There have been many comments recently regarding staff development, particularly about mandatory training, retake periods and who needs to do what training. Well, the ball lies in your court (to a certain extent) as Nigel’s surgery 70 states: “CQC does not have a list of mandatory training for members of the GP practice team”. You may be thinking that’s madness; they’re the regulator, yet they don’t tell us what training we need.
Well, that’s because it’s down to each individual practice to determine their exact requirements based on the responsibilities of the practice and the needs of the patient population using the service. What you need to take into consideration is how effective your service delivery is; think ‘KLOE’ (not the Kardashian!), but the Key Line of Enquiry, particularly E3: “How does the service make sure that the staff have the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care, support and treatment?” It’s not only the KLOE that you need to consider, there’s also the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, specifically Regulation 18. As a provider of regulated activities, you’ll need to ensure that you have enough qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of your patient population at all times.
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s expected that all staff will complete the relevant mandatory training to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to undertake their role safely and effectively. So, what’s expected? Well, let’s focus purely on mandatory training. As a minimum, the CQC expect to see evidence that staff have completed the following training:
BLS with AED
Anaphylaxis
Infection Prevention Control
Fire Safety training
Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
Safeguarding Adults & Children
That’s easy, I hear you say; it’s merely a handful of courses. True, but do you want to achieve the bare minimum or do your best? I’m sure it’s the latter. So, to the ‘what’ and the ‘when’ of mandatory training. What’s recommended? Don’t worry, you don’t need to don your thinking caps, as most of the information you need is here!
What I’ve done is to put together a table of recommended mandatory training, including links to training available on the HUB and also links to supporting guidance such as the UK Resuscitation Council and Nigel’s surgery.
Subject | When | Who | Comment |
BLS, AED | Annually | All staff | Ideally face-to-face training, but during the pandemic e-learning is acceptable. Visit resus.org.uk for more info. Available on the HUB. See also Nigel’s surgery 1 |
Anaphylaxis | Annually | All staff | Usually combined with BLS & AED training. Available on the HUB. |
Chaperone awareness | Five-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 60 months. Available on the HUB. See also Nigel’s surgery 15 |
Conflict resolution | Three-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 36 months. Available on the HUB. |
Data security awareness | Annually | All staff | At induction, then every 12 months. Available on the HUB. See Nigel’s surgery 85 |
Duty of candour | Two-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 24 months. Available on the HUB. See also Nigel’s surgery 32 |
Equality, diversity and human rights | Three-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 36 months. Available on the HUB. |
Fire safety | Two-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 24 months. Available on the HUB. |
H&S | Three-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 36 months. Available on the HUB. |
IPC | As above | All staff | At induction, then every 36 months. Available on the HUB (clinical staff) / HUB (non-clinical staff). See Nigel’s surgery 99 |
Mental Capacity Act | Three-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 36 months. Available on the HUB. See also Nigel’s surgery 10. |
Deprivation of Liberty Standards | As above | All staff | At induction, then every 36 months. Available on the HUB. See also Nigel’s surgery 10 |
Moving & handling | As above | All staff | At induction, and updates using the HUB (clinical) / HUB (non-clinical). |
Preventing radicalisation | As above | All staff | At induction, then every 36 months. Available on the HUB. |
Safeguarding adults | As above | All staff | Safeguarding Adults Level 1, Level 2, Level 3.
See Intercollegiate guidance for details. See also Nigel’s surgery 25
|
Safeguarding children | As above | All staff | Safeguarding Children Level 1, Level 2, Level 3.
See Intercollegiate guidance for details. See also Nigel’s surgery 33 |
Sepsis | Annually | All staff | At induction, then every 12 months. Available on the HUB. See also Nigel’s surgery 88 |
Whistleblowing | Two-yearly | All staff | At induction, then every 24 months. Available on the HUB. See also Nigel’s surgery 87 |
Another subject you may wish to consider as requiring mandatory training is Significant Events, as this should involve every member of the team. And the CQC will expect to see evidence of learning from events that led to quality improvement initiatives. See Nigel’s surgery 3 for more information.
There’s much to consider. Remember that the above is recommended and that you’ll need to ensure that your team have the necessary skills, knowledge and competencies to enable them to deliver a safe and effective service at your practice – every practice is different!
Finally, a note on evidence: evidence is key if you’re to satisfy the CQC. Be sure to have an effective system in place where you can view at a glance the current training status of your team. This could be RAG (Red, Amber, Green) status, showing the date completed and the date due, with a hyperlink to the evidence, i.e. a certificate of completion.
If you’ve any comments, queries or suggestions, please post them below. For now, I’ll leave you with this: “The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you” – B.B. King.
Access all of the above training for free! For a free three month trial of our Essential eLearning package in the HUB simply sign up here.
October 23, 2020 at 9:01 am
Thank you Phil, this is really helpful
July 24, 2021 at 5:43 pm
Hi Phil, we really appreciate the list. With COIVD, is there any way to re-collate the list of training and frequency. Thank you in advance if this list could be updated for everyone.
October 5, 2023 at 11:00 am
Do we need to have Chaperone(Clinical) Module as part of Mandatory Training for clinical team?
October 5, 2023 at 12:26 pm
All staff must complete chaperone awareness training. In addition, those staff who carry out the role of chaperone must complete additional chaperone training, as stated in CQC GP mythbuster 15: Chaperones.
Hope this helps.
December 20, 2023 at 3:35 pm
Hi
Is this the most up to date list of training requirements – mandatory and good practice?
As the note at the top states dated 2020.
Please advise accordingly.
Thank you.
December 20, 2023 at 3:56 pm
Hi Jacqui,
Thanks for the question. I would recommend using the Training Handbook which details mandatory training requirements at section 3.2 and role-specific considerations at section 3.3.
I hope this helps.
Phil
January 3, 2024 at 9:17 am
Hi Paul
Happy New Year
Hope you are well
Can you confirm if non-clinical staff need to complete BLS training on a yearly basis?
Please advise
Thank you
Sonia Weller
January 8, 2024 at 11:03 am
The Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) advises that it is best practice for all staff to undertake annual refresher training.
Kind regards,
Phil