This page is part of PrimeCarers' guide to dementia care. It answers one question: what dementia training exists, what it is worth, and how to check what a carer tells you about theirs.
The short answer
- There is no dementia qualification a carer must holdNothing in law requires a self-employed carer to have one. The Care Certificate is a set of induction standards rather than a qualification, and its dementia standard is pitched at awareness.
- A question about your own situation tells you more than a certificateAsk what they would do when your mother says she wants to go home. The answer shows you how the person thinks, and that is the part you are choosing.
- You can ask to see a certificate, and you can check it yourselfAsk for a copy, read the exact title and the awarding organisation, look it up on the public register of regulated qualifications, and ask the awarding organisation to confirm it.
- PrimeCarers does not check training, and you should not assume we doWe check identity and right to work, require an enhanced DBS on the Update Service, and interview carers online. Qualifications, training and references are not checked or recorded by us.
Checked in September 2026 against Skills for Care, NICE guideline NG97, gov.uk, Ofqual and the awarding organisations. Rates are what carers on PrimeCarers charge, £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included.
What training exists
The dementia training a carer in England might have
Six different things get called dementia training, and they are not close to equivalent. Reading down this list tells you where a certificate or a line on a profile sits, and what it leaves for you to ask about.
A dementia awareness course
Introductory
An introduction to what dementia is, how it changes a person and how to talk to somebody who has it. Some last only a few hours. The Dementia Training Standards Framework calls this tier one, the awareness level it says the whole health and care workforce should have.
What it tells you
That the carer has sat down and learned the groundwork rather than picking it up as they went.
What it leaves open
What they would do at three in the morning with somebody who will not go back to bed.
The Care Certificate, standard 9
Induction
The sixteen Care Certificate standards are an induction set written by Skills for Care for people who are new to care work. Standard 9 is called awareness of mental health and dementia.
What it tells you
That an employer inducted them against a recognised set of standards and signed the work off.
What it leaves open
Depth. Standard 9 asks a worker to describe, list and explain, so it tests knowledge rather than practice, and it covers mental health alongside dementia.
A Level 2 award or certificate in dementia care
Regulated, Level 2
A qualification in its own right, awarded by an organisation such as NCFE and regulated by Ofqual. The subjects include person-centred care, communication, medication and activities.
What it tells you
That the carer chose dementia as a subject and was assessed on it by somebody other than their employer.
What it leaves open
Whether they can do the work. NCFE says of its own Level 2 certificate in the principles of dementia care that it does not infer competence in the work role.
A Level 3 diploma in adult care
Regulated, Level 3
The qualification senior care workers tend to hold. It is broader than dementia: dementia appears in it as units rather than as the whole course, and parts of a Level 3 diploma are assessed where the person works.
What it tells you
Study assessed over months, and a commitment to care as a career rather than a job.
What it leaves open
Whether dementia was the part they went into properly. Ask which units they took and what they wrote about.
A course run by a dementia charity
Specialist, not levelled
Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK both run training and learning for people who work in care, taught by people who work on dementia and nothing else.
What it tells you
That the carer went looking for teaching rather than waiting to be sent on something.
What it leaves open
A place on the ladder. These courses are not levelled qualifications, so compare them on what was covered rather than on a number.
Training given by a former employer
In-house
Moving and handling, medication, safeguarding, and that employer’s own way of working with dementia. NICE guideline NG97 asks care providers to give this face to face, with mentoring and follow-up sessions where staff can talk through particular situations.
What it tells you
That the training was practised and supervised rather than read on a screen.
What it leaves open
Evidence. It belongs to the employer, there may be no certificate to show for it, and it does not follow a carer to the next job.
Compiled from the Care Certificate standards published by Skills for Care, the Dementia Training Standards Framework, Ofqual’s register of regulated qualifications, the awarding organisations’ own specifications and NICE guideline NG97. The order is by depth of study, which is not the same thing as how much a carer is helped by it on a difficult day.
Nobody has to hold any of it. There is no licence to be a carer in England and no register of care workers, which is covered in whether you need a licence to be a carer. The requirements that do exist in law sit on registered providers, not on the individual, so a carer who has only ever worked privately may have excellent judgement and very little paper.
Two names are worth separating out. The Care Certificate standards are published by Skills for Care and were written with the non-regulated workforce in mind, so doctors, nurses and social workers do not take them. The Dementia Training Standards Framework, developed by Skills for Health and Health Education England with Skills for Care, sets out three tiers: awareness for everybody, basic skills for staff who work directly with people who have dementia, and a third tier for people who lead on it. A carer who mentions a tier is telling you something useful about depth.
Two charities teach this subject and nothing else. Alzheimer's Society and Dementia UK both run training and learning for people who work in care, and a carer who has been to one of them sought that teaching out.
What a certificate shows
What a certificate proves, and what it does not
A certificate is evidence that somebody passed an assessment on a given day. That is worth having. It is not evidence that they can sit with your father while he is frightened, and the awarding organisations say as much themselves.
What a certificate can tell you
- That the carer has the vocabulary, so you can talk about stages, triggers and capacity without explaining them first
- That an awarding organisation, rather than the carer, decided the work met a standard
- That they were willing to study in their own time and finish something
- Which subjects were covered, if you ask for the unit titles as well as the certificate
What it cannot tell you
- Whether they can settle somebody at four in the morning without raising their voice
- How long ago it was, and whether any of it has been practised since
- Whether it was assessed at work or answered at a kitchen table
- Whether they will ring you the day something goes wrong, which is what you will care about most
- Whether your father will take help from this particular person
NCFE, one of the larger awarding organisations for care qualifications, says of its own Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Dementia Care that it does not infer competence in the work role. Those are the words of the organisation that awards it. A knowledge qualification says the person understands the principles; whether they can apply them at half past six on a bad evening is a separate question.
NICE guideline NG97 points the same way. Alongside classroom knowledge it asks care providers to give staff face-to-face training and mentoring, follow-up sessions where particular situations can be discussed, and initial training on understanding and responding to people who are agitated, in pain or otherwise distressed. Reading the recommendations on staff training is a short way to see what good dementia care is supposed to consist of, and it gives you the list to ask a carer about.
Questions to ask
Three questions, and what a fuller answer sounds like
Describe a situation your family is already in and ask the carer what they would do. You are listening for whether they go looking for the cause, whether they adapt rather than insist, and whether they would tell you afterwards.
“She keeps saying she wants to go home, and she is already at home. What would you do?”
This is a question about how somebody feels rather than about where they are. The answer shows you whether a carer argues with the facts or works with the feeling.
A thin answer
“I would tell her that she is at home, and walk her round the house to show her.”
A fuller answer
“I would not correct her, because that tends to make it worse. I would ask her what home she is picturing and who is there, and let her talk about it. Then I would check the plain things: whether she is cold, needing the toilet, hungry or tired at the end of a long afternoon. It can settle once she feels heard and there is something else to do.”
“He tells you that you have taken his wallet. What do you do?”
Being accused of theft is one of the hardest parts of this work. The answer tells you whether a carer can take it without taking it personally, and whether they will tell you when it happens.
A thin answer
“I would tell him I have not touched it and show him that my bag is empty.”
A fuller answer
“I would not defend myself first, because that turns it into an argument he cannot win. I would say that losing a wallet is worrying and help him look for it. I would ask you where things tend to end up, and I would write down what happened and tell you the same day, so nobody is left guessing later.”
“He has not washed for a week and says no every time it is suggested. What would you do?”
Refusing personal care is the point at which a carer either pushes harder or changes the approach, and the answer shows you which one you are getting.
A thin answer
“I would explain why washing matters and encourage him until he agrees.”
A fuller answer
“I would try to work out which part he is saying no to: being cold, being seen undressed, water on his face, or being asked by somebody he has only just met. I would start with a wash at the sink rather than a shower, at the time of day he used to wash, and build up from there. On a day when the answer is still no I would leave it and try again tomorrow.”
The answers are written to show how a fuller one is built, not as a script and not as a description of any particular carer. The approach behind them, looking for the cause of distress and adapting the way you talk rather than correcting the person, is what NICE guideline NG97 asks care providers to train staff in.
You are not testing for the right answer, because there is no single right answer in dementia care. What you are listening for is a carer who asks you a question back, who names more than one possible cause, and who says what they would try first and what they would do if that did not work. A thin answer is not proof of a bad carer, and somebody nervous in an interview may do better in a kitchen than on the phone, so it is fair to ask the question a second way.
Pick the situations that are already happening in your family rather than these three. If your mother is agitated in the late afternoon, ask about that and read aggression and agitation in dementia first so you know what a considered answer sounds like. If she refuses help, when someone with dementia refuses care covers the same ground. If she has started leaving the house, ask about that and read wandering and leaving the house. Knowing which stage she is at helps you frame the question, and the seven stages of dementia sets out what changes when.
There are also practical limits worth settling in the same conversation, particularly medication, which what a private carer can do about medication explains. For a general list to run alongside the dementia questions, there is the questions to ask a carer at interview.
Checking it yourself
What to ask to see, and how to check it
Anything a carer says about their training is their own account of it. You are allowed to ask for the evidence, and checking it is straightforward and free.
- 1
Ask for a copy rather than a glance
At the interviewAsk the carer to email you a photograph of the certificate. Somebody who has it can send it in a minute. If they cannot find it, that is worth knowing, and on its own it is not a reason to rule anybody out. - 2
Read the exact title and who awarded it
Two minutesA certificate names a level, a title and an awarding organisation. A Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Dementia Care from a named awarding organisation is a different thing from a printable certificate at the end of a short online course, and the wording tells you which you are holding. - 3
Look the qualification up on the public register
FreeOfqual publishes a register of regulated qualifications in England. Searching the title on find-a-qualification.services.ofqual.gov.uk shows you whether it is a regulated qualification, which organisation awards it and what level it sits at. - 4
Ask the awarding organisation to confirm it
If you want certaintyAwarding organisations hold records of what they have awarded and will confirm an achievement. NCFE, for example, has a verification of achievement service, and others have their own. The carer has to agree to it, so ask them at the interview rather than afterwards.
Ofqual's register of regulated qualifications is the free tool for the third step. A qualification that appears on it has been through a regulator. One that does not may still have taught the carer something useful, but it is a course rather than a qualification, and you should weigh it that way.
Experience alongside it
How experience fits alongside training
Years in the work teach things no course covers, and years can also mean the same mistake repeated for a decade. In the NICE recommendations, what turns experience into skill is mentoring and a chance to talk difficult situations through afterwards.
How long, and at which stage
The physical side
What they do when they are out of their depth
Who they talk to about it
The first fortnight tells you more than the interview did, so treat it as part of the choosing. Write the care plan together rather than handing one over, which writing a care plan with your carer covers, and agree at the start how you will hear about the difficult days. The first week with a new carer sets out what to expect, and if it is not working, handling problems with a carer explains how to raise it and what your notice period is.
Training is not what sets the price. Carers on PrimeCarers set their own hourly rate, and the range families pay is £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, against £28 to £35 for an agency visit. We do not publish a breakdown of rates by qualification, so if you want to know why one carer charges more than another, the answer is on their profile and in the conversation. What dementia care costs sets out the full picture across hourly, overnight and live-in care.
Questions
Questions families ask about dementia training
No. There is no licence to be a carer in England, no register of care workers, and no qualification anybody must hold before caring for a person with dementia. The training duties in law fall on providers registered with the Care Quality Commission rather than on an individual self-employed carer. That is why choosing well matters so much, and why asking about situations from your own home is more useful than asking for a certificate.
No. The Care Certificate is a set of sixteen induction standards published by Skills for Care for people new to care work, and it is not itself a regulated qualification. Standard 9, awareness of mental health and dementia, asks a worker to describe, list and explain rather than to demonstrate anything at somebody's bedside, and it covers mental health conditions alongside dementia. It is a sound baseline, and it is not the same thing as a qualification in dementia care.
No. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is a statutory requirement under section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022, and it applies to providers registered with the Care Quality Commission. It covers learning disability and autism. It is not dementia training, and a self-employed carer working privately is not required to have done it.
No. We check identity and right to work, require an enhanced DBS certificate on the Update Service which is then monitored for as long as the carer works through us, and interview carers online. We do not check, verify or record qualifications, training, certificates or references, and there is no way to search carers by them. What a carer writes about their training on their profile is their own account of it, and checking it is yours to do. How we vet carers.
Ask the carer to send you a copy, then read the exact title, the level and the awarding organisation. Search the title on Ofqual's public register of regulated qualifications to see whether it is regulated and at what level. If you want it confirmed, awarding organisations hold records of what they have awarded and will verify an achievement, with the carer's agreement. Ask for that agreement at the interview.
Match it to the care needed rather than reaching for the highest number. For companionship and help around the house, an awareness course or the Care Certificate standard is a reasonable base. Where there is distress, refusal of personal care or disturbed nights, a Level 2 or Level 3 qualification with dementia units, or training from a dementia charity, is worth asking about. In every case, ask what they would do in your situation as well.
They answer different questions. Training shows somebody has been taught the principles and been assessed on them. Experience shows they have been in the room when it was hard. NICE guideline NG97 asks providers to give staff both, with mentoring and follow-up sessions rather than a course on its own, so the carer to look for is the one who has done some study and can tell you what they learned from a situation that went wrong.