Dr Richard Dune

04-08-2023

How to improve statutory and mandatory training in the UK

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Explore effective strategies to enhance statutory and mandatory training in the UK, ensuring compliance, engagement, and improved workforce competence

The role of training and compliance professionals in UK health and social care workplaces is vital. They are significant in delivering workforce development programmes, including induction and statutory and mandatory training, supporting Continuous Professional Development (CPD), and advocating for staff needs. They also work towards improving staff well-being and the organisation's overall health.

In this blog, Dr Richard Dune provides tips for compliance and training managers to create a positive culture around statutory and mandatory training. He also identifies and suggests ways to mitigate local barriers and challenges to statutory and mandatory training. He emphasises the importance of working collaboratively with managers and employers to improve staff engagement and compliance training provision.

Importance of statutory and mandatory training

Statutory and mandatory training is crucial to ensure safe, healthy, and effective workplaces. It equips employees with the knowledge and skills to identify hazards, assess and mitigate workplace risks, and protect themselves and others.

Various barriers exist to the design, implementation, and acceptance of statutory and mandatory training. Training and compliance professionals play a vital role in improving the organisation's acceptance of this training. Employers should empower compliance and training departments to listen to and support employees and management. Managers should have direct access to training and compliance teams, discuss their concerns, and provide feedback.

The role of training and compliance officers

Training and compliance officers are expected to apply a wide variety of their knowledge and skills. In particular, their role in ‘questioning and influencing’ is invaluable. They should be aware of the following:

• The definition of statutory and mandatory training
• The importance of statutory and mandatory training
• The consequences of not completing statutory and mandatory training
• The impact of mandatory and statutory training on agency and bank workers
• Barriers to engaging with statutory and mandatory training
• Their role in promoting positive learning cultures within organisations
• Their role in changing organisational culture towards statutory and mandatory training
• The main statutory and compulsory training frameworks.

Defining statutory and mandatory training

Statutory training is required by law, while mandatory training is deemed essential by the organisation for safe and efficient service delivery and personnel safety. Both types of training help reduce organisational risks and ensure compliance with policies, guidelines, and legal frameworks.

The subjects covered in mandatory training vary depending on the workforce's needs, the organisation's type of service, and the risks encountered in the workplace. Examples of mandatory and statutory training include fire safety, data protection, child safeguarding, and basic life support. Employers can set their protocols and policies on statutory and mandatory training, with staff contractually obliged to follow.

Statutory training comes from crucial legislation, such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Data Protection Act 1998. Common terms in compliance training include ‘mandatory’, ‘statutory’, ‘essential’, and ‘compulsory’ training. Training and compliance departments must agree on common terminologies to ensure all training delivered meets local and national requirements. Effective training planning and implementation involves gathering the necessary information on the courses covered under statutory and mandatory training and logging and evaluating all training delivered within the organisation.

Click here to read about the differences between mandatory and statutory training.

Importance of statutory and mandatory training

Statutory and mandatory training is essential for creating a safe, healthy, and effective workplace environment. It helps deliver safe and effective care, supports staff to meet professional standards, and promotes a positive workplace culture.

Employers must empower compliance and training departments to listen to and support employees and management. Training and compliance professionals must review the workplace's statutory and mandatory training subjects to create a safer working environment, improve service delivery and outcomes, and promote a better workplace culture.

The following are some benefits of statutory and mandatory training:

• Empower staff with the appropriate knowledge and skills to carry out their duties safely, minimising risks to themselves and others.
• It helps with the safe use of equipment and medical devices.
• It helps employers to meet their legislative and regulatory requirements, including the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which places duties on employers to protect their employees' health, safety, and well-being.
• Helps to prevent workplace conflicts and violence by offering training on complaint handling and conflict resolution.
• Supports staff in meeting professional standards, including those set out in the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), General Dental Council (GDC), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), General Medical Council (GMC), and Skills for Care Codes of Conduct.
• It helps to promote a positive culture in practice, builds on a safer working environment, improves service delivery and outcomes, and promotes a better workplace culture.
• Feedback from employees and managers is critical to identifying concerns and providing better training opportunities.

Click here to find out more about the importance of statutory and mandatory training.

Consequences of not completing statutory and mandatory training

Statutory and mandatory training ensures a safe, healthy, and effective workplace culture. Failure to provide proper training can lead to various negative consequences, including an unsafe working environment, increased likelihood of incidents and accidents, failure to deliver high-quality care, poor staff engagement, increased dissatisfaction with work, and increased incidence of mental health problems. These consequences can also result in severe implications for service users, staff members, managers, and the organisation as a whole.

Suppose staff members fail to complete the required statutory and mandatory training. In that case, they may face an impact on their pay, progression, and development, loss of professional registration and indemnity, and claims relating to work-related injuries or ill health. Health and social care managers are also expected to provide time, opportunities, and access to mandatory training for all staff. They may face consequences like halting their progression or not receiving their pay increment if their teams need to meet their training targets.

Regulatory and legislative implications exist for organisations that fail to provide their staff with statutory and mandatory training. The Health and Safety Act 1974 requires employers to protect their employees' health, safety, and welfare, and they must instruct and train employees to deal with the risks. The UK’s health and social care regulators monitor and regulate compliance, i.e., the CQC, Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), Health Improvement Scotland, and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales.

They may issue an improvement notice, prosecute or fine an organisation for not meeting the standards. Therefore, it is crucial to provide adequate training to employees. Health and social care organisations must have appropriate systems to effectively support their employees in fulfilling their roles.

Click here to find out more about statutory and mandatory training guidelines.

Statutory and mandatory training for agency and bank workers

There needs to be more clarity surrounding how and which statutory and mandatory courses should be provided to locum, agency, temporary staff, and bank workers. These workers typically receive mandatory training from their employing agency, and it is the responsibility of each locum agency to outline their staff's access to this training. However, while these workers should not have to fund the training themselves, they do not have a statutory right to request paid time off to complete it.

Agency staff must keep up-to-date with mandatory training to maintain their professional qualifications and increase their chances of securing work placements. Organisations that use agency staff must ensure that these individuals have undergone training on delivering safe care and maintaining a safe working environment. This may be a contractual obligation in the agency contract or a shared arrangement between the agency and the organisation. Even if an agency worker only works one shift, they pose significant risks if they have not been adequately trained or inducted into the organisation.

Recruitment agencies in the health and social care sector must adopt healthy workplace initiatives similar to those in NHS and private sector organisations. They should address the issues raised by their workforce, including ensuring a healthy and safe working environment for staff and patients.

Barriers to engaging with statutory and mandatory training

Several barriers are related to the design, implementation, and acceptance of statutory and mandatory training. Despite the importance of compliance training, many organisations fail to meet their targets due to time and cost constraints, quality and relevance issues, access and inclusion challenges, and hostile culture.

Many health and social care organisations lack the resources to release staff for training. Often, staff may feel obligated to prioritise their duties over training. The number of mandatory and statutory training courses can also become overwhelming, leading to an increased emphasis on online learning for almost all subjects. Additionally, access and inclusion to training can be problematic for staff with different working hours or accessibility needs, and a lack of IT equipment and support can hinder e-learning.

Lastly, a negative culture surrounding mandatory and statutory training can create a poor perception and reluctance to engage in training. Improving training quality, relevance, access, and inclusion can address these barriers and improve uptake. Training and compliance managers should invest in understanding the culture around mandatory training in their organisations to identify and address these challenges.

Promoting positive learning cultures within organisations

To promote positive learning cultures in organisations, compliance and training professionals should consider several factors when delivering statutory and mandatory training. These include time and cost, quality and relevance, assessment and inclusion, and culture.

Statutory and mandatory training should be completed during work time or with time off in lieu. Cost efficiency should not be the primary driver. All statutory and mandatory training courses should have defined objectives and outcomes. They should also be delivered appropriately and include various activities to suit different learning styles. Assessment should demonstrate understanding and application to practice, and feedback should be used to enhance provision. Mandatory and statutory training should be based on individual knowledge and experience, and recent training at a previous employer should be transferable.

Statutory and mandatory training should be relevant to support the individual's role, and organisations should map training to relevant workplace themes. Training should be accessible to all staff members' work patterns and locations, and staff should be offered support to improve their IT skills. Staff should understand the importance of statutory and mandatory training and value the organisation's learning provision.

Role of training and compliance teams in changing culture

Training and compliance professionals are crucial in changing the culture around statutory and mandatory training. They can use their questioning and influencing skills to identify issues and work with employers to deliver high-quality training programs that engage staff. They can also participate in staff side/management meetings, health and safety committees, and other forums to raise issues, suggest improvements, and share good practices.

Key questions that can facilitate action and change of culture include those related to time and cost, quality and relevance, access and inclusion, and culture. These questions help to evaluate current provisions, compliance, and culture around mandatory training. They can also help identify areas for improvement and develop an action plan for the partnership. Compliance and training professionals can also engage with key influencers, such as the chair and secretary of partnership forums, to discuss partnership working and assess the quality of training provided by external providers.

Ultimately, training and compliance professionals can help to create a positive learning culture within their organisations by ensuring that:

• It is delivered during work time
• It is relevant to staff roles and experience
• It is accessible to all staff
• It is valued by staff and employers alike.

Conclusion

The role of training and compliance professionals in UK health and social care workplaces is undeniably vital. They are significant in delivering workforce development programs, ensuring compliance with statutory and mandatory training, and advocating for staff needs. Employers should provide the necessary support and resources to ensure all staff members, regardless of their employment status, are capable of delivering safe care.

Compliance and training professionals must stay updated on the latest developments, regulations, and best practices in the industry. By doing so, they can play a pivotal role in shaping the future of health and social care workplaces, making them safer, more efficient, and ultimately better places for staff and service users.

Statutory and mandatory training frameworks provide essential guidelines for compliance and training professionals. By adhering to these frameworks and continually improving training provisions, organisations can ensure a positive workplace culture, improve staff well-being, and provide better care and services to their clients.

Last updated on 24-02-25