Health and Social Care NVQ Made Simple | NVQ Assessors Resources.

Perhaps your NVQ Assessor or tutor has asked you to obtain a witness testimony as part of your assessment plan to gather evidence of competence for your NVQ (National Vocational Qualification).

Are you wondering…

·         What is this all about?

·         Where do I get this from?

·         Who can I ask to write one for me?

·         Do I need to use some forms?

Well I would like to explain this in today’s article.

Firstly, who is a witness?

Literally, he or she is a person who testifies at a court hearing. As a witness, the person may have seen an accident, witnessed a crime, or be asked to describe the character of someone they know. As a witness they will be asked to answer some questions regarding their knowledge of a case in court.

Well in this case we are certainly not in a court of Law but in a work setting you need to locate someone who testifies in writing about you with regards to your work.

Secondly, what is a testimony?

This is evidence obtained from a witness who has made a statement or declaration of fact.

Using the 2 definitions above you can define

WITNESS TESTIMONY as an account of your work performance, which has been witnessed by another person.

This clearly suggests that you can’t write one for yourself. You need someone who can testify in writing to say what they know about you, what they have seen you do or describe an activity you have carried out which should relate to your job description and also to the performance criteria of the units within your NVQ.

You can get a witness testimony from:

·         Your manager or supervisor

·         Your colleague at work

·         The individuals you work with

·         Your tutors or trainers.

Depending on your training centre’s policy, generally you would be required to obtain the witness testimony on a form given to you and you have to request that they sign what is called a Witness Status List – normally found at the front bits in your portfolio. Anyone who writes out a witness testimony must sign the Witness Status List and then your assessor will judge the evidence provided.

See an example; this is a witness testimony about how you handled an accident at work. Yours might be how you handled a disclosure of abuse from a service user and the words in your form would be different.

Witness Testimony

 

Candidate’s Name:____________________________________________________________

                             

Witness Name:________________________________________________________________

 

Date of Incident/Accident:_______________________________________________________

 

Please write a brief account of the incident/accident

Please put candidates name in spaces provided; please delete any of the statements that do not applyto your witness testimony.

I witnessed __________­________________________ take appropriate and immediate action to deal with the incident/accident, and if necessary summoning appropriate assistance for the emergency.

I witnessed __________________________________ provide support and assistance until someone who was qualified to deal with the emergency arrived.

I witnessed ____________________________ supporting others who may have been affected by theemergency.

I witnessed _______________________________ completing records and reporting the incident/accident within confidentiality agreements and according to organisational and legal requirements.

Please indicate where the records are kept.

Any additional information eg. Any risks or hazards that candidate has identified because of the incident/accident, or if they prevented further injury or injury to others by their response or actions

Performance criteria, and knowledge evidence met (22c)

  I confirm that this is true statement of the events witnessed by me.   Signature of Witness:___________________________________________  Date___________________     Signature of Assessor:___________________________________________Date__________________   Signature of Candidate:__________________________________________Date___________________