Surrey Training Hub Statement for Oliver McGowan Training July 2025
Background:
The mandatory requirement for all health and social care providers to demonstrate learning disability and autism training was introduced to legislation in the Health and Care Act 2022. Since then there has been a draft code of practice published (updated June 25)on Oliver McGowan Training which can be found here: Oliver McGowan draft code of practice on statutory learning disability and autism training - GOV.UK
The purpose of the code is to explain what is meant by training that is ‘appropriate to the person’s role’ and to provide guidance on how to ensure all staff receive such training.
CQC also have specific guidance on meeting the requirements, and what they would look for on an inspection: Training staff to support autistic people and people with a learning disability - Care Quality Commission
We would recommend organisation leaders ensure they are familiar with these sets of guidance to help inform decisions on staff training.
The Oliver McGowan Training pathway:
The training comprises of 2 parts:
1. Online training module available through e-learning for health: The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism - elearning for healthcare
2. Subsequently this must be followed up by either Tier 1 or Tier 2.
a. Tier 1: A live 1 hour online interactive session
b. Tier 2: A 1 day face to face training event
Surrey Training Hub position:
Our training hub was successful in securing funding in 2024 to assist with Surrey Heartlands primary care staff meeting the standards being set. From July 2024 we have been offering increasing numbers of places on our Tier 2 courses, which will run fully funded until Dec 2025.
We have been working with Active Prospects, a locally trained and sourced provider of training, who will be able to offer Primary Care organisations training going forward at a reasonable cost compared to fully private providers.
We have an obligation to ensure that it is Surrey Heartlands Primary Care staff only who are accessing our funded places, so we have set up systems of safeguarding for our bookings. Dates are regularly promoted on place-based WhatsApp education groups. To join, please e-mail: syheartlandsicb.surreytraininghub@nhs.net using your NHS e-mail account (to confirm your Surrey based workplace). Alternatively, you can also e-mail the address above requesting our list of current offers, but please note that we are constantly releasing new dates as time goes on, making our education broadcast group ideal for keeping up to date.
There are lots of dates on offer up to Dec 2025 for Tier 2 training, and shortly we will release some Tier 1 training dates as well.
We are investigating funding solutions to allow us to continue the offer into 2026 and will update in due course.
Please note that the Training Hub cannot advise on the individual decision making of each organisation on which level training each member or group of staff receives; this remains the responsibility of the organisational leadership team to assess.
Thank you to everyone for your continued commitment and hard work in Primary Care.
Dr Fliss Smee
On behalf of Surrey Training Hub
29th July 2025
