All health and social care providers registered with the CQC need to ensure staff receive training on learning disabilities and autism from 1 July 2022.
The training should be appropriate to their role, under s181 of the Health and Care Act 2022.
The Government will launch a consultation and publish a code of practice which the CQC understands will ‘outline the content, delivery and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, which is training it has developed and trialled.’
However, the Government concedes the publication of the Code of Practice may take at least 12 months. The CQC has updated its statutory guidance for Regulation 18 to reflect this requirement.
What the CQC will be looking for
During assessments and inspections of providers, it says it looks to see if staff are working with people appropriately. If not, it considers what training and support has been provided to them to ensure their understanding.
Following the introduction of this requirement on the 1 July, it says ‘we will be checking to see whether providers are training their staff in how to interact appropriately with people with a learning disability and autistic people, at a level appropriate to their role. We will also look at whether providers have assessed the competencies of their staff following the training. In line with current inspection procedures, we will not be looking at what the training itself has involved.’
Further information and support The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is based on the Core Capabilities Framework for Supporting People with a Learning Disability and the Core Capabilities Framework for Supporting Autistic People
The Government’s code of practice will be subject to a public consultation before it is published.
