CQC safeguarding training requirements for care staff

Regulation 13 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires systems that prevent abuse and investigate it immediately, but names no safeguarding course, level or refresher interval. CQC's guidance on Regulation 13 expects staff to receive safeguarding training at induction, "at a suitable level for their role", updated "at appropriate intervals". The levels and numbers you see quoted come from guidance, not law: Skills for Care recommends a refresher at least every 3 years, and the 2024 intercollegiate document sets out levels with suggested hours for each.

This page covers adult social care services in England registered with CQC, care homes and homecare, as checked on 9 October 2026. For every other topic on the list, see mandatory training for care workers in the UK.

What does Regulation 13 say about safeguarding training?

Nothing directly. The training lines sit in the guidance CQC publishes under Regulation 13.

(2) Systems and processes must be established and operated effectively to prevent abuse of service users.

(3) Systems and processes must be established and operated effectively to investigate, immediately upon becoming aware of, any allegation or evidence of such abuse.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, regulation 13(2) and (3)

Regulation 13 also bars unnecessary or disproportionate restraint, and depriving a person of their liberty for care "without lawful authority". CQC can prosecute a breach of 13(1) to 13(4) that results in avoidable harm or a significant risk of harm.

CQC calls its Regulation 13 guidance "the guidance providers must have regard to". Under 13(2), the guidance expects safeguarding training "that is relevant, and at a suitable level for their role" at induction, so staff can "recognise different types of abuse and the ways they can report concerns". Under 13(4)(b), CQC expects induction training on restraint and restrictive practices, kept up to date "at appropriate intervals".

The guidance also expects your staff to "know and understand the local safeguarding policy and procedures", including "timescales for action and the local arrangements for investigation".

Regulation 18(2)(a) adds the general duty to provide the training each person's duties need, covered in the guides to CQC training requirements for domiciliary care and for care homes.

How do the safeguarding levels work?

Which level does each role need?

Regulations 13 and 18 assign no level to a role.

The levels in the table come from the Second Edition of "Adult Safeguarding: Roles and Competencies for Health Care Staff", published by the Royal College of Nursing on 29 July 2024 to update the 2018 intercollegiate document. The document runs from level 1 to level 5 plus a board level; level 5 is for "designated professionals from health boards", a role the document places only within commissioning, integrated care systems and local health boards.

The document says training should be allocated "based on level of contact and involvement with the individuals they support", and staff "do not need to repeat training at a lower level": a level 2 worker completes levels 1 and 2, then refreshes at level 2 only.

Skills for Care's guide has no levels; it lists what to cover and notes "Required learning content may also be directed by commissioners", so check your local authority contract before you fix the syllabus.

Do the levels apply to care homes and homecare?

Not as law. The intercollegiate document says "The guidance is not statutory", and Regulation 13 does not mention the document. The statutory guidance names the intercollegiate document for "providers of healthcare", saying it "details the levels of training and competencies required for the different groups of staff in the organisations" (paragraph 14.209).

The document says it is "intended to have relevance to all health and social care staff", and its level 3 list names "care home managers", though most of its example roles are clinical, such as phlebotomists and dentists.

CQC's Safeguarding quality statement lists the document among the best practice guidance providers are expected "to be aware of and follow". The document also says providers can "deviate from the guidance" where those accountable in the organization agree, so if your levels differ, write down why and who agreed.

How often should safeguarding training be renewed?

Regulations 13 and 18 set no interval, and CQC's guidance asks only that training be updated "at appropriate intervals". Skills for Care recommends a minimum refresher period of 3 years for adult safeguarding, sooner when care needs change or a new risk or activity arrives. If one of your workers completed a recognized adult social care qualification covering the topic, they do not refresh for another 3 years from completion, and child safeguarding follows a similar rule.

The intercollegiate document counts suggested hours across 3 years and says "It is not expected that staff need to undertake the same training every 3 years". The document says competences "should be reviewed annually as part of staff appraisal", which is a review, not a yearly course; the only yearly training update in its level tables is for level 5, and no other source read for this page sets a yearly safeguarding course.

The Care and support statutory guidance says training should be "updated regularly", that "no staff group should be excluded", and that it "should be provided as a rolling programme".

What do care workers need to know to raise a concern?

Whom to tell, how fast, and what to write down. The duty to enquire belongs to the local authority.

Under section 42 of the Care Act 2014, where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult with care and support needs is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect and, because of those needs, cannot protect themselves, it must make, or cause to be made, whatever enquiries it thinks necessary. Abuse under section 42 includes financial abuse.

Your part starts sooner. In a regulated setting, the statutory guidance says "The first responsibility to act must be with the employing organisation", and an employer aware of abuse or neglect is "under a duty to correct this" and to inform the local authority and CQC.

In the guidance's own wording, employers "must ensure that staff, including volunteers, are trained in recognising the symptoms of abuse or neglect, how to respond and where to go for advice and assistance", and concerns "must be reported whatever the source of harm is". That is guidance, not the Act.

Care Certificate standard 10 assesses your new workers on what to do if abuse of an adult is suspected and on "the actions to take if they experience barriers in alerting or referring to relevant agencies". Skills for Care's summary of the 2025 update says some content, language and terminology in standard 10 changed to reflect the Care Act 2014.

The statutory guidance also says your adult safeguarding procedures may include a full list of points of referral for support and advice "at all times, whether in normal working hours or outside them". A night care worker who only knows the office number has half a procedure.

Do you need a lead or child safeguarding training?

Do you need a named safeguarding lead?

No regulation read for this page names a safeguarding lead. CQC's guidance asks for "overall responsibility held at board level or equivalent" without saying who that is if your service has no board. The statutory guidance says "All voluntary organisations that work with adults need to have safeguarding procedures and lead officers", that other agencies "should also consider the benefits of having a lead for adult safeguarding", and that "All providers of healthcare should have in place named professionals".

If you appoint a lead, the intercollegiate document describes level 4: a clinician, registrant, registered manager or someone with "sufficient seniority/authority", at least 3 years in a role needing level 3 training, and protected time for the role. Skills for Care lists "a safeguarding champion" and a registered manager "in regular contact with their local safeguarding team".

Do care staff need children's safeguarding training?

Skills for Care recommends it for adult social care workers, even if your service is for adults only. The guide's child safeguarding row uses Care Certificate standard 11: explain what to do if they suspect a child or young person "(met in any circumstances)" is being abused or neglected. Skills for Care's manager induction standard says everyone in social care has a "duty of care" for children.

CQC lists "Safeguarding requirements (including children/young people)" as a subtopic of its Safeguarding statement and names Working Together to Safeguard Children among its best practice guidance. Working Together was not read for this page; if you support anyone under 18, read it before you set that training.

What does CQC check on safeguarding?

CQC expects you to live up to its Safeguarding quality statement under Safe, which includes "We make sure we share concerns quickly and appropriately"; the statement's subtopics include mental capacity, the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and closed cultures. Training sits under "Safe and effective staffing": "Staff receive training appropriate and relevant to their role".

CQC's evidence categories include "individual interviews or focus groups with staff" and "results from audits a provider has developed". Which categories CQC uses for the Safeguarding statement in your sector was not checked for this page.

Skills for Care passes on what providers rated good or outstanding by CQC recommended: document safeguarding incidents, and some of the key records for adult safeguarding are "risk assessments, care plans, observations, financial transactions, complaints, medication, rosters and logs and training and supervision notes". The statutory guidance says abuse records at CQC registered providers "should be available to service commissioners and the CQC".

How do you set up safeguarding training yourself?

You need a training matrix with each person's level and dates, a safeguarding policy with your local referral route, and a concerns log. Free tools: CQC's Regulation 13 guidance, the Skills for Care guide, the Care Certificate standards, the intercollegiate document (a free RCN download) and your Safeguarding Adults Board's procedures.

1. List every role, including agency, bank, volunteers, kitchen, domestic and maintenance staff; the intercollegiate document sets out level 1 for all staff in any health or social care setting, agency and voluntary staff included.
2. Give each role a level in your training needs analysis. One reading of the intercollegiate contact tests: level 1 without regular contact, level 2 for care workers, level 3 for nurses and managers, level 4 or an agreed lower level for the lead. The document does not state this mapping for social care, so record it and who agreed it.
3. Build induction: Care Certificate standards 10 and 11 for anyone new to care, restraint training relevant to each role, and, if you follow the intercollegiate document, a local safeguarding induction within 6 weeks of starting.
4. Set the intervals in your training policy: a 3 year minimum refresher with Skills for Care's triggers, suggested hours per level, and a competence check at each annual appraisal.
5. Write the referral drill on one page: make the person safe, whom to tell, the local authority number in and out of hours, who informs CQC, what gets written down. Rehearse it in team meetings with "case studies or practice stories", as one of the ideas Skills for Care lists.
6. Keep the concerns log with the adult's views, the actions taken and the outcome, "differentiating between fact and opinion".
7. Check the matrix every month and record what you did about each gap. That interval is working practice, not a CQC figure.

Step 5 only works if everyone learns the same version. When we built a custom course for a US home care company, its training sat in Notion, Word and slides, split by department and location. We pulled it into one source of truth with no conflicts. Its managers and trainers signed it off before we wrote a lesson.

The level hours come from the intercollegiate document. The rest are working estimates for a service of about 30 staff, not CQC or Skills for Care figures.

Which safeguarding training mistakes cost the most?

1. One course for every role. CQC expects training "at a suitable level for their role"; the same certificate for the cook and the nurse does not show that.
2. Staff who know the signs but not the number. CQC asks for knowledge of local procedures; the statutory guidance says procedures may list referral points out of hours too.
3. A concern settled in house. The statutory guidance says the employer informs the local authority and CQC, whatever the source of harm.
4. Agency staff, volunteers and non care staff left off the matrix. Skills for Care names volunteers and non care staff in the workforce that needs the skills to recognize abuse or neglect.

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Other questions about safeguarding training

Is safeguarding training mandatory for care staff?

Neither Regulation 13 nor Regulation 18(2)(a) names a safeguarding course. CQC's guidance expects safeguarding training at induction for staff, at a level suited to the role.

How often should care workers do safeguarding training?

Regulations 13 and 18 set no interval. Skills for Care recommends a minimum refresher period of 3 years, sooner when needs or risks change.

What level of safeguarding training does a care worker need?

Regulations 13 and 18 name no level. Intercollegiate level 2 covers staff with regular contact with patients, clients, their families or carers, or the public, and the text read for this page does not list care workers by name at any level. The intercollegiate document is not statutory, so treat level 2 as a benchmark you can justify, not a legal grade.

Does a care home manager need level 3 safeguarding?

The intercollegiate document lists "care home managers" at level 3, with a suggested 8 hours over 3 years. Regulations 13 and 18 do not name it, and the document says it is not statutory.

Can safeguarding training be done online?

At levels 1 and 2 the intercollegiate document allows elearning; at level 3 it says elearning "should not be the primary or sole delivery method".