Mandatory training in new public sector jobs

New starters in the NHS, schools, councils and the Civil Service get a block of required training in the first days or weeks. It covers fire safety, safeguarding, data protection and health and safety. Some of it is statutory, meaning a law or statutory guidance requires it. The rest is mandatory, meaning the employer requires it for your role. You do it in work time, you are paid for it, and most of it has to be refreshed every one to three years.

Statutory and mandatory training

Statutory training comes from legal duties. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to give the information, instruction and training staff need to work safely, which covers fire safety, manual handling and risk awareness. Schools in England must give safeguarding training under Keeping Children Safe in Education. Data protection law means anyone handling personal data needs to know how to handle it.

Mandatory training is what your employer decides your particular job needs: conflict resolution for front-line staff, medicines management for nurses, lone working for community staff. In practice the two are grouped together, as “stat and mand” in the NHS or “core training” elsewhere.

Your written statement of employment particulars, which you should get on or before your first day, must say whether the employer requires you to complete any training and whether it pays for it.

In the NHS

NHS trusts in England largely follow a shared set of core subjects, so training done at one trust is often recognised at another. The usual core list is:

• fire safety
• health, safety and welfare
• infection prevention and control
• information governance and data security
• moving and handling
• safeguarding adults and children, at a level matching your role
• resuscitation or basic life support, for most clinical staff
• conflict resolution
• equality, diversity and human rights
• preventing radicalisation

Most of it is e-learning, with practical sessions for moving and handling and resuscitation. Clinical staff also get role-specific training, such as blood transfusion, medical devices or mental capacity. You usually have to finish the core modules before working unsupervised, and compliance is tracked on an electronic staff record. Staff moving between trusts can often carry their records across, which is worth asking about if you are moving between NHS trusts.

In schools

All school staff in England must read at least Part one of Keeping Children Safe in Education and receive safeguarding and child protection training at induction, including online safety. Regular updates should follow during the year. You will be told who the designated safeguarding lead is and how to report a concern.

Other common training includes the Prevent duty, first aid for some roles, behaviour policy, data protection and fire safety. Support staff in SEND roles may also do moving and handling or medical needs training. Teachers’ inset days are often used for refreshers. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own safeguarding guidance with similar requirements.

In councils and the Civil Service

Councils typically require data protection, information security, health and safety, equality and diversity, and safeguarding for any role in contact with children or adults at risk. Front-line services add their own: manual handling for refuse crews, driver training for HGV drivers, lone working for housing officers, and approved training for social workers.

Civil Service departments give new starters required e-learning on security, data protection, counter-fraud and health and safety, plus anything specific to the department. Some posts need extra security training linked to their clearance level.

Are you paid for it?

Training your employer requires is part of your work and should be done in paid time. If you are asked to complete e-learning at home, ask how the time is recorded. For hourly paid staff, required training time counts as working time for the National Living Wage, which is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026, so it should not push your pay below that.

Bank and agency workers are often asked to keep their mandatory training up to date to get shifts. Agencies may let you do it online, and some pay for the time, so check before you start.

Keeping it up to date

How often you refresh depends on the subject and the employer: some topics yearly, others every two or three years. Your manager or the learning system will send reminders. Out-of-date mandatory training can stop you working certain shifts or using certain equipment, and some employers link it to pay progression or probation sign-off.

Keep your own record of what you have done and when, with certificates if you get them. It helps if you move jobs, and it counts towards continuing professional development for registered staff. The guide to your first week in a public sector job covers the rest of induction.