Pearson and Director of Nursing, Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, joined a celebration event at Queen’s Hospital to recognise our healthcare assistants (HCAs) who have completed their Care Certificate.

The Care Certificate equips HCAs with the skills they need to provide safe and compassionate care. It was introduced by HEE working alongside Skills for Care and Skills for Health.

We’ve held a number of celebration events at both our hospitals to present our successful HCAs with their Care Certificates. We’ve been supporting our HCAs to complete it since March 2016 and 94 per cent of them have now passed.

Among those collecting their certificates at the event on 20 December were friends Rachel Kiddie and Kelly Cook, both from Collier Row. Rachel, 41, was inspired to become a HCA after hearing about Kelly’s experience.

Kelly, 35, said: “I’m really proud to have achieved this. I’ve always wanted to do nursing and this is my first step on that ladder.”

Rachel added: “The support and help has been amazing, so it’s been a really good experience. I love what I do and being hands-on with the patients and spending time with them is what I really enjoy.”

Certificates were presented by our  Chief Nurse, Kathryn Halford.

Sir Keith said: “I was delighted to be part of the ceremony and to meet people who are so passionate about what they do.”