How we’re simplifying statutory and mandatory training guidance

The ‘Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care’ aimed to make the information around training and developing social care staff simpler and clearer.

The Workforce Strategy, which launched in July, aims to address the current and future challenges of the social care sector by putting forward recommendations on how we can better recruit, retain and train staff, in addition to advocating for transformational and legislative change.

A significant part of the Strategy focuses on what the current social care career pathway looks like, what training solutions are available to the sector and how they are performing and what statutory and mandatory training is required to work in certain roles. It also considers how clear the guidance and advice that’s available to staff is around these topics, as making sure guidance is accessible is crucial if we want people to be properly trained and informed.

To ensure clarity around statutory and mandatory training, the Strategy recommends that Skills for Care should review and streamline the current guidance around this topic, and we wanted to update you on how we’ve done this.

The new ‘’ has replaced the old ‘Core and mandatory training guidance’ document. It has been designed to make it clearer for employers and managers to understand which training is essential, either statutory (required by law) or mandatory (compulsory and determined by regulations or standards).

It has also been designed to prevent the over-duplication and unnecessary repetition of training for workers. This should help to save time, money and reduce the burden on workers. We recommend that employers and managers use this advantage to review existing statutory and mandatory training and explore new and innovative training opportunities that will benefit workers, people drawing on care and the service.

Part one of the new guidance highlights training required by all workers and training that may be required depending on the workers roles and responsibilities. It also outlines the requirement to check worker competency and explains how this aligns with validating existing learning and if the worker requires further support in their role.

Part two focuses on additional training defined by the employer based on the needs of the service and people who draw on care and support. This will also include any training required in contracts by commissioners. In settings which are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), it continues to be the providers legal responsibility to identify and provide the appropriate additional training.

There is also some guidance to support with identifying and planning training and it draws connections to the Care Workforce Pathway.

New to this guidance is recognition of when a worker has completed a recognised adult social care qualification. If the qualification has included the topic in question, the worker does not need to refresh the training for another three years from completion. This is to minimise duplication of learning updates where possible.

We’re very pleased to be progressing with the priorities of the Workforce Strategy at this early stage. We’re hopeful that other organisations will continue to offer their support by working with us to develop and adopt further recommendations in the future.

For more information on training and development, check out our new statutory and mandatory training page or our guide on developing your staff.

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