Infection prevention and control training: a free pack for your staff

For CQC-registered providers, the code of practice you must have regard to expects infection prevention and control training for all staff and volunteers, and Skills for Care lists it as training every adult social care worker needs. The code itself isn't mandatory: you can meet the regulation another way if you can show it's as effective or better.

All staff, including support staff, volunteers, agency and locum staff and contractors' staff, the code says, with content that reflects each person's role and responsibility. Skills for Health's framework sets Level 1 for all staff and Level 2 for healthcare staff involved in direct patient care.

In healthcare, Skills for Health's framework sets every three years at Level 1 and every year at Level 2, and a refresher for all staff when national guidelines or your own policy change. In adult social care, Skills for Care sets a minimum refresher period of three years, and a refresher when a new risk or activity comes in.

In Skills for Health's framework, Level 1 is for all staff: how each person can help prevent infection, the standard precautions for their role, and when their own health puts others at risk. Level 2 adds outcomes for healthcare staff giving direct patient care, such as the chain of infection, how infections spread, decontamination, risk assessment and alert organisms.

Yes. The staff session covers when and how to clean your hands, and how to choose, put on and take off personal protective equipment. You then check that each person can do both in practice: the Care Certificate asks workers to demonstrate them, and the code expects you to assess staff skills regularly.

The adult social care guidance the UK Health Security Agency and the Department of Health and Social Care published on 28 October 2026 applies across care settings, with practical adaptations for care in someone's own home, and Skills for Care says the training should be relevant to the setting, whether a person's own home, a care home or a community service. With the tailored training, we tailor the training content to your organisation, its processes and likely scenarios.

The staff session's topics follow the knowledge in standard 15. An assessor checks what each worker knows and does, hand hygiene and protective equipment included, so neither option awards the Care Certificate.

Three editable files: a staff session (PowerPoint, with speaker notes), a quiz with answers and a training record to sign (Word), and a rollout guide (Word). Manager training comes with the tailored training.

The free pack is the template: three editable files you fill in, present and record yourself, with one staff session for everyone, no manager training and no certificate of completion. We build the tailored training for your organisation and run it for you: distinct manager and employee training, a branded company site with your training content, every member of staff invited by email and reminded until they complete it, and a dated certificate for every completion. Neither replaces your checks of each person's skills in practice.