EPA Standard
Adult Care Worker
Level 2 
£3,000 12 months
1. What the role entails
Working with people, feeling passionate about supporting and enabling them to live a more independent and fulfilling life is a rewarding and worthwhile job that provides excellent career opportunities.
Working in care means making a positive difference to someone’s life when they’re facing physical, practical, social, emotional, or intellectual challenges. Adult Care Workers need to have the right values and behaviours, developing competencies and skills to provide high-quality compassionate care and support. They’re the frontline staff who help adults with care and support needs to achieve their personal goals and live as independently and safely as possible, enabling them to have control and choice in their lives.
Entry: apprentices must undertake the Disclosure and Barring Service process and provide the result.
2. On-programme assessment
Before entering Gateway, the apprentice must complete the following on-programme assessment requirements:
- The 15 standards as set out in the Care Certificate
- Level 2 Diploma in Care
- Ongoing assessment by the employer and the Independant Training Provider (ITP)
- The self-assessment exercise
- Level 1 English and maths.
3. Gateway requirements
The employer, ITP and apprentice make the decision to take the apprentice through Gateway so the apprentice can begin their end-point assessment (EPA). The apprentice must achieve all the required on-programme elements before they can enter Gateway.
4. End-point assessment
The EPA for Adult Care Worker contains two methods of assessment:
The Situational Judgement Test (50% weighting)
Apprentices will be presented with a range of real-life scenarios and will have to answer 60 multiple-choice questions. The Situational Judgement Test will normally be undertaken online, under controlled conditions with a time limit. Questions will draw from the stated knowledge and skills elements of the standard and focus on the higher-order competencies.
Pass: 40+ correct answers
Merit: 50+ correct answers
Distinction: 55+ correct answers
Professional Discussion (50% weighting)
The Professional Discussion will draw questions and amplifications from previous learning and experience including, where applicable, the apprentice’s self-assessment.
Grading: the Professional Discussion is graded Fail, Pass or Distinction by the IEPA.
5. Grade aggregation table
|
Professional Discussion |
||||
| Pass | Merit | Distinction | ||
|
Situational Judgement Test |
Pass | Pass | Merit | Merit |
| Merit | Pass | Merit | Distinction | |
| Distinction | Merit | Merit | Distinction | |
If the apprentice fails the Professional Discussion, the EPA will be deemed an overall Fail.
6. Completion and certification
We’ll activate certification once the apprentice has successfully completed all EPAs, and the Independent End-Point Assessor (IEPA) verified this. Working with the apprenticeship certificate issuing authority, we’ll ensure the apprentice receives their certificate.
7. What next?
The learning doesn’t stop because the apprenticeship is complete. From the Level 2 Adult Care Worker standard, an apprentice could take this pathway:
- Level 5 in Adult Care
- Level 4 Lead Practitioner in Adult Care
- Level 3 Lead Adult Care Worker
- Level 2 Adult Care Worker.
Why NCFE?
We’re an approved End-Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) specialising in EPA delivery across health, education, early years, digital, social care, finance and business apprenticeship standards. We offer flexible and reliable EPA solutions supported by sector expertise, guidance documents and proactive service and support.