Support worker supporting statement: cover each criterion

A support worker supporting statement answers the person specification line by line. Flintshire County Council's pack marks each line essential or desirable and says where it is assessed, so start with the lines marked for the application. If you have little care experience, the last section shows where else evidence can come from.

Where the statement goes

Your employer's form sets where the statement goes and how long it can be. The example here is Flintshire County Council's pack for a Learning Disability Support Worker post, with a footer dated 2 May 2018 (V1), so treat it as one employer's layout. The pack gives no length. If your advert and form give none either, the length guide shows how to decide. The pack asks for registration with Social Care Wales, so the England checks below may not apply; your own employer's pack decides.

What the person specification asks

The pack's table has three columns: the criterion, essential or desirable, and "How this will be assessed?". The table below follows it, in the council's words except the last row, and leaves out two desirable lines, one on developing relationships to meet individual needs and one on speaking Welsh.

Criterion	Essential or desirable	Assessed
"QCF level 2 in Health and Social Care or a commitment to complete within agreed timescale" (QCF: Qualifications and Credit Framework)	Desirable	Application
"Good understanding of the needs of people with a learning disability, sensory impairments and mental health/dementia related problems."	Essential	Application
"Be able to build positive relationships with people we support."	Essential	Application
"Good record keeping and communication skills"	Essential	Interview
"Understand the importance of team working"	Essential	Interview
"Friendly, warm enthusiastic and sensitive to the needs of others"	Essential	Interview
"Self-motivated to take personal responsibility to provide high quality care and support."	Essential	Application/Interview
"Commitment to personal development and ongoing training."	Essential	Interview
Six council core competencies: Customer First, Working Smarter, Working Together/Partnership, Communication, Change, Leading and Managing	Essential	Application/Interview

Counting the six core competencies one by one, 13 lines are essential: 2 marked Application, 4 Interview and 7 Application/Interview. That is arithmetic from the pack, which gives no totals.

The pack says its person specification "will be used in short-listing both at application and interview stage". Its table marks some essential lines for interview only, yet its introduction adds "It is therefore important that you demonstrate on your application how you meet all of the essential requirements."

So give each line marked Application or Application/Interview a full example, and show each essential line marked Interview too, more briefly, as the pack asks. Another employer may mark its lines differently.

The checks care providers in England must make

In England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) page on regulation 19 (last updated 16 May 2025) gives its intention as "to make sure that providers only employ 'fit and proper' staff who are able to provide care and treatment appropriate to their role". It adds: "Information about candidates set out in Schedule 3 of the regulations must be confirmed before they are employed." Schedule 3 of the regulations lists that information, including:

Schedule 3 says	What it means for you
"a copy of an enhanced criminal record certificate", where required	The National Careers Service says care workers need to "pass enhanced background checks".
"Satisfactory evidence of conduct in previous employment" in health or social care, or with children or vulnerable adults	Keep a note of who supervised you in earlier care jobs.
"A full employment history, together with a satisfactory written explanation of any gaps in employment."	List every job and explain any gap. The dates in your examples should match.

The Act allows an activity to be regulated only if it involves care "in, or in relation to, England" (section 8 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008). Flintshire's pack, which asks for "Registration with Social Care Wales", lists its own checks, "DBS" (Disclosure and Barring Service) among them, under "Employment Checks/Specific Requirement", apart from the person specification. Check what your employer's pack lists.

The Care Certificate

Skills for Care, NHS England and Skills for Health developed the Care Certificate standards jointly. The Skills for Care page says they "can be used if you are 'new to care'". They were updated in March 2025 and there are now 16, including a new one on awareness of learning disability and autism.

CQC's guidance for providers in England says: "It is expected that providers that employ healthcare assistants and social care support workers should follow the Care Certificate standards to assess their competence." Some adverts list the Care Certificate as a criterion, and the healthcare assistant guide shows two.

The shape of one answer

The criterion below is one line marked Application. The short lines after "Made up" are invented to show how much one line holds.

Criterion: "Be able to build positive relationships with people we support."

• When and where: the setting and the dates (a supported living house, a day service, a volunteering role, caring for a relative, a year). Made up: a house for three adults, weekday evenings, 2024 to 2025.
• What you did: one task you handled yourself, in plain words. Made up: sat with a new resident each evening for a week, learned how she liked her tea, and wrote it in her daily notes.
• What happened: what changed for the person you supported. Made up: she began to join the others in the lounge, and the next shift kept the same routine.

The knowledge line has several parts (a learning disability, sensory impairments, mental health or dementia). Give evidence for each part you can speak to and no others.

No care experience yet

The National Careers Service profile for care workers lists "support worker" as another title for the job and names four ways in: a college course, an apprenticeship, volunteering or applying directly. For direct applications it says "If you get the role, you'll be given on-the-job training by your employer" and "many will offer training to applicants who have the right personal qualities".

CQC's guidance for providers in England allows for this: "Providers may consider that a person can be engaged in a role based on their qualifications, skills and experience with the expectation that they will become competent within a specified timeframe once in the role." Flintshire's Level 2 line accepts "a commitment to complete within agreed timescale".

Your evidence can come from:

• time spent caring for someone you know, which the National Careers Service says "also counts as having experience in a caring role";
• volunteering with "an organisation that supports vulnerable people, like a care home, charity or hospice";
• any job with the public or a team, since Flintshire's core competencies, such as Customer First and Communication, are essential lines that are not specific to care.

Never claim care work you did not do.

Before you submit

• Every essential line marked for the application has its own example.
• Each essential line marked Interview is shown too, more briefly.
• The dates in your examples match your employment history, and any gap is explained.

You can also check your draft against the person specification to see which criteria still have no example.