Mandatory Training for Care Home Staff — What Is Required

Updated May 2026 — Covers Skills for Care core and mandatory training guidance

There is no single definitive statutory list of mandatory training for care home staff. The legal framework places duties on registered providers to ensure staff are competent and appropriately trained — which subjects are required is then determined by the role, the care setting, and the needs of people being supported. In practice, Skills for Care's guidance and CQC's inspection framework have established a widely accepted set of subjects that are treated as mandatory across the sector.

Core mandatory training subjects

The following subjects are generally treated as mandatory for all care home staff with direct contact with residents:

Subject	Typical renewal
Moving and handling / manual handling	Annually
Fire safety	Annually
Safeguarding adults	Annually or every 2–3 years depending on level
Infection prevention and control	Annually
Food hygiene (where relevant)	Every 3 years
First aid / emergency first aid	Every 3 years
Mental Capacity Act / Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards	Annually or every 2 years
Equality, diversity and human rights	Every 2–3 years
Health and safety awareness	Annually
Data protection / GDPR awareness	Every 2 years

Renewal frequencies vary by provider, local authority commissioning requirements, and individual care home policy. The frequencies above are commonly accepted across the sector. Where a commissioner or contract specifies a different frequency, that requirement takes precedence.

Role-specific additional training

Beyond the core subjects, additional mandatory training applies to specific roles:

Medication administration — for staff authorised to administer medication; typically annual competency assessment in addition to initial training
Dementia awareness — expected for all staff in dementia care settings; some commissioners require specific qualification levels
PEG feeding / specialist nutrition — for staff supporting residents with PEG tubes or complex nutritional needs
Epilepsy management and rescue medication — where residents have epilepsy; buccal midazolam administration requires specific trained competence
End of life care — increasingly expected in residential care settings

The Care Certificate

The Care Certificate is a set of 15 standards that new care workers should complete before or shortly after starting work. It is not a qualification — it is an induction framework that covers the values, knowledge, and behaviours expected of care workers. It does not replace mandatory training in specific subjects; it sits alongside it.

CQC expects registered providers to be able to demonstrate that new starters have completed the Care Certificate, with evidence of how each standard was assessed.

Track mandatory training renewal across your whole team

WorkerRecord maintains a training compliance record for every staff member — showing which subjects are current, which are coming up for renewal, and which have lapsed. When your training coordinator is off sick and CQC arrive, the matrix is still there.

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Mandatory Training for Care Home Staff — What Is Required

Core mandatory training subjects

Role-specific additional training

The Care Certificate

Track mandatory training renewal across your whole team

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