If you want to work in care in the UK, employers will not ask you for a university degree. They will ask you for a set of certificates. The list is close to identical across care homes, domiciliary care services and supported living providers, and without it you cannot start working with people. This page sets out exactly what is required, what the law actually says about each item, how often it needs renewing, and how much of it you can complete before you arrive.
Statutory and mandatory: what the two words mean
British guidance draws a distinction that matters:
- Statutory — training required by law, or required by a statutory body under specific legislation. The employer has no discretion here.
- Mandatory — training the organisation or the service commissioner considers essential for safe delivery of care. It does not come from a named piece of legislation, but in practice it is just as compulsory: without it you are not put on shift.
The reference document is the Statutory and mandatory training guide for adult social care employers, published by Skills for Care in December 2025. It replaced the older Core Skills Training Framework and organises training into two parts: eleven subjects required of all workers or by role, plus a list of additional training.
Employers are inflexible about this for a straightforward reason. The Care Quality Commission, which inspects and registers care providers, reviews training records at every inspection. A provider with untrained staff faces regulatory action and, in serious cases, refusal of registration.
The eleven core subjects
This is the Part 1 list from the Skills for Care guide — training required of everyone working in adult social care, or required according to the role held.
1. Health and safety awareness
Statutory. Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Covers hazard identification, incident reporting and your responsibilities as an employee. Required of everyone, without exception.
2. Fire safety
Statutory. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Beyond the training itself, the employer must run evacuation drills at least annually. In a care home with immobile residents, evacuation procedure differs substantially from an office — which is why care-specific fire courses exist.
3. Moving and handling objects
Statutory. Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. This concerns objects: boxes, equipment, linen, trolleys. Moving people is a separate subject with its own training.
4. Infection prevention and control
Statutory. Also Standard 15 of the Care Certificate. Covers hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, clinical waste handling, isolation procedure and the chain of infection. In a setting with elderly or immunocompromised people, this is among the most consequential subjects on the entire list.
5. Adult safeguarding
Mandatory, required by CQC. Protecting vulnerable adults: recognising physical, emotional and financial abuse and neglect, and knowing the reporting procedure. This is the subject interviewers probe hardest.
6. Basic life support and first aid
Statutory. Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981. How many staff must be trained depends on the employer’s risk assessment.
Worth knowing in advance: the Health and Safety Executive does not accept an online-only course as evidence of competence for someone formally designated as a workplace first-aider. That status requires face-to-face practical assessment. An online course remains valuable as theoretical grounding and as refresher between certifications, but it does not replace the practical element.
7. Assisting and moving people
Mandatory, required by CQC. Transfers from bed to chair, use of hoists and slide sheets, safe positioning. This is the training that protects both the person you support and your own back.
8. Child safeguarding
Mandatory. Standard 11 of the Care Certificate. Required even if you work exclusively with adults, because you may come into contact with children of residents or visitors.
9. Learning disability and autism awareness
A statutory requirement since 2022, introduced by section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022.
An important distinction: the legal requirement is met through Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, which has a prescribed format — an e-learning component plus a live, interactive session involving people with lived experience. A standalone online awareness course, however good, does not satisfy the statutory requirement on its own. Awareness courses remain useful as grounding and are valued by employers, but the Oliver McGowan training is delivered separately, usually arranged by the employer after you start.
10. Food hygiene
Mandatory. Required of anyone handling food or assisting with meal preparation and service — which in a residential care home means most of the staff.
11. Medication administration
Mandatory. Required of anyone assisting with medication. Beyond the initial training, the employer must carry out an annual competency review rather than simply filing the certificate.
Which items the law requires, and which the employer does
Required by law (statutory): health and safety, fire safety, moving and handling objects, infection prevention and control, basic life support and first aid, learning disability and autism awareness.
Required by employers or CQC (mandatory): adult safeguarding, assisting and moving people, child safeguarding, food hygiene, medication administration.
At interview and at induction the distinction disappears. Any provider that values its CQC registration will ask for all of them.
How often training renews
There is widespread confusion here, so it is worth stating plainly: with one exception, no UK legislation sets a fixed refresher interval for these subjects.
The exception is the first aid certificate, valid for three years under HSE rules.
For everything else, Skills for Care recommends:
- Every three years — health and safety, fire safety, moving and handling, infection prevention and control, adult and child safeguarding, food hygiene, learning disability and autism awareness
- Annually — basic life support; fire evacuation drills; medication competency review
- On change — any subject, whenever new equipment, new procedures or changed care needs arise
Many care homes apply stricter policies than the recommendation, with annual refreshers for safeguarding and moving and handling. That is the employer’s choice, not a legal requirement.
The Care Certificate: sixteen standards
The Care Certificate is the induction framework for staff new to care without prior formal qualification. It is not a legal requirement, but it is the standard expectation of employers and of CQC.
An update many providers have missed: in March 2025, Skills for Care, Skills for Health and NHS England published a revised version. The Care Certificate now has sixteen standards, not fifteen. Any material still referring to fifteen standards is out of date.
- Understand your role
- Your personal development
- Duty of care
- Equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights
- Work in a person-centred way
- Communication
- Privacy and dignity
- Fluids and nutrition
- Awareness of mental health and dementia
- Adult safeguarding
- Safeguarding children
- Basic life support
- Health and safety
- Handling information
- Infection prevention and control
- Awareness of learning disability and autism — new in 2025
Learning disability and autism content moved out of Standard 9 into its own standard, while Standard 9 expanded on mental health. Sections on infection control, restrictive practices, mental capacity and data security were also extended.
On duration: Skills for Care sets no fixed deadline. The official wording is that it takes place over the initial period of employment and is determined by the employer. The figure of twelve weeks circulates widely but does not appear in official documentation.
The Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate
Since 3 June 2024 there is also an accredited qualification, the Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate. What it is, and what it is not:
- It does not replace the Care Certificate. The two coexist. Knowledge gained during induction may count towards the qualification through recognition of prior learning.
- It is not mandatory.
- The key difference: it is an accredited qualification requiring formal assessment. The Care Certificate is a set of induction standards without accreditation.
- In practice it takes six to eight months, less for experienced staff.
- It is funded through the Learning and Development Support Scheme, up to £1,540 per learner for 2026–27.
In short: the Care Certificate makes you employable. Level 2 helps you progress.
What CQC requires of your employer
Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires providers to deploy “sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced persons” and to give them “such appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal as is necessary”.
One detail explains why employers insist on practice rather than paperwork: Skills for Care states that the certificate alone is not enough. Employers must verify competence through direct observation of the worker carrying out key tasks.
Certificates open the door. Competence is demonstrated on the floor.
What CPD accreditation means
CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. CPD accreditation is an independent assessment confirming that training has clear structure and genuine educational value. One CPD point equals one hour of learning.
To be accurate: CPD accreditation is not a legal requirement and is not a state accreditation. It is a voluntary quality mark. It does not replace an Ofqual-regulated qualification.
What it does do: it shows an employer that your training was independently verified, and gives them documented evidence for the file they present at CQC inspection. For a care home manager, a CPD-accredited certificate is a document they can file without hesitation.
How much can be completed before arriving in the UK
Most of it. The theoretical component of these subjects is delivered online, at your own pace, from anywhere. That is precisely what we do at Rafidin Education: CPD-accredited training, in Romanian and English, with the certificate issued on completion.
Arriving with your file already assembled has a double advantage. It separates you immediately from a candidate who says they will learn on the job, and it saves the employer time and money on your induction — which makes you the easier hire.
What cannot be completed remotely:
- The practical first aid assessment, for formal designated first-aider status — face to face, in the UK
- The live session of Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training — usually arranged by the employer after you start
- The practical assessment element of the Care Certificate — carried out in the workplace by a designated assessor
What we cover, and what we do not
We would rather be transparent about this than have you discover a gap later.
Fully covered: health and safety, fire safety (including care-home-specific and Fire Marshal variants), manual handling, moving and handling people, safeguarding adults, safeguarding children, food safety, medication handling, Mental Capacity Act and DoLS, equality and diversity, duty of care, person-centred care, dementia awareness, data protection, nutrition and hydration, and the full Care Certificate programme.
Partially covered: first aid — we offer Emergency First Aid at Work as theoretical preparation, but designated first-aider status requires practical assessment in the UK. Learning disability and autism — we offer awareness courses, valued by employers, but the statutory requirement is met through Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training.
The full catalogue is under Health and Social Care and Health and Safety at Work.
Frequently asked questions
How many courses do I need to be employable?
Realistically, the eleven Part 1 subjects. An employer who sees safeguarding, moving and handling, health and safety, fire safety and infection control on a CV treats that candidate differently from one with nothing.
Are online certificates accepted by UK employers?
For the theoretical component, yes — e-learning is the standard format across UK social care. The exceptions are those noted above: the practical first aid assessment and the Oliver McGowan live session.
How long are they valid?
The general recommendation is three years, except first aid (three years, by law) and basic life support (annual refresher recommended). Employers may apply stricter policies.
Do I need to redo them if I change employer?
Generally not, if they are still in date. Your new employer will ask to see the certificates and will carry out their own competency checks through direct observation.
Does the Care Certificate have fifteen or sixteen standards?
Sixteen, since March 2025. The sixteenth is Awareness of learning disability and autism. Many sites still display the older figure.
Next step
If you are unsure where to start, or which courses fit the role you are aiming for, we can go through your situation directly: what you need, in what order, and what else your application file requires. See Consultancy.
If you are at the beginning and do not yet have an employer, read Jobs in the UK.
This page reflects the Skills for Care “Statutory and mandatory training guide for adult social care employers” of December 2025 and the Care Certificate standards of March 2025. Requirements change; always confirm with your employer what is required for your specific role.