No law or CQC rule requires a care home registered manager to hold one specific qualification. Regulation 7 of the Regulated Activities Regulations 2014 requires the manager to have “the necessary qualifications, competence, skills and experience”, and CQC’s registration guidance says a Level 5 Diploma in leadership and management, or equivalent, would strengthen an application for a home care service. What the law does require is that the manager makes sure every member of staff receives the training, supervision and appraisal they need to do their job, under regulation 18.
So a registered manager’s training obligations run in two directions: their own competence to lead the service, and their responsibility for the training of everyone else. This guide covers both, in England, with the sources for each: the regulations, CQC’s current quality statements, Skills for Care’s standards, and the statutory topics a care home training plan cannot leave out.
At a glance: Nexis CPD offers £9 CPD-accredited online courses for care home teams, including Mental Capacity Act, DoLS, Administering Medication and Fire Safety in Care Homes, each with a verifiable e-certificate, and any three courses cost £18.
What qualifications does a CQC registered manager need?
Regulation 7 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 says a person shall not manage a regulated activity as a registered manager unless they are fit to do so, which includes having the necessary qualifications, competence, skills and experience to manage it.
CQC’s guidance on regulation 7 says the manager should be appropriately skilled with the qualifications, knowledge and experience, and that the provider must have appropriate processes for assessing and checking them. It does not name a qualification.
The only place CQC mentions Level 5 is its page on registering as a new manager, which says that for a home care service, a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management or an equivalent qualification would strengthen your application, and that managers of other types of service may need qualifications that match their area. The same page says applicants must have proven management experience.
Read carefully, that is weaker than much of the sector assumes. CQC does not say Level 5 is required, and its example is home care, not care homes. In practice, many care home managers hold or work towards a Level 5, because it is the most direct way to evidence the qualifications and competence regulation 7 requires, and because it is what registration assessors, employers and commissioners recognise. But the legal test is fitness, not a certificate.
The Level 5 Diploma
Skills for Care’s qualification criteria describe the Level 5 Diploma in Leading and Managing an Adult Care Service as aiming to support the development of registered managers, specifically those new to the role. Exact titles vary slightly between awarding bodies, so check the qualification on the Ofqual register if you are comparing courses.
It is an Ofqual-regulated qualification. No CPD course, including ours, is equivalent to it or substitutes for it.
The Manager Induction Standards
Skills for Care’s Manager Induction Standards (2023) are not mandatory, but Skills for Care highly recommends that new managers demonstrate all the knowledge requirements within six months. For a manager new to the role, they are the most practical checklist of what you are expected to know.
What does regulation 18 require of the manager?
This is the regulation that turns a registered manager into a training manager. Regulation 18(2) requires that staff:
- receive such appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal as is necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform; and
- are enabled where appropriate to obtain further qualifications appropriate to the work they perform.
Regulation 19 adds that staff must have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience necessary for the work.
Notice what regulation 18 covers. It is not only training. Supervision and appraisal sit in the same sentence, and a training matrix that is fully green does not satisfy regulation 18 if staff have not had supervision in a year. Inspectors look at both.
What does CQC look for on staff training?
CQC currently assesses services against the quality statements in its single assessment framework. The one most directly about training is safe and effective staffing, under Safe: “We make sure there are enough qualified, skilled and experienced people, who receive effective support, supervision and development.” The same page states that staff receive training appropriate and relevant to their role.
Two others are relevant to managers themselves. Learning culture, also under Safe, is about a proactive and positive culture of safety based on openness and honesty. Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders, under Well-led, expects leaders to have the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively.
These statements are due to change. CQC has said it plans to publish sector-specific frameworks in summer 2026 and start implementing them at the end of the year, with key lines of enquiry replacing the quality statements. The underlying expectations on staffing and training are not going away, but the wording inspectors use will. Check CQC’s current framework before your next inspection.
What training must care home staff have?
There is no single legal list. Skills for Care’s statutory and mandatory training guide, updated December 2025, draws a useful distinction: statutory training is usually required by law; mandatory training is compulsory training that an organisation determines is essential. The guide also suggests refresher frequencies for each topic, and it is the best single reference for building a training matrix.
The topics that come up in every care home plan, and their sources:
Induction and the Care Certificate
The Care Certificate standards were updated in March 2025 and there are now 16, including a new standard on learning disability and autism. They are standards for induction, not a qualification. Separately, the Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate, launched on 3 June 2024, is an Ofqual-regulated qualification taking around six to eight months, and Skills for Care says funding through the Learning and Development Support Scheme continues for 2026 to 2027. See what is the Care Certificate.
Learning disability and autism: the Oliver McGowan requirement
Section 181 of the Health and Care Act 2022 requires CQC-registered service providers to ensure that each person working for them receives training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. The Oliver McGowan code of practice became final on 6 September 2025 and sets out how that training should be delivered. Our Autism Awareness course is general background; it is not the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training and does not meet the code.
Fire safety
Article 21 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires adequate safety training when staff are first employed and when exposed to new risks, repeated periodically where appropriate, and delivered during working hours. In a care home, with residents who may need assistance to evacuate, fire training includes the home’s own evacuation strategy, which only site-specific training and drills can cover.
Infection prevention and control
Criterion 6 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 code of practice on infection prevention and control expects systems ensuring all care workers, including contractors and volunteers, are aware of and discharge their responsibilities, and a suitable and sufficient programme of continual training. The code describes itself as not mandatory, but it is the published benchmark for infection control in registered services. See what is infection prevention and control.
Medicines
NICE guideline SC1, managing medicines in care homes, recommends that staff administer medicines only when they have had the necessary training and are assessed as competent, and that providers ensure all care home staff have an annual review of their knowledge, skills and competencies. The competence assessment is observed practice in the home; online training supports it but cannot replace it. See the six rights of medication administration.
Mental capacity and DoLS
Every care home manager needs a working understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. Two current points matter:
- Liberty Protection Safeguards are not in force. In October 2025, the government said a consultation on LPS would follow. DoLS still applies.
- The test for deprivation of liberty changed in June 2026. Following a Supreme Court judgment on 2 June 2026, government guidance describes the test as multifactorial, replacing the “acid test” care homes had been applying. DoLS training completed before June 2026 may describe the old test, and managers should check that their team’s understanding is current.
See the Mental Capacity Act explained and what is DoLS.
Safeguarding, moving and handling, and the rest
Safeguarding adults, moving and handling people, health and safety, food hygiene where staff handle food, and dementia awareness complete most care home plans. Moving and handling in particular needs a practical, person-specific element that no online course can deliver. See what is safeguarding adults.
Where care home training records usually fall short
Most care homes train their staff. The problems inspectors and managers find are usually in the gaps between training and practice, or in the record itself.
Training that is complete but not role-matched
A kitchen assistant, a senior carer who administers medicines and a night-shift carer who leads an evacuation do not need the same depth of training. A matrix that assigns the same modules to everyone looks tidy, but it does not show that training is appropriate to the role, which is the phrase regulation 18, the NICE guideline and the Oliver McGowan code all use.
Knowledge without observed competence
A certificate shows that someone completed a course. It does not show they can do the task safely in your home. For medicines, moving and handling people and evacuation, the evidence that matters is an observed competence assessment by someone qualified to make it, repeated at sensible intervals.
Refreshers that have quietly lapsed
Staff who joined in a busy month, agency workers who became permanent, and night staff who rarely overlap with the training schedule are the usual gaps. A monthly check of the matrix for anything due in the next 60 days catches most of them.
Training on rules that have changed
2025 and 2026 changed the Care Certificate standards, finalised the Oliver McGowan code and changed the legal test for deprivation of liberty. Training completed before those changes may now be out of date in content, even if it is in date on the matrix.
Supervision that is not recorded
Supervision often happens informally on shift and never gets written up. Regulation 18 treats supervision as part of the same duty as training, and an unrecorded conversation is, for inspection purposes, a conversation that did not happen.
The manager’s own development
Managers are often the least trained person in the building on recent changes, because they are busy arranging everyone else’s training. The capable leaders quality statement applies to them. Put your own refreshers on the same matrix as your team’s.
A registered manager’s training responsibilities in practice
- Keep a training matrix for every member of staff, with the refresher interval for each topic, based on Skills for Care’s guide and your own risk assessment.
- Match training to role. The Oliver McGowan code, the NICE medicines guideline and regulation 18 all use the same principle: appropriate to the person’s role.
- Separate knowledge from competence. E-learning covers knowledge. Medicines, moving and handling, and evacuation need observed competence in your home.
- Run supervision and appraisal on schedule and record them; they are part of regulation 18, not an extra.
- Plan your own development, including the Level 5 if you do not hold it, and the Manager Induction Standards if you are new.
- Watch for changes: the CQC framework, LPS and the June 2026 deprivation of liberty test are all moving in 2026.
Care workers’ own requirements are covered in our guide to CPD for care workers, and mandatory training for healthcare workers covers the NHS framework many care staff also meet.
Which courses suit care home teams?
For the knowledge side of a care home training matrix:
- Mental Capacity Act: the five principles, capacity assessment and best interests decisions
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS): when an authorisation is needed and how the process works
- Administering Medication: knowledge underpinning safe administration, alongside your in-home competence assessment
Those three together cost £18 rather than £27, because any three courses trigger the pay-for-2-get-3 offer. Add them to the cart and the discount applies automatically. Care homes also commonly use Fire Safety in Care Homes, Infection Prevention and Control Awareness, Safeguarding Adults Level 1 and Dementia Awareness, and new starters can take the Care Certificate awareness course alongside their workplace induction. Our Care Certificate course covers all 16 standards, including the learning disability and autism standard added in March 2025, but it is not the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training.
Said plainly: these are CPD-accredited awareness courses. They are not the Level 5 Diploma or the Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate, they are not the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, and they do not replace observed competence assessment for medicines, moving and handling or fire evacuation.
Frequently asked questions
Does a care home manager need a Level 5 Diploma?
Not by law. Regulation 7 requires a registered manager to have the necessary qualifications, competence, skills and experience, without naming a qualification. CQC's registration guidance says a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management or equivalent would strengthen an application for a home care service, and many care home managers hold or work towards one as the clearest evidence of competence.
What training must a registered manager provide for staff?
Regulation 18 requires that staff receive appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal to carry out their duties, and are enabled where appropriate to obtain further qualifications. Supervision and appraisal are part of the same duty as training.
Is the Oliver McGowan training mandatory in care homes?
The Health and Care Act 2022 requires CQC-registered providers to ensure staff receive training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. The Oliver McGowan code of practice, final from 6 September 2025, sets out how that training should be delivered.
How many Care Certificate standards are there now?
Since the update in March 2025 there are 16 Care Certificate standards, including a new standard on learning disability and autism. The Care Certificate is a set of induction standards, not a qualification; the separate Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate, launched in June 2024, is Ofqual-regulated.
How often should care home staff have medication training?
NICE guideline SC1 recommends that staff administer medicines only after training and competence assessment, and that providers ensure all care home staff have an annual review of their knowledge, skills and competencies.
Have the Liberty Protection Safeguards replaced DoLS?
No. LPS are not in force, and the government said in October 2025 that a consultation would follow. DoLS still apply. Separately, a Supreme Court judgment on 2 June 2026 changed the test for a deprivation of liberty to a multifactorial one, so older DoLS training may describe the superseded acid test.
What is the difference between statutory and mandatory training in care?
Skills for Care defines statutory training as training usually required by law, and mandatory training as compulsory training an organisation determines is essential. Its December 2025 guide suggests refresher frequencies for each topic.
Training courses for care home teams
£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100% online, verifiable e-certificate. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and focuses on England. CQC’s assessment framework, the Liberty Protection Safeguards and the legal test for deprivation of liberty are all changing in 2026; always check current guidance from CQC, Skills for Care and gov.uk. A CPD awareness course is not a regulated qualification and does not substitute for the Level 5 Diploma, the Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate, the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, or workplace competence assessment.