CQC training requirements for domiciliary care in England

The regulations the Care Quality Commission (CQC) enforces contain no list of training topics for domiciliary care. Regulation 18(2)(a) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires that your staff receive the "appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal" their duties need, and Regulations 12 and 13 require competent staff, safe medicines management and working systems against abuse¹²³. Legislation reads one training topic into Regulation 18: learning disability and autism, from 1 July 2022⁴. CQC looks at training under quality statements that include "Safe and effective staffing"⁵.

This page covers homecare agencies in England, as checked on 9 October 2026. For the topic by topic list, see mandatory training for care workers in the UK.

What do the regulations CQC enforces say about staff training?

3 regulations carry your agency's training duty. None of them sets a refresher interval, and the only training topic read into Regulation 18 is learning disability and autism⁴.

Persons employed by the service provider in the provision of a regulated activity 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, regulation 18(2)(a)¹

Regulation 12(2)(c) requires that the people providing care "have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience to do so safely", and 12(2)(g) covers "the proper and safe management of medicines"². Regulation 13(2) requires systems and processes "established and operated effectively to prevent abuse of service users"³.

Section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022 adds the one named topic: each person working for a registered provider's regulated activities must receive training on learning disability and autism "which is appropriate to the person's role". Until the first regulations made under it come into force, the 2014 Regulations are read "as if regulation 18 of the 2014 regulations contained such requirements"⁴.

Providers "must have regard to" CQC's guidance on each regulation⁶. The Regulation 13 guidance says your staff "must receive safeguarding training that is relevant, and at a suitable level for their role" at induction, with training "updated at appropriate intervals"; the regulation text does not³.

CQC says it "cannot prosecute for a breach" of Regulation 18, though it can take regulatory action, and its guidance says it must refuse registration to a provider that cannot satisfy CQC that it will comply with Regulation 18⁶. A breach of Regulation 12, or of Regulation 13(1) to 13(4), can be prosecuted where it results in avoidable harm or a significant risk of harm, and CQC does "not have to serve a Warning Notice before prosecution"²³.

What is law, what is CQC guidance and what is sector guidance?

A "CQC mandatory training" list can mix law, CQC guidance and sector guidance. In the table, "Other guidance" means Skills for Care, its Care Certificate partners or HSE, not CQC.

CQC's Regulation 18 guidance lists what staff should be supported to take part in: "Statutory training", "Other mandatory training, as defined by the provider for their role", additional training the work needs, and other learning and development, which includes first aid training in adult social care⁶. The second item is yours to write. Skills for Care says its guide was "updated in-line with CQC's revised inspection framework"; no CQC page read for this guide adopts its list¹¹.

Is the Care Certificate a CQC requirement?

None of Regulations 12, 13 and 18 names the Care Certificate. A CQC news story dated 24 March 2015, ahead of the Care Certificate's launch, said: "We expect that providers who employ health care support workers and adult social care workers should be able to demonstrate that those staff have, or are working towards, the skills set out in the Care Certificate"¹³.

That news story would not load on cqc.org.uk on 9 October 2026, and CQC's linked page on its position returned "Sorry, that page isn't available"; the quote comes from an archived copy of 4 August 2024, which shows the page last updated on 12 May 2022¹³. Nothing read for this guide shows whether CQC still states that expectation in those words.

The 2025 Care Certificate FAQ, asked whether CQC regulated providers are "expected to cover the Care Certificate Standards", quotes Regulation 18(2)(a) and says employers "can use the Care Certificate standards as a framework" to help them achieve it¹⁰. Skills for Care's recommended routes say the 16 standards, set out in the Care Certificate standards list, "should be covered if you are 'new to care'"⁹. The Care Certificate standards do not replace your statutory and mandatory training¹⁰.

For a homecare agency, the FAQ adds the line that changes your rota: providers "are expected to assess the competence of the new support worker before they start delivering care out of line of sight of a more experienced colleague"¹⁰.

What is different about training for homecare staff?

Many of your care workers work alone, in someone else's home, with that person's medicines and equipment. 5 things follow.

Lone working. HSE says "It's harder for lone workers to get help, so they may need extra training", particularly "where there is limited supervision" and for unexpected situations "such as those involving violence"¹². HSE also says employers should limit what can be done alone, and calls it a good idea to supervise a new worker at first if they are being trained, doing a job with specific risks or dealing with new situations¹².

Moving and handling in the person's home. HSE says handling training should cover "systems of work relevant to the worker's tasks and environment" and include practical work "so the trainer can identify anything the trainee is not doing safely"¹⁴. Skills for Care says fire safety training should be relevant to the care environment, naming "a person's own home", and infection prevention training likewise¹¹.

Skills for Care names assisting and moving among the key tasks for formal competency checks, which are observations of practice, and leaves the timescales to the employer¹¹. No source read says how to prove handling competence in each client's home; that judgment is yours.

Medicines support. CQC's page for home care providers describes 3 kinds of support: prompting or reminding people to take their medicines, helping them remove medicines from packaging, and administering some or all of them⁸. CQC's page expects your workers to "have the necessary knowledge and skills", which "should be updated annually", with competency assessments "which include being observed"⁸. Specialized administration is left to "the home care agency's policy or commissioner's guidance"⁸.

That page, last updated 3 November 2022, sets out key points from NICE guideline NG67. It is the only CQC page read for this guide that puts an annual interval on any homecare training topic, and CQC pages not read may say more.

Learning disability and autism. The Oliver McGowan code of practice says that in a domiciliary care agency "all staff who have contact with the public are likely to need tier 2 capabilities"¹⁵. Tier 2 means at least 90 minutes of elearning plus at least 1 day of training in person, trainers and trainees both, retaken "at least every 3 years"¹⁵. To check which of your other topics can move online, see online or face to face care training in England.

Supervision after sign off. The Care Certificate assessor guide says supervisors "will check and re-check periodically" with techniques that depend on the care setting, giving "unannounced visits and spot checks" as examples, and that "no support worker should be working totally unsupervised"¹⁶.

Does training time count as paid working time?

For your care workers paid by the hour, yes, for minimum wage purposes. GOV.UK's minimum wage guidance counts "time spent training" as working time, and counts travel "from one work assignment to another", with the example of "a care worker driving from one client to another between appointments"¹⁷.

Health and safety training has its own rule: regulation 13(3)(c) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 says it shall "take place during working hours"⁷.

If a worker goes from a morning call straight to a training venue, that journey is working time; the journey from home to the venue usually is not¹⁷.

What do CQC inspectors look at under the single assessment framework?

2 quality statements read for this guide speak to staff training directly. Under Safe, "Safe and effective staffing" expects that "Staff receive training appropriate and relevant to their role", lists "Learning, development and competency" among its subtopics, and names Regulations 12, 18 and 19 as related⁵.

Under Well-led, "Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders" expects that leaders "can access appropriate support and development in their role", lists "Leadership competency, support and development" as a subtopic, and names Regulation 7, on registered managers, among the related regulations¹⁸. Your own development as the registered manager is likely in scope too.

CQC sorts evidence into 6 categories: people's experience, feedback from staff and leaders, feedback from partners, observation, processes and outcomes¹⁹. Staff feedback includes "individual interviews or focus groups with staff"; processes evidence includes "results from audits a provider has developed"¹⁹. CQC calls its sector lists of categories "a guide, not a checklist"¹⁹.

CQC's observation page says most observation will be carried out "on the premises" and "All observation is carried out on site"¹⁹. That page does not say what "on site" means for care your workers give in people's own homes, and the sector lists that map categories to each quality statement were not read for this guide.

For learning disability and autism, the Oliver McGowan code says providers "must be prepared to demonstrate to CQC how their chosen approach meets the code", and should record completion in their "existing staff record management systems"¹⁵.

How to do it yourself

You need 2 things: a training matrix (1 row per worker, 1 column per topic, a completion date and a due date in each cell) and an evidence file that shows competence, not only attendance. Free tools: a spreadsheet, the Skills for Care guide, the Care Certificate FAQ, CQC's home care medicines page and HSE's lone working guidance^1110812.

1. Map each role to what it touches: personal care, moving people, medicines support (prompting, help with packaging, or administering), food, visits alone, contact with the public. Those answers decide the role dependent Skills for Care topics, the depth of medicines training and the learning disability and autism tier¹¹⁸¹⁵.
2. Record a training needs assessment for every starter. CQC's Regulation 18 guidance expects needs to be assessed "at the start of employment and reviewed at appropriate intervals"⁶. Plan the Care Certificate standards for anyone new to care⁹; for an experienced worker, the FAQ says employers "should ensure that any skills and knowledge are current"¹⁰.
3. Write the columns and the intervals into your training policy. Take the topics from Skills for Care, add an annual medicines update, set learning disability and autism at least every 3 years, and justify every other interval¹¹⁸¹⁵. Skills for Care recommends that training and development requirements are "accurately documented in relevant policies"¹¹.
4. Plan the observed checks next to the courses: medicines competency "being observed", practical moving and handling, and the competence assessment the FAQ expects before a worker new to care starts "delivering care out of line of sight of a more experienced colleague"⁸¹⁴¹⁰.
5. Set your lone working rules. Write down what a care worker may not do alone and how they check in; HSE describes "pre-agreed intervals of regular contact" and a system to confirm a lone worker has finished¹².
6. Book learning disability and autism training by tier, and put the tier 2 day on the rota as paid time¹⁵¹⁷.
7. Keep an evidence file for each worker: needs assessment, induction records, competency checks, supervision notes, certificates. The assessor guide lists "observation/supervision/competency check records" and "witness testimonies from others" as evidence toward the Care Certificate standards¹⁶.
8. Run a gap check every month and record what you did about each gap; CQC's Regulation 18 guidance asks for "appropriate action taken quickly when training requirements are not being met"⁶.

The tier 2 time comes from the Oliver McGowan code¹⁵. The rest are working estimates for a small agency, not CQC or Skills for Care figures.

The 4 mistakes that cost the most

1. Certificates with nothing observed behind them. The assessor guide says certificates of attendance and elearning "without summative assessment" are not evidence toward the Care Certificate, and CQC's home care page expects medicines competency assessments "which include being observed"¹⁶⁸.
2. A first solo call before the competence assessment. The FAQ expects a new support worker's competence to be assessed before they start delivering care "out of line of sight of a more experienced colleague"¹⁰. Its rule on the full certificate is separate: it "should not be signed off until the new support worker has completed all 16 of the standards"¹⁰.
3. Medicines knowledge older than a year. CQC's home care page says it "should be updated annually"; Skills for Care's medication row says training needs and competency should be reviewed if a worker "has not undertaken additional training within a year"⁸¹¹.
4. Unpaid training and travel. For hourly paid workers, training time and travel between clients count as working time for the minimum wage¹⁷.

Questions people also ask

Does the CQC have a mandatory training list for home care? Not as one list. Regulation 18(2)(a) requires the training each person needs for their duties, and CQC's guidance leaves "Other mandatory training" to be "defined by the provider for their role", though it names some topics, such as first aid training in adult social care and safeguarding training at induction¹⁶³.

Is the Care Certificate mandatory for domiciliary care workers? None of Regulations 12, 13 and 18 names it. The 2025 FAQ calls the standards "a recommended tool" and says employers "can use the Care Certificate standards as a framework" to help meet Regulation 18(2)(a), and Skills for Care says the 16 standards "should be covered" for staff new to care¹⁰⁹.

How often do home care workers need medication training? CQC's home care medicines page says your workers' knowledge and skills "should be updated annually", with observed competency assessments. That is guidance, not text in the Regulations, and no other CQC page read for this guide sets an interval⁸.

Is Oliver McGowan training a legal requirement? The legal duty is learning disability and autism training appropriate to each person's role, under section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022⁴. NHS England calls The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training "the preferred and recommended training for health and social care staff"²⁰, and CQC's "Safe and effective staffing" statement lists it under best practice guidance that CQC expects providers to be aware of and follow⁵.