Care staff training: what is actually required, what CQC expects, and what is good practice
Training advice for care services tends to blur four different things: what the law says, what the provider must set for itself, what CQC expects, and what is simply sensible. This page pulls them apart. For each rule you get the plain-English sentence first, then the exact words, with the document named so you can check it.
In short
- The law sets one general duty: staff get the support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal they need for their duties (regulation 18(2)(a)). It does not list courses.
- One subject is named in law: learning disability and autism training, appropriate to the person’s role (Health and Care Act 2022, section 181, in force 1 July 2022).
- Skills for Care splits the rest into statutory training and mandatory training set by you. Its refresher periods are recommendations. Only the Oliver McGowan code gives a stated interval for its own subject: at least every 3 years.
- The Care Certificate is expected by CQC as the way to assess care assistants and support workers. It is not in the text of the Regulations.
1. Four kinds of training
These labels are ours. The sources use the words “statutory” and “mandatory” and “expected”. We group the rest as good practice. The first question to ask of any course is which group it sits in, because that decides who sets the rule and who can ask you why you did not follow it.
2. What the law says: regulation 18
Regulation 18 covers staffing. Its second paragraph is the training duty. It says staff must get what they need for the job they do. It is a test of fit, not a list of courses.
(2) Persons employed by the service provider in the provision of a regulated activity must— (a) receive such appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal as is necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform,
Providers must ensure that they have an induction programme that prepares staff for their role.
Training, learning and development needs of individual staff members must be carried out at the start of employment and reviewed at appropriate intervals during the course of employment.
New staff may need supervision until they can show they can work alone. Ongoing supervision and regular appraisal are in the same guidance (“should”, not “must”).
Where appropriate, staff must be supervised until they can demonstrate required/acceptable levels of competence to carry out their role unsupervised.
The same guidance names the groups of training staff are supported to take part in. This is where the statutory and mandatory labels come from:
Statutory training. Other mandatory training, as defined by the provider for their role. Any additional training identified as necessary to carry out regulated activities as part of their job duties and, in particular, to maintain necessary skills to meet the needs of the people they care for and support.
3. Learning disability and autism training
This is the only subject Parliament has named. Since 1 July 2022 every person working in a regulated activity must get training on learning disability and autism that suits their role. That includes staff who do not usually support people with a learning disability, such as office and finance staff.
Regulations under this section must require service providers to ensure that each person working for the purpose of the regulated activities carried on by them receives training on learning disability and autism which is appropriate to the person’s role.
Until the Regulations are rewritten, regulation 18 is read as if it contained that requirement (section 181(7)). CQC’s guidance says so in its own words:
Providers must ensure that all staff receive training in how to interact appropriately with people with a learning disability and autistic people, at a level appropriate to their role.
The code of practice and the Oliver McGowan training
CQC takes the Oliver McGowan code of practice into account. If you depart from its guidance, you are expected to explain why.
If a registered provider has not followed the relevant guidance contained in the code then they will be expected to give good reasons to CQC on why they have departed from it and be able to demonstrate that it meets the requirement in a different way.
The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is the government’s preferred and recommended package to support registered providers to meet the legislative requirement.
The Tier 1 package of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is suitable for staff who require a general awareness of people with a learning disability and autistic people and the support they need. The Tier 2 package of the training is suitable for all other staff
The tier definitions point to Tier 2 for staff who provide care and support, and Tier 1 for general awareness. The code’s own example for local authority regulated social care says staff with public contact are “likely to need tier 2 capabilities” and a person working in finance “may only need tier 1 capabilities” (Annex A, example 1). The words are “likely” and “may”: the provider decides, and the code expects it to assess skills for all staff.
This is the one place a source states a refresher interval for its own subject:
Registered providers are responsible for ensuring that their staff undertake training on learning disability and autism at least every 3 years or more regularly if a member of staff requires it.
4. The Care Certificate
The Care Certificate is a set of 15 introductory standards for care workers who are not registered professionals. It is a framework, jointly owned by Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health. It is not a legal requirement in the sense that regulation 18 does not name it.
The Care Certificate is an identified set of standards that health and social care workers adhere to in their daily working life.
The 15 standards are: understand your role; your personal development; duty of care; equality and diversity; work in a person centred way; communication; privacy and dignity; fluids and nutrition; awareness of mental health, dementia and learning disability; safeguarding adults; safeguarding children; basic life support; health and safety; handling information; infection prevention and control.
CQC’s link is in its guidance on regulation 19, the fit and proper persons rule, about assessing whether a new worker is competent. See also recruitment checks for care workers.
It is expected that providers that employ healthcare assistants and social care support workers should follow the Care Certificate standards to assess their competence.
So: expected, not written into the Regulations. If you choose a different induction, be ready to show how it assesses the same ground.
5. What Skills for Care lists, and its caveat
Skills for Care publishes a guide for adult social care employers. It draws the line between the two words:
Statutory training: This training is usually required by law or where a statutory body has instructed an organisation to provide training based on specific legislation (i.e. the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999).
Part 1 is a table of topics: health and safety awareness, fire safety, moving and handling objects, infection prevention and control, adult safeguarding, basic life support and first aid, assisting and moving people, child safeguarding, learning disability and autism awareness, food hygiene and medication administration. The table does not label each row statutory or mandatory. Several rows are gated by duty: the guide asks, for example, whether the worker has responsibilities to support people with medication, and “If yes, training is required.”
The column headed “Recommended refresher frequency considerations” gives these. They are Skills for Care’s recommendations, not law:
The same wording is given for fire safety, moving and handling objects, infection prevention and control and adult safeguarding. For basic life support and first aid, the guide says:
Formal basic life support training is required when identified or at least annually. Formal first aid training is required to be refreshed on a three yearly basis.
Food hygiene is “Refreshed every three years” where the worker handles or prepares food. For learning disability and autism, the guide sends you to the Oliver McGowan code. Medicines are tied to your own review and to a competency check. If you manage medicines, see managing medicines in home care.
The caveat in the guide
Part 2 of the guide covers everything else. Here the guide is plain that the decision is yours:
There are no refresher periods advised for additional training, this is the employer’s responsibility to ascertain based on the needs of the service and people who access care and support services.
Its list of additional topics, such as communication needs, nutrition and hydration, positive behavioural support, end of life care, dementia, mental capacity and data protection, is headed “Examples only, not exhaustive”. We have not repeated every item. We treat these as good practice unless a commissioner’s contract, or your own risk assessment, makes them mandatory for a role.
6. Induction, supervision and competence records
Training that is not recorded is hard to prove. CQC’s guidance says:
All learning and development and required training completed should be monitored and appropriate action taken quickly when training requirements are not being met.
Skills for Care adds the competence side. A certificate shows a person attended; a competency check shows what they do:
Employers also have the responsibility to check and evidence that workers are competent to carry out their role on an ongoing basis, which also forms one part of the formal supervision process.
The guide also states one fixed figure for practice: “Practice fire drills should be held yearly as a minimum.” For what CQC asks about staff when it assesses a service, see the single assessment framework explained. Training also feeds your reporting: see what to report to CQC and when.
7. Topic, who, source
| Topic | Who | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Induction programme that prepares staff for their role | Providers, for all staff (a duty) | CQC guidance on reg. 18(2)(a) |
| Training needs set at the start and reviewed at appropriate intervals | Each staff member | CQC guidance on reg. 18(2)(a) |
| Supervision until competent; ongoing supervision | New staff; all staff | CQC guidance on reg. 18(2)(a) |
| Regular appraisal | All staff | CQC guidance on reg. 18(2)(a) |
| Learning disability and autism training, appropriate to role | Each person working in a regulated activity | Health and Care Act 2022 s.181; reg. 18 |
| Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, Tier 1 or Tier 2; at least every 3 years | All health and care staff (government expectation); tier by role | Oliver McGowan code of practice |
| Care Certificate standards (15) | Healthcare assistants and social care support workers (expected); not registered professionals | CQC guidance on reg. 19; Care Certificate Standards |
| Health and safety, fire safety, moving and handling objects, infection prevention and control, adult safeguarding; minimum refresher 3 years | All workers (Part 1); refresher is a recommendation | Skills for Care guide, Part 1 |
| Basic life support (at least annually when identified); first aid (3 yearly) | As the employer determines | Skills for Care guide, Part 1 |
| Medication administration; assisting and moving people; food hygiene (3 yearly) | Only workers with those responsibilities (“If yes, training is required”) | Skills for Care guide, Part 1 |
| Competency checks; practice fire drills yearly as a minimum | Workers doing key tasks | Skills for Care guide, Checking competency |
| Additional training (communication, dementia, end of life and so on); no refresher period advised | As the service and commissioners require | Skills for Care guide, Part 2 |
How MyCareGuard handles this
MyCareGuard gives each staff member a training list matched to their role, as short knowledge checks on the policies you have adopted. Staff take them on their own phone from a text-message link, with no password. You see a live training matrix of who has done what and what is overdue. You can also import certificates your staff already hold from a CSV, and record the completion and expiry dates; rows the import cannot match are reported rather than guessed. These are internal awareness checks. They do not replace basic life support, paediatric first aid or Oliver McGowan training, and the record is only as complete as the dates you enter.
Questions people ask
Does the law say which courses every care worker must take?
Not by name. Regulation 18(2)(a) says staff must “receive such appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal as is necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform”. The provider decides what is necessary for each role. The one subject the law names is learning disability and autism training (Health and Care Act 2022, section 181).
Is the Care Certificate a legal requirement?
The Regulations capture does not mention it. CQC’s guidance on regulation 19 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.” That is an expectation in guidance, not a rule written into the Regulations.
Do all our staff need the Oliver McGowan training?
The code of practice says: “It is the government’s expectation that all health and care staff will undertake one of the 2 tiers of the training package, whichever tier being most appropriate to their role.” Tier 1 is for general awareness, Tier 2 for staff with responsibility for providing care and support. The Oliver McGowan package is the government’s preferred and recommended package; the legal duty is training that meets the code’s standards, appropriate to the role.
How often must training be refreshed?
The Regulations give no interval. Two documents do. The Oliver McGowan code says providers are responsible for training on learning disability and autism “at least every 3 years or more regularly if a member of staff requires it”. Skills for Care gives recommended refresher considerations for its Part 1 topics, such as a minimum of three years for health and safety, fire safety, and infection prevention and control, and “at least annually” for formal basic life support. For additional training it says: “There are no refresher periods advised for additional training”.
Can CQC prosecute us for missing training?
CQC’s regulation 18 guidance says: “CQC cannot prosecute for a breach of this regulation or any of its parts, but we can take regulatory action.” The code of practice adds that CQC may use its enforcement powers where a registered provider is not meeting its legal obligations, and will look at whether the provider can demonstrate regard to the code.
What records should we keep?
CQC’s guidance says: “All learning and development and required training completed should be monitored and appropriate action taken quickly when training requirements are not being met.” Skills for Care says employers should check and evidence that workers are competent on an ongoing basis, and document the timescales for competency checks in training and development policies.
Sources
- The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2936), regulation 18legislation.gov.uk; capture headed "Document Generated: 2023-04-24"; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- CQC, Regulations for service providers and managers: guidance on regulations 18 and 19CQC guidance providers must have regard to; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- The Care Certificate StandardsHealth Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- Health and Care Act 2022, section 181: Mandatory training on learning disability and autismlegislation.gov.uk; in force 1 July 2022; no known outstanding effects; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- The Oliver McGowan code of practice on statutory learning disability and autism trainingDepartment of Health and Social Care, Crown copyright 2025 (E03383362 06/25); retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- Statutory and mandatory training guide for adult social care employersSkills for Care, December 2025; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
MyCareGuard is software, not a legal adviser or a CQC inspector; it does not give legal advice. This page describes what the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, the CQC’s published guidance and the other named documents say, with the paragraph for each point, so you can read the source yourself. Versions and dates are those in force on the date shown; the documents change, so check the current version before you rely on any of it.
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