What are the mandatory courses for carers?
We get asked this by many of our clients, as they want to purchase the list of 'Mandatory Courses' for Social Care staff. This topic is causing a fair amount of confusion in the sector and so we hope this article will clarify the issue.
The simple answer is “There is no single list for mandatory courses which applies to every care provider”.
We do however still have some information that might help:
Training is defined as mandatory if it meets one or more of the following criteria:
-It is a statutory requirement.
-All staff across the organisation require the training.
-It is a CQC or local authority requirement.
Please note the guidance provided here is written for care providers in England.
Care providers in the rest of the UK should contact the equivalent bodies in your country.
What is Mandatory training?
Mandatory training is the training you are expected to provide for your staff following statutory requirements
such as the Health and Safety at Work Act, requirements of your local authority, and the requirements specified by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). All care organisations have a legal responsibility to provide staff with Health & Safety awareness training, including Fire Safety. Moving and Handling training is also mandatory and if staff are involved with preparing food or assisting at meal times then Food Safety and Hygiene training will also be mandatory.
The table below highlights the main subjects recognised as Mandatory.
Optional/additional mandatory training modules include: Food Hygiene/Safety, Complaints Handling, Lone Working Awareness, COSHH, RIDDOR, Awareness of Mental Health, Dementia & Learning Disability, Mental Capacity (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) (Soon to be replaced with Liberty Protection Safeguards) PMVA/MAPA (for those working in mental health settings) Documentation and Record Keeping among others depending on your clients' specific requirements or frameworks that you work with.
There is a difference between the courses that would be considered mandatory for your organisation and the courses you will need to provide in order to be able to issue a Care Certificate. To receive a Care Certificate, your staff member will need to train in and achieve minimum pass marks in ALL the 15 standards. For experienced care staff, this will mean updating their knowledge and experience with the new terminology and practices as appropriate. Any new recruits, who have never worked in social care before, will need to be trained in all 15 standards before you can award them a Care Certificate.
However, only those topics relating to your service provision included in the 15 Standards are MANDATORY for your organisation. Run a Training Needs Analysis to determine what these are, but if you are still not sure which training is required for your organisation, please contact Skills for Care and your local authority. They’ll be able to guide you through. More information is available from the CQC, Skills for Care and the HSE websites.
BVS offers a Mandatory Training bundle for both the Home Care and Care Home which includes training for all these subjects at a discounted price. Other than these, the courses considered mandatory for your organisation, will entirely depend on the care you provide and the person you support. There may also be additional requirements depending on your local authority.
We also offer all these courses as interactive video-based eLearning courses on our CareTutor platform here.
Click here to find our more about our mandatory Care Home bundle
Click here to find our more about our mandatory Home Care bundle
