Care home training matrix template, with Skills for Care's refresher periods

A training matrix is the page an inspector asks for within the first hour. It answers a simple question: is everyone on your rota trained to do the job safely, and do you know when that runs out? Below is a template you can copy into Excel or Google Sheets, the core topics with Skills for Care's suggested refresher periods, and how to keep it honest.

Part 1: the topics and refresher periods

This table follows Skills for Care's Statutory and mandatory training guide for adult social care employers (the December 2025 edition, which replaced the old "core and mandatory" guidance). It is guidance, not law. Skills for Care separates statutory training ("usually required by law") from mandatory training, which your organisation decides. You set your own periods from your risk assessments and roles, and the refresher clock for most topics restarts when someone completes a recognised adult social care qualification that covers the topic.

Skills for Care's guide also lists additional topics as examples, such as mental capacity and deprivation of liberty, data protection, equality and diversity, and dementia. It says no refresher periods are advised for those, so set your own.

The Oliver McGowan Code

Since 1 July 2022 the law has required registered providers to ensure staff receive training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role, and the Oliver McGowan Code of Practice, final from 6 September 2025, sets out how. It applies to all CQC-registered health and adult social care providers in England, and CQC takes it into account. Record the tier each person has completed.

New starters: the Care Certificate

CQC has said it expects to see providers using the Care Certificate, so induct new care workers to its 16 standards (updated in March 2025). Add a "Care Certificate" column with the completion date, and for anyone doing the newer Ofqual-regulated Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification, record that too.

Part 2: the training matrix template

Copy this into a spreadsheet. One row per person, one column per topic. In each cell write the date completed; colour the cell by its due date.

Home: ____________ Updated by: ____________ Date: ____________

Colour key:

• Green: in date.
• Amber: due within 30 days. Book it now.
• Red: expired, or never done. Decide whether the person can work the shift.
• Grey / N/A: not required for this role (for example medication for a housekeeper).

A filled-in example

Your periods may differ; this example uses three years for most topics and one year for basic life support. Names are examples.

Read the example the way an inspector would: Lucy works nights alone on a unit with an expired safeguarding course and basic life support; Jake has never done his Oliver McGowan training. Both need a date booked, and the manager needs to decide whether Lucy should be on nights before then.

How to keep a training matrix inspection-ready

1. Include everyone on the rota. Bank staff, night staff, housekeeping, kitchen and maintenance too. Regulation 19 covers bank and agency staff, so ask agencies for their workers' training records.
2. Record the date, not just a tick. "Done" tells nobody when it's due.
3. Keep the evidence. A certificate photo or the training provider's record behind each date.
4. Review it monthly. Book anything amber, and decide what you'll do about anything red.
5. Link it to the rota. The point of the matrix is to stop untrained staff working alone on a shift that needs the skill. Check it when you build the rota, not after.
6. Show competence, not just attendance. Back up key courses with observed practice and supervisions, especially moving and handling and medication.
7. Keep your ASC-WDS record up to date. To claim from the government's Learning and Development Support Scheme in 2026/27 (costs paid between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027), employers need an up-to-date account on Skills for Care's Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Skills for Care's guide, the Care Certificate, the Oliver McGowan Code, ASC-WDS and the Learning and Development Support Scheme are all for England. The grid itself works anywhere, but add the registration your nation requires and follow its rules:

• Wales: regulation 36 of the Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2017 requires an induction, appropriate supervision and appraisal, core training and specialist training for everyone working at the service. The Welsh Government's statutory guidance says social care workers complete the induction programme required by Social Care Wales (the All Wales Induction Framework for Health and Social Care) within the defined timescale, that further training needs are identified within the first month, and that providers carry out an annual training needs analysis. Care workers must be registered with Social Care Wales within six months of starting, and registration depends on qualifications in its framework. See our guide to Social Care Wales registration.
• Scotland: section 8 of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 requires care services to give staff appropriate training for their work and suitable help, including time off, to get further qualifications. Most care workers register with the SSSC with a condition to gain a qualification within a set time (usually three years). Add a column for the SSSC condition date. See our guide to SSSC registration.
• Northern Ireland: care workers must be registered with NISCC, which asks for post-registration training and learning (90 hours over each renewal period). RQIA inspects against the Department of Health's minimum standards; the residential care home standards, for example, say fire training is given at the start of employment and repeated at least twice every year, which is more often than many English matrices allow. See our guide to NISCC registration.

Nurses' NMC revalidation is the same everywhere.

Common mistakes

• Copying last year's matrix and changing a few dates, so leavers and new starters are wrong.
• One matrix for the whole group, so nobody can see a single home's position.
• Counting a course as done when the person only started the e-learning.
• No plan for red cells, which reads as "we knew and did nothing".

Or let ShiftComplete run it for you

ShiftComplete's training matrix is the same grid, kept up to date for you:

• Staff by course, green, amber (due within 30 days) and red, with the refresh period you set for each course.
• Certificate photos stored against each record.
• Staff see their own row on their phone; managers see everyone.
• The rota warns you before you put someone on whose mandatory training has lapsed.
• CSV export to help with your ASC-WDS return.
• A training snapshot goes into your one-click inspection pack, grouped under CQC's five key questions. See our CQC inspection checklist.

It runs in the browser on any phone, costs £2.49 per active staff member per month with no minimum or contract, and the first 60 days are free with no card. See it on our care homes page.