EPA Standard
Lead Adult Care Worker
Level 3 
£3,000 
12-18 months
1. What the role entails
Lead Adult Care Workers make a positive difference to someone’s life when they are faced with physical, practical,
social, emotional or intellectual challenges, by exercising judgement and taking appropriate action to support individuals to maintain their independence, dignity and control. Lead Adult Care Workers have responsibility for providing supervision, frontline leadership, guidance and direction for others or working autonomously, exercising judgement and accountability.
Entry: apprentices must undertake the Disclosure and Barring Service process and provide the result.
2. On-programme assessment
It is recommended that apprentices are supported through their on-programme learning by their employer and or Independent Training Provider (ITP) in the following elements:
- The 15 standards as set out in the Care Certificate
- Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care
- Ongoing assessment by the employer and provider
- Completion of the Self-Assessment exercise
- Achieve Level 2 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 Lead 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 assessment will be undertaken online, under controlled conditions
with a time limit applied. 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)
Apprentices will undertake a 45 minute discussion led by an Independent End-Point Assessor (IEPA). Apprentices can only apply to undertake the discussion component once the Situational Judgement Test has been achieved. 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 | |
*The professional discussion will carry the determining outcome
6. Completion and certification
We’ll activate certification once the apprentice has successfully completed all EPAs, and the IEPA has verified this. Working with the apprenticeship certificate issuing authority, we’ll ensure the apprentice receives their certificate.
7. What next?
Once the Level 3 Lead Adult Care Worker Apprenticeship is complete, the learning doesn’t stop. A suggested pathway is illustrated here:
- Level 5 in Adult Care
- Level 4 Lead Practitioner in Adult Care
- Level 3 Lead 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.