Training for Care Homes: What CQC Expects

What Does CQC Expect From Care Home Training?

CQC doesn’t publish a list of courses that every care home must run. What it does is hold you to a regulation, and then look for evidence that your staff can actually do their jobs safely.

That regulation is Regulation 18: Staffing of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. It has two parts that matter for training:

1. Regulation 18(1): you must deploy sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced people.
2. Regulation 18(2): the people you employ 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”. They must also be enabled, where appropriate, to gain further qualifications, and registered professionals such as nurses must be supported to show their regulator they still meet its standards.

Two other regulations sit alongside it. Regulation 17 (good governance) requires you to keep the records necessary in relation to the people you employ, which is where your training records come in. Regulation 7 sets the standard for the registered manager, which we come back to below.

CQC says it cannot prosecute for a breach of Regulation 18, but it can take regulatory action, and it must refuse registration to a provider that can’t show it will comply. So training isn’t a box you tick once. It is a condition of being allowed to run the service.

If you want help putting this into practice, our care sector training covers both sides: the compliance topics and the teamwork and leadership that inspectors see when they walk round.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Are Different

CQC is the regulator of health and adult social care in England. The rest of the UK has its own regulators and rules: the Care Inspectorate in Scotland (set up under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010), Care Inspectorate Wales under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016, and the RQIA in Northern Ireland. Their standards and inspection methods differ, so check your own regulator’s requirements. Everything below is about England.

What CQC’s Guidance on Regulation 18 Actually Asks For

CQC’s guidance on Regulation 18(2)(a) is where the detail lives. Providers must have regard to it, and it reads like a checklist for a training system. In summary, CQC expects that:

• there is an induction programme that prepares staff for their role;
• each person’s training, learning and development needs are assessed at the start of employment and reviewed at appropriate intervals;
• staff are supervised until they can show they are competent to work unsupervised, then receive ongoing or periodic supervision so competence is maintained;
• all staff are trained in how to interact appropriately with people with a learning disability and autistic people, at a level appropriate to their role;
• staff can take part in statutory training, other mandatory training as defined by the provider for their role, and any additional training needed to meet the needs of the people they support;
• learning and development includes first aid training for people working in adult social care;
• completed training is monitored, and action is taken quickly when training requirements are not being met;
• staff receive regular appraisal from an appropriately skilled and experienced person, with development needs identified, planned for and supported.

Notice how much of that is management rather than courses. Assessing needs, supervising and acting quickly on gaps are jobs for the registered manager and seniors, every week.

Statutory vs Mandatory Training: What’s the Difference?

Skills for Care’s statutory and mandatory training guide (December 2025) defines the two terms:

• Statutory training is usually required by law, or where a statutory body has instructed an organisation to provide training based on specific legislation, such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
• Mandatory training is compulsory training that the organisation or its commissioners decide is essential for the safe and efficient delivery of services, to reduce risk and comply with policies and guidance such as Regulation 18.

Most homes treat “stat and mand” as one bundle, and that’s fine. But the mandatory part is yours to define, so your training policy should explain what you chose and why.

What Mandatory Training Do Care Workers Need?

Skills for Care splits its guide into two parts. Part 1 is training needed by all workers, plus topics that depend on the worker’s role. Part 2 is additional training you set yourself, based on your service and the people you support.

Here is Part 1, with the refresher guidance Skills for Care gives for each topic:

Topic	Who needs it	Refresher guidance (Skills for Care)
Health and safety awareness (including risk assessment and hazardous substances)	All workers	Minimum refresher period three years, or sooner when a new risk or activity is introduced
Fire safety awareness	All workers	Minimum refresher period three years; fire drills at least yearly
Moving and handling objects	All workers	Minimum refresher period three years
Infection prevention and control	All workers	Minimum refresher period three years
Adult safeguarding	All workers	Minimum refresher period three years, or when people’s needs change
Child safeguarding	All workers (Care Certificate standard 11)	At least every three years if the worker hasn’t achieved the Care Certificate standards or a recognised qualification in that time
Basic life support and first aid	All workers; you decide how many need formal first aid training and to what level	Formal basic life support at least annually; formal first aid every three years
Learning disability and autism awareness	All workers, at a level appropriate to their role	Refer to the Oliver McGowan Code of Practice
Assisting and moving people	Workers who help people move	At least every three years, or when needs, risks or equipment change
Medication administration	Workers who support people with medication	Review training needs and competence if no further training within a year
Food hygiene	Workers who handle or prepare food, or support people with it	Every three years

One useful detail: for the three-year topics, if a worker has completed a recognised adult social care qualification covering the topic within that time, Skills for Care says they don’t need to refresh for another three years from completion. That saves people sitting the same course twice.

Two of these topics have their own guides on this site. Moving and handling objects is covered in What Is Manual Handling?, and the hazardous substances part of health and safety (cleaning products, disinfectants, clinical waste) in What Is COSHH?. Fire safety training and drills are covered in Fire Marshal and Fire Warden Duties. Moving and handling people is a different, practical skill: it needs hands-on training with your own equipment.

Part 2: Training You Decide

Part 2 is where your service’s own needs come in. Skills for Care’s examples include dementia, end of life care, mental capacity, positive behavioural support, oral healthcare, nutrition and hydration, communication needs, and data protection. It sets no refresher periods for these: that is your responsibility. Its test questions are good ones. Is there a new risk? Have people’s needs changed? Has the team changed a lot? Is the worker still competent?

The guide also asks employers to check competence, not just completion. Formal checks are observations of people doing key tasks, such as assisting and moving or giving medication. Informal ones include a quiz in a team meeting or a practice discussion in supervision. You set how often, and you write it in your training policy.

Where Does the Care Certificate Fit In?

The Care Certificate standards define the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of people new to health and social care. They were updated in March 2025 and there are now 16 standards, after a new one on awareness of learning disability and autism was added:

1. Understand your role
2. Your personal development
3. Duty of care
4. Equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights
5. Work in a person-centred way
6. Communication
7. Privacy and dignity
8. Fluids and nutrition
9. Awareness of mental health and dementia
10. Adult safeguarding
11. Safeguarding children
12. Basic life support
13. Health and safety
14. Handling information
15. Infection prevention and control
16. Awareness of learning disability and autism

A few points that trip homes up, all from the official questions and answers published by NHS England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health:

• It isn’t only knowledge. Workers must show competence in all 16 standards, and most of the performance evidence must be observed during real work, not in a classroom.
• It doesn’t replace induction or stat and mand. You still need your statutory and mandatory training and an induction specific to your home, such as your fire procedure and how to report accidents.
• It applies to agency and bank staff too. CQC-regulated providers must assess the training needs of all staff new to the organisation.
• It is portable. Someone who already has it shouldn’t need to retake it when they move jobs, although you can check their learning is current.

The Care Certificate is not a legal requirement in itself. But CQC’s guidance for new providers says a care home’s staff training plan should identify how it will meet the Care Certificate standards, so for practical purposes it is expected.

The Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate

Since 2025 there is also an accredited, Ofqual-regulated Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification. It is based on the same 16 standards but goes deeper, needs observational assessment, and Skills for Care expects a new learner to take around six to eight months to complete it. It is optional, but it gives carers a recognised qualification, and it can be funded (see below).

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism

Section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022 added a requirement that every CQC-registered service provider must make sure each person working for them receives training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. It applies to every registered service, not just specialist ones.

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is the government’s preferred and recommended training to meet that duty. It comes in two tiers. Each tier starts with an e-learning module, followed by an online interactive session (Tier 1) or a face-to-face session (Tier 2), and all of it includes delivery by people with lived experience of a learning disability or of being autistic. Both parts can be recorded in Skills for Care’s Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS).

The Oliver McGowan Code of Practice sets out how providers can meet the legal requirement. It became final on 6 September 2025. If you haven’t yet decided which tier each role needs, start there.

What Does a CQC Inspection Look At?

CQC’s assessment framework is built on five key questions: is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Under each sits a set of quality statements, written as “we statements” that describe what good care looks like.

Training shows up most clearly under Safe, in the quality statement “Safe and effective staffing”:

We make sure there are enough qualified, skilled and experienced people, who receive effective support, supervision and development. They work together effectively to provide safe care that meets people’s individual needs.

CQC says this means, among other things, that staff receive training appropriate and relevant to their role, get supervision, appraisal and support to develop, and that poor performance is managed appropriately. The related regulations are 12, 18 and 19. Under Well-led, statements such as “Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders”, “Learning, improvement and innovation” and “Governance, management and sustainability” cover how leaders support staff and use information to improve.

How Inspectors Gather Evidence

CQC groups its evidence into six categories: people’s experience, feedback from staff and leaders, feedback from partners, observation, processes and outcomes. On site, its guidance says inspectors spend their time observing care and how staff interact with people, observing the environment, and talking with people using the service, staff and leaders. CQC also collects an annual provider information request (PIR) from adult social care services, uses data from national sources including Skills for Care, and can visit without notice in response to a concern.

One line in CQC’s guidance is worth knowing: it does not want providers to prepare specific documents, and asks for information you already have. Your training records should be part of running the home, not a folder built the week before.

CQC’s Framework Is Changing

CQC is replacing its single framework with sector-specific ones. Its March 2026 update set out four draft frameworks, including one for adult social care. The five key questions stay, but key lines of enquiry, framed as questions, will replace the current quality statements, and rating characteristics will describe what outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate care look like. CQC also plans to stop scoring and rate directly at key question level.

CQC piloted the draft frameworks with volunteer providers from June to October 2026, with final evaluation in November 2026, alongside its normal inspections. Until CQC confirms the new framework and a start date, the current quality statements still apply. To confirm: Check cqc.org.uk for the final adult social care framework and its start date, then update this section. None of this changes Regulation 18, which is the law your training has to meet either way.

The Evidence Inspectors Look For on Training

Put CQC’s guidance together and the training evidence a care home needs is fairly clear. You should be able to show:

• who needs what: a training plan or policy that sets out induction, statutory and mandatory training, role-specific and specialist training, and how often each is refreshed;
• who has done what, and when it’s due: a training matrix kept up to date, with certificates or records behind it;
• that people can do it: competency checks for key tasks, such as medication and assisting and moving people;
• that people are supported: supervision and appraisal records, with actions followed through;
• that gaps are spotted and closed: what you did when someone’s training lapsed or a new risk appeared.

A training matrix is the simplest way to see all of that on one page. It also makes the “monitor and act quickly” part of CQC’s guidance realistic: you can’t act on a gap you can’t see. Our free Care Home Training Matrix, below this article, sets out the Skills for Care topics with a supervision and appraisal log.

Records aren’t the whole story. Inspectors talk to staff, and a carer who can explain what they’d do if they suspected abuse is better evidence than any certificate.

Supervision and Appraisal: The Part That Gets Squeezed

Regulation 18 names supervision and appraisal alongside training, and CQC’s quality statement puts them in the same sentence. Yet on a short-staffed week, supervision is often the first thing to be cancelled.

Skills for Care’s Effective supervision guide (August 2025) describes supervision as a manager meeting regularly with staff to review their work and provide support. It sets out three functions:

1. Supportive: helping with challenges in the role, and monitoring health and wellbeing.
2. Line management: standards, policies, workload and performance.
3. Educational and developmental: spotting skills gaps, giving feedback and helping people apply what they’ve learnt.

The guide suggests more frequent supervision during induction, with direct supervision maintained until a new worker is assessed as safe to work independently. Its list of warning signs is uncomfortably familiar: sessions cancelled at short notice, held in open-plan offices, used mainly to pass on news, never written up. In a regulated service, it says, the registered manager is responsible and accountable to CQC for making sure effective supervision takes place.

Use appraisal to agree development needs and feed them into next year’s training plan.

Leadership and the Registered Manager

Every care home run by a company or partnership must have a registered manager. Regulation 7 says they must be of good character and have the necessary qualifications, competence, skills and experience to manage the service, and CQC’s guidance expects them to know the regulations and the consequences of not acting on them.

The registered manager is where training turns into practice. They decide the mandatory training, make sure supervision happens, and set the culture that inspectors pick up under Well-led. We cover the role in depth in The Registered Manager’s Guide to Developing Your Team.

Compliance training keeps a home safe. Teamwork, communication and leadership are what residents and families notice. You can read how one care home combined the two on our case studies page, in Nautilus Care Home’s own words.

Is There Funding for Care Home Training?

In England, yes, for some of it. The Department of Health and Social Care’s Learning and Development Support Scheme (LDSS) continues in 2026 to 2027. Skills for Care says:

• eligible adult social care employers in England can claim staff training costs for eligible courses and qualifications, including for deputy and registered managers;
• you need an up-to-date ASC-WDS account to claim;
• claims for courses must be made within three months of completion;
• the funding pot is limited, and once it runs out no further claims are paid;
• the Oliver McGowan training has its own ring-fenced LDSS pot;
• the Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate is eligible, subject to the scheme’s criteria and available funding.

The list of eligible courses and the employer guidance are on GOV.UK. Check it before you book, because not every course qualifies.

What to Do Next

This week, pick one of these and get it done:

1. Map your current training against the Skills for Care Part 1 topics, for every member of staff, including bank and night staff.
2. Find the gaps: anyone overdue, anyone who has never done Oliver McGowan training, anyone giving medication without a recent competency check.
3. Check your supervision diary. If sessions have been slipping, book the next round now and protect the time.
4. Write your refresher intervals into your training policy, so the matrix has a rule to measure against.
5. Look at the LDSS list before booking anything, so you claim what you’re entitled to.

If you’d like help with any of it, from the compliance topics to leadership for your seniors and registered manager, see our training for care homes and tell us about your team.