No regulation the Care Quality Commission (CQC) enforces gives a care home in England a list of training topics. Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires enough competent staff and the training each person's duties need. The rest comes from your building and your residents: the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires fire safety training when staff start and when risks change, and food handling, nursing registration and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) bring duties of their own.
This page covers residential and nursing homes in England, checked on 9 October 2026. For the frame care homes share with homecare, see CQC training requirements for domiciliary care.
What are the CQC training requirements for care homes?
Regulation 18(2)(a) requires the "appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal" each person's duties need. Regulation 12 requires competent staff, safe medicines management and infection control, and Regulation 13 requires working systems against abuse. Section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022 reads learning disability and autism training into Regulation 18.
Only section 181 names a topic: learning disability and autism training, at a level suited to the role. As a provider, you "must have regard to" CQC's guidance on each regulation. In the table, law sits only in rows citing an Order, a regulation or an Act.
| Topic | What the law or regulator says | Who it covers | How often, if stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire safety training | Fire Safety Order, article 21: "adequate safety training" when first employed and on new or increased risks, in working hours | Every employee | Training "repeated periodically where appropriate" |
| Evacuation | Fire guide for residential care premises: all staff, agency and temporary staff included, fully trained in evacuation; new, agency and temporary staff trained before starting their duties | All staff | Refresher sessions at set intervals |
| Fire drills | Fire guide: a drill "at least annually or as determined by your fire risk assessment", one at night or simulating night staffing. Skills for Care: practice drills yearly as a minimum | All staff | At least yearly; more often may suit night and part time workers (Skills for Care) |
| Nurse revalidation | Regulation 18(2)(c): registered professionals enabled to show their regulator they meet its standards. NMC: 450 practice hours, 35 hours of CPD | Registered nurses | Every 3 years (NMC) |
| Medicines | NICE SC1: give medicines only after training and an assessment of competence | Designated staff who manage and give medicines | Annual review of knowledge, skills and competencies |
| Food hygiene | FSA: staff who handle food trained in food hygiene and safety, including allergens, before they start work | Kitchen staff and anyone who handles food | Every 3 years (Skills for Care) |
| Hoists and moving people | CQC Regulation 12 guidance: staff using equipment have "the training, competency and skills needed". HSE: training covers mechanical aids, with practical work | Staff who move residents | At least every 3 years, or on new equipment or changed needs (Skills for Care) |
| Infection prevention and control | IPC code of practice: infection control in induction and "continual training" for all staff and volunteers, with a record | All staff, agency and contractors' staff included | Not stated |
| Mental capacity and DoLS | Regulation 13(5): no deprivation of liberty without lawful authority. Mental Capacity Act 2005, s.42(4): duty to have regard to the code when acting professionally or for pay | Anyone acting for a resident who lacks capacity, professionally or for pay | Not stated |
| Restraint | CQC Regulation 13 guidance: training at induction "at a suitable level" for the role | Staff, at a level suited to their role | Staff kept up to date "at appropriate intervals" |
| Dementia | Dementia Training Standards Framework: tier 1 for everyone in contact, tier 2 for direct care, tier 3 for senior and specialist roles | Depends on the home's residents | Not stated |
| Learning disability and autism | Health and Care Act 2022, s.181. Oliver McGowan code: care home staff "likely" to need tier 2 | All staff; laundry and garden staff may need tier 1 only | At least every 3 years |
The fire guide was published under article 50 of the Order, and the IPC code is statutory guidance CQC takes into account.
How does round the clock staffing change training?
Under Regulation 18(1), "Sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced persons must be deployed", and CQC's guidance expects staffing that keeps people "safe at all times". In your home, that includes the night shift.
The fire guide ties the number of resident beds in each subcompartment to the minimum number of staff awake on the premises, normally your night staffing level, and says you should be able to show the enforcing authority you always have enough staff to carry out your emergency plan without the assistance of outside agencies, "e.g. by a fire drill". The guide advises 1 drill at night or 1 simulating night staffing levels.
CQC's Regulation 18 guidance expects staff, where appropriate, to be supervised until they show competence. If your night senior is the only experienced person on a floor, a new starter on that shift has nobody to be supervised by. No source read sets a separate night training rule.
Which training topics does a care home add?
What fire safety training is needed?
Article 21 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires "adequate safety training" when your staff are first employed and when they are exposed to new or increased risks, such as a transfer, new equipment, new technology or a new system of work, repeated "periodically where appropriate" and given "during working hours". The government's guide for residential care premises says who moves the residents:
In almost all such cases, the evacuation of residents will rely entirely on the action of staff, moving them from the vicinity of the fire to an adjacent area of reasonable safety. Consequently it is essential that all staff, including agency and temporary staff, are fully trained in evacuation procedures for the premises.
HM Government, Fire safety risk assessment: residential care premises, Part 1, "Assisted means of escape"
The guide's training list for your staff includes fire doors, "delayed evacuation", horizontal evacuation to protected areas, assisted escape and why lifts are not used. The guide wants new, agency and temporary staff trained "prior to starting their duties", drills "carried out at least annually or as determined by your fire risk assessment", and training that "should be verifiable"; it adds that enforcing authorities "may want to examine records".
Check the guide's date: first published on 6 July 2006, it still names the Commission for Social Care Inspection as its example registration body.
What do nurses in a nursing home need on top?
Regulation 18(2)(c) requires that registered health care professionals "be enabled to provide evidence" to their regulator that they still meet its professional standards. If you employ nurses, CQC's guidance expects you to make sure registered staff "are able to meet the requirements of the relevant professional regulator throughout their employment", and expects health and social care professionals to have access to clinical or professional supervision.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) asks nurses to revalidate every 3 years, with 450 practice hours, 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) including at least 20 hours of participatory learning, 5 pieces of practice related feedback and 5 written reflective accounts, among other items. Revalidation is how your nurses keep NMC registration, and the NMC says employers have "an important role to play".
NICE's care home medicines guideline (SC1) includes registered nurses' medicines training "as part of their continuing professional development", and homes with nursing add "the correct use of infusion and injection devices (for example, syringe drivers)" to their medicines administration process.
Who needs medicines and food hygiene training?
Anyone on your staff who gives medicines or handles food. NICE SC1 says designated staff give medicines "only when they have had the necessary training and are assessed as competent", and recommends "an annual review of their knowledge, skills and competencies relating to managing and administering medicines". SC1 dates from 14 March 2014, with no later update shown.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says any member of staff who handles food is trained "in food hygiene and safety, including allergens, before they start work". Skills for Care applies its food hygiene row to anyone who handles, prepares or provides food. On that test, a care worker who makes the evening sandwiches counts too.
What changes with hoists and a shared building?
Regulation 12(2)(e) requires that equipment "is used in a safe way", and CQC's guidance expects staff using it to have "the training, competency and skills needed". HSE says handling training covers "how to use mechanical aids", with practical work.
HSE's care guidance has each person's risk assessment record the "type of hoist and sling; sling size and attachments", notes that "hoisting tasks often require two staff", and warns that needs and abilities "can change over the course of a day". Skills for Care names assisting and moving among the key tasks for your observed competency checks.
Infection control in a shared building runs through the government's IPC code of practice, which you "do not by law have to comply with" if you meet the regulation another way. Criterion 6 asks for infection control in every job description and induction, "a suitable and sufficient programme of continual training" for all staff and volunteers, and "a record of all training", with agency and contractors' staff included. The code's adult social care appendix has the annual infection control statement review "education and training received by staff".
What Mental Capacity Act and DoLS training is needed?
No regulation read for this page names a course. Regulation 13(5) says a service user "must not be deprived of their liberty for the purpose of receiving care or treatment without lawful authority". CQC's guidance expects your home to follow DoLS and both codes of practice, and to plan care in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005, including best interests decisions and DoLS applications.
Section 42(4) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 makes the duty personal: anyone acting for a person who lacks capacity "in a professional capacity" or "for remuneration" has a duty to have regard to any relevant code. Read plainly, your paid care staff acting for a resident who lacks capacity fall inside "for remuneration"; no source read for this page says so in terms.
CQC's guidance also expects restraint training at induction, so restrictive practices are "only used when absolutely necessary". No source read sets a refresher interval. CQC's Regulation 13 guidance, as last updated on 16 May 2025, names DoLS as the scheme; nothing newer was checked for this page.
Does a care home need dementia training?
None of the regulations read for this page names dementia. Skills for Care lists it in employer defined training and says it should align to the Dementia Training Standards Framework.
If your home provides dementia care, the framework (refreshed February 2026) sets 3 tiers. Tier 1 is "the baseline level for everyone" who may come into contact with people living with dementia, tier 2 is "for all roles providing direct care", and tier 3 covers senior and specialist practitioners, your registered manager among them. Domestic assistants appear at tier 1, care workers at tiers 1 and 2, and registered nurses at tier 2.
The Oliver McGowan code, covered in Oliver McGowan training tier 1 and tier 2, has its own care home example: staff are "likely to need tier 2 capabilities", while a person "employed to do laundry or maintain gardens" may need only tier 1, and the training is retaken at least every 3 years.
What do inspectors look for in a care home?
Under Safe, "Safe and effective staffing" expects that "Staff receive training appropriate and relevant to their role", with support that includes, "where needed, professional revalidation". Under Well-led, "Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders" looks at the support and development your leaders get, and names Regulation 7, on registered managers, as related.
Most observation is "carried out on the premises" by inspectors and specialist advisers, alongside staff interviews and "results from audits a provider has developed". CQC calls its sector lists of evidence categories "a guide, not a checklist".
Fire enforcing authorities may examine your training records too, and the FSA suggests keeping food training records for officers' visits.
Which 3 records keep a care home inspection ready?
You can run this on 3 records: a training matrix (1 row per person, 1 column per topic, completion and due dates), a night staff competence check, and a fire drill log. Free tools: a spreadsheet, the GOV.UK fire guide, NICE SC1, the Skills for Care guide and the IPC code.
- List every role by shift, including bank, agency, kitchen, domestic, laundry and maintenance staff.
- Mark what each role touches: medicines, food, hoists, residents who may lack capacity, dementia care, nursing. Each mark pulls in a table row.
- Give fire induction before the first shift, agency staff included, with practice on any evacuation aids you use.
- Plan the year's drills: at least 1, and 1 at night staffing or simulating it. Log the staff on duty, the scenario, the time taken to move residents who cannot walk unaided, and the remedial actions, which the guide says should be "recorded and implemented".
- Run a night staff competence check on a night shift. Each person finds the nearest call point, walks the escape route and explains delayed and horizontal evacuation; then compare any 2 person hoist transfers in residents' plans with the staff actually rostered that night. This is a working method, not a procedure any regulator names.
- Track each nurse's revalidation date in the matrix.
- Assess medicines competence before anyone administers, and book the annual review.
- Train food handlers before their start date, and write infection control into job descriptions and induction.
- Check gaps monthly; CQC's guidance asks for "appropriate action taken quickly when training requirements are not being met".
| Task | Who usually does it | Rough time |
|---|---|---|
| Role and shift map, matrix columns (steps 1 and 2) | Registered manager | 4 to 6 hours |
| Fire drill with debrief and log (step 4) | Registered manager or fire marshal | 1 to 2 hours per drill |
| Night staff competence check (step 5) | Senior on night duty | 15 to 20 minutes per person |
| Medicines competence assessment (step 7) | Nurse or trained senior | 30 to 60 minutes per person |
| Learning disability and autism, tier 2 | Staff who meet residents and visitors | At least 90 minutes of elearning plus at least 1 day in person |
| Monthly gap check (step 9) | Training lead | 30 to 60 minutes |
The tier 2 time comes from the Oliver McGowan code. The rest are working estimates for a home of about 40 beds, not regulator figures.
Which care home training gaps cost the most?
- Agency staff on nights with no fire induction, on the shift where evacuation rests on the fewest people.
- Drills only on day shifts, which never test night staffing.
- Medicines competence signed once, when NICE SC1 recommends an annual review.
- A revalidation date nobody tracked. The NMC describes revalidation as the process nurses follow to maintain their registration.
- Hoist training with nothing observed. HSE says handling training includes practical work.
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Other questions about care home training
Does the CQC have a mandatory training list for care homes?
No. Regulation 18(2)(a) requires the training each person's duties need, and CQC's guidance leaves "Other mandatory training" to be "defined by the provider for their role".
How often should a care home hold fire drills?
At least annually or as your fire risk assessment decides, with 1 at night or simulating night staffing, according to the GOV.UK fire guide. Skills for Care says yearly as a minimum.
Do care home staff need a food hygiene certificate?
The FSA says staff who handle food are trained in food hygiene and safety before they start work. Skills for Care says accreditation "is not essential".
Is DoLS training mandatory in a care home?
No regulation read for this page names a DoLS course. Regulation 13(5) bars deprivation of liberty without lawful authority, and section 42(4) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 gives anyone acting for a person who lacks capacity "in a professional capacity" or "for remuneration" a duty to have regard to the code.
How often do nurses in a care home revalidate?
Every 3 years, according to the NMC.