Children’s Homes Regulations 2015: What Training Your Staff Need

If you run or manage a children’s home in England, you won’t find one neat list of required training in the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. The duties are spread across several regulations, and the Department for Education’s guide to the Regulations fills in a lot of the detail.

This article is a plain-English summary of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 as they apply to staff training. Each requirement names the regulation or Guide paragraph it comes from, so you can check it for yourself or show it to an inspector. Where something is common practice rather than a legal requirement, we say so.

What are the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015?

The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/541) came into force on 1 April 2015. They set the standards every children’s home in England has to meet, and Ofsted inspects homes against them.

Alongside them sits the Department for Education’s Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards (April 2015). It explains what each regulation expects in practice, and it carries real weight. Regulation 15 says the registered person must have regard to it, and the Guide says Ofsted must too (para 1.8).

For training, these are the parts that matter:

• Part 2: the nine quality standards (regulations 4 to 14), plus behaviour management (regulation 19) and restraint (regulation 20)
• Part 3: the experience, qualifications and development of managers and providers (regulations 28 and 29)
• Part 4: staffing, qualifications and staff development (regulations 31 to 33)
• Part 5: the behaviour management policy and its records (regulation 35)

What training must every member of staff have?

Regulation 33 is the core of it. The registered person must make sure that each employee:

• completes an appropriate induction (33(1)(a))
• completes a period of probation, if the appointment is permanent (33(1)(b))
• undertakes appropriate continuing professional development (33(4)(a))
• receives practice-related supervision from someone with appropriate experience (33(4)(b))
• has their performance and fitness for the role appraised at least once every year (33(4)(c))

The Regulations don’t say what an induction must contain or how often supervision should happen. The Guide leaves that to the home’s workforce plan, which should set out “the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications)” (para 10.8). It also says induction is where staff should be made familiar with the home’s whistleblowing procedures (para 10.9).

Two of the quality standards add a skills test on top. The leadership and management standard requires the registered person to “ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child” (regulation 13(2)(c)). The protection of children standard requires staff to “have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm” (regulation 12(2)(a)(iii)). Neither uses the word training, but safeguarding training is the obvious way to give staff that second skill, and the Guide lists safeguarding as core training for the workforce plan (para 10.8).

First aid on every shift

Regulation 31(2)(a) says that “at all times, at least one person on duty at the home has a suitable first aid qualification”. The Regulations don’t name a course, so what counts as suitable is the home’s judgement. The Guide also expects staff to have the skills to “administer basic first aid and minor illness treatment” (para 7.12).

Courses you could consider include Emergency First Aid at Work, the full three-day First Aid at Work course and Paediatric First Aid. Which one fits depends on the ages and needs of the children you look after. Our paediatric first aid guide explains more about that course.

The Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (regulation 32)

Anyone working in a care role in a children’s home must hold the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England), or a qualification the registered person considers equivalent (regulation 32(4)). They have two years to get it, counted from the date they “started working in a care role in a home” (regulation 32(5)). So the two years can start at a previous home, not the day they joined yours.

The rule covers agency and bank staff in care roles too (Guide para 10.12). The registered person can defer the deadline for someone who isn’t working, or hasn’t worked, in a care role for a prolonged period, or who works or has worked part time (regulation 32(6)). The Guide gives sick leave and maternity leave as examples, along with cases where the hours someone works make the timescale unreasonable (para 10.12).

Deciding what counts as equivalent is the registered person’s call, based on whether the content of someone’s existing qualification closely matches the Level 3 Diploma (para 10.13).

Annex A of the Guide has a table to start from. It treats the Level 3 Children and Young People’s Workforce Diploma (social care pathway) as equivalent, because the Level 3 Diploma replaced it, and traces the older NVQ 3 in Caring for Children and Young People and NVQ 3 Health and Social Care to that diploma. Even so, it asks you to check that the units someone completed correspond with the Level 3 Diploma’s units (Annex A, para 1.2), and to keep a record of how you decided (para 1.3).

If you use agency staff, the Guide expects them to meet the same qualification rule and to have any induction they need before they start. It also says no more than half the staff on duty at any one time, day or night, should be from an external agency (paras 10.16 and 10.17).

Managers and providers: the Level 5 Diploma and CPD (regulations 28 and 29)

Registered managers have their own test under regulation 28. To have the appropriate experience and qualification, a manager needs:

• at least two years, within the last five, in a position relevant to the residential care of children
• at least one year in a role supervising and managing staff who work in a care role
• the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare (England), or an equivalent, within three years of starting to manage a home

The registered provider can defer that three-year deadline if the manager isn’t managing, or hasn’t managed, a home for a prolonged period, or manages or has managed one part time (regulation 28(4)).

Regulation 29 covers the people at the top. It requires the registered manager to undertake the continuing professional development they need to manage the home. An individual provider must do the same for running the home. Where the provider is an organisation, it must make sure its responsible individual undertakes the CPD they need to supervise the home’s management, and a partnership must make sure one of its partners does. The Guide adds that managers, deputies and shift leaders “should have substantial relevant experience of working in a children’s home and have successfully completed their induction for the home in which they are employed” (para 10.21).

Behaviour management and restraint (regulations 19, 20 and 35)

This is the most detailed part of the Regulations and the Guide.

Regulation 19 bans any measure of control or discipline that is excessive, unreasonable or on its list of prohibited measures. That list includes corporal punishment, any punishment involving food or drink, restricting a child’s contact with family or friends (other than by court order or under regulation 22), using or withholding medication or medical or dental treatment, deliberately depriving a child of sleep, and punishing a group of children for one child’s behaviour.

Regulation 20 says restraint is only permitted to prevent injury to any person (including the child), serious damage to anyone’s property, or, in a secure children’s home, a child absconding. Any restraint “must be necessary and proportionate”. The Regulations don’t prevent a deprivation of liberty that a court order authorises (regulation 20(3)), and the Guide is clear that a home “cannot routinely deprive a child of their liberty without a court order” (para 9.63).

Regulation 35 requires a behaviour management policy setting out how good behaviour is promoted and which measures of control, discipline and restraint may be used.

When one of those measures is used, a record must be made within 24 hours. Within 48 hours the registered person, or someone they authorise, must speak to the member of staff who used it and sign the record. Within 5 days they must add confirmation that they have spoken to the child about it. Regulation 35(4) makes one narrow exception: these recording steps don’t apply to restraint that is planned or provided for as a matter of routine in the child’s EHC plan or statement of special educational needs. Any other restraint must still be recorded (Guide para 9.61).

Where restraint training comes in

Regulation 35 doesn’t mention training. The training expectations are in the Guide:

• The behaviour management policy “should set out how staff are trained and supported to meet the child’s needs” (para 9.37).
• The registered person is responsible for making sure all staff “have been adequately trained in the principles of restraint and any restraint techniques appropriate to the needs of the children the home is set up to care for”, as defined in the home’s Statement of Purpose (para 9.57).
• Staff need to show they fully understand the risks of any restraint technique used in the home. Techniques that may interfere with breathing, and holds by the neck that could injure the spine, are not permissible in any circumstances (para 9.56).

Read with the regulation 13(2)(c) duty on experience, qualifications and skills, that means anyone who might have to intervene physically should be trained to do it safely, in techniques that suit the children you care for.

Choosing a restraint or positive handling course

Paragraph 9.58 of the Guide covers choosing the training itself. Whoever commissions restraint training should be satisfied that it fits the home’s approach to restraint and suits the children the home cares for. They “should see evidence that any restraint techniques the training advocates for have been medically assessed” as safe for children who are still developing. After that, the registered person should review how well the system is working and check that its medical assessment stays up to date.

Our positive handling and restraint training can be delivered on site, at your home.

The nine quality standards for children’s homes (regulation 4)

Regulation 4 sets out nine quality standards, and each one is defined in its own regulation:

1. The quality and purpose of care standard (regulation 6)
2. The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard (regulation 7)
3. The education standard (regulation 8)
4. The enjoyment and achievement standard (regulation 9)
5. The health and well-being standard (regulation 10)
6. The positive relationships standard (regulation 11)
7. The protection of children standard (regulation 12)
8. The leadership and management standard (regulation 13)
9. The care planning standard (regulation 14)

Staff skills run through all nine. The very first standard is that children are cared for by staff who understand the home’s aims and use that understanding to meet their needs (regulation 6(1)). The staffing and qualification duties themselves sit in regulations 31 to 33, covered above.

Keeping it on record: the workforce plan

The Guide expects every home to have a workforce plan (para 10.8). It should cover:

• the management and staffing structure, the experience and qualifications of the staff in it, and any further training they need to deliver the home’s Statement of Purpose
• timescales for induction, probation and core training such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications
• how poor performance is managed and improved
• the process and timescales for supervision of practice, with records kept

It should be updated as staff complete training, and used to record ongoing training and CPD needs, including the manager’s. The staffing structure, staff qualifications and supervision arrangements also belong in your Statement of Purpose (para 10.10). If you keep a training matrix, it can feed straight into this plan.

How often should training be refreshed?

Neither the Regulations nor the Guide set refresher intervals for most training. The one fixed point is the yearly appraisal (regulation 33(4)(c)). The rest is for your workforce plan, based on the children you care for and the risks in your home.

First aid is the exception, because HSE guidance gives you a starting point. HSE guidance on workplace first aid says that first aid certificates, whether First Aid at Work, Emergency First Aid at Work or other appropriate training, are valid for three years, and strongly recommends annual refresher training in between (L74, paras 74 and 75). It’s written for workplaces in general rather than children’s homes, but it’s a sensible benchmark when you set your own refresh dates.

On-site courses from Ascend

We deliver training on site, at your home, so your team learns together in the place they work. Our physical intervention training is led by Tony Umpleby, an NFPS-approved physical intervention trainer.

Courses that link to the duties above include:

• Positive handling and restraint training (Guide paras 9.56 to 9.58)
• Introduction to safeguarding children (regulation 12)
• Emergency First Aid at Work and Paediatric First Aid (regulation 31)

You’ll find more courses for children’s homes on our training for children’s homes page. If you’d rather talk it through, call us on 01302 969614 or get in touch online and we’ll help you work out what your home needs.

This article summarises the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the DfE Guide as published on legislation.gov.uk and gov.uk, checked in November 2026. It isn’t legal advice. For anything specific to your home, read the full text or take advice.