The Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF) Explained

Ask ten different healthcare providers what "mandatory training" means and you'll often get ten different course lists, delivered ten different ways, refreshed on ten different schedules. The Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF) exists specifically to close that gap — a single, nationally recognised standard for what statutory and mandatory training should actually cover, developed so that a training record from one employer means the same thing at the next.

What the CSTF actually is

The CSTF is a standardised framework for statutory and mandatory training across UK healthcare, developed by Skills for Health in 2013 in collaboration with employers, industry experts, and professional bodies including the Resuscitation Council and the Infection Prevention Society. Skills for Health continues to manage and update it. Rather than dictating a specific training provider or course format, the CSTF defines the minimum learning outcomes that statutory and mandatory training needs to achieve, how often it should be refreshed, and the legislation or expert guidance behind each subject — employers and training providers then deliver against those defined outcomes in whatever format suits their organisation.

The subjects the CSTF standardises

For England, the CSTF covers 11 core subjects: equality, diversity and human rights; health, safety and welfare; conflict resolution; fire safety; infection prevention and control; moving and handling; safeguarding adults; preventing radicalisation; safeguarding children; resuscitation; and information governance (called Information Governance and Data Security in the framework). These are the subjects most UK healthcare employers already recognise as their statutory and mandatory training baseline — the CSTF's contribution is defining a consistent standard for what "competent" actually means in each of them, rather than leaving each employer to interpret it independently.

The framework also sets how often each subject should be refreshed. The England Subject Guide (version 1.1, June 2021) gives these intervals:

Skills for Health lists version 1.1 as the current England guide on its website; its UK-wide version covers 12 subjects, adding Violence and Aggression for Wales and an NHS version of conflict resolution. Always check the current subject guide for the full audience definitions and any changes before fixing your own refresher periods.

Who uses it, and why that matters for compliance

The CSTF is designed for use by any UK healthcare employer — NHS trusts, independent providers, and voluntary sector organisations alike — not just NHS bodies. That matters because CQC-registered providers must show that staff have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience to work safely and receive the training they need (Regulations 12 and 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014), and Skills for Health says the CSTF can help employers evidence this. The CSTF is not itself a legal requirement, but a provider whose statutory and mandatory training doesn't map cleanly to CSTF-defined outcomes may find it harder to show that its training meets a recognised national standard, even if the provider's own training genuinely covers similar ground.

One newer area sits outside the 11 England subjects. Under the Health and Care Act 2022, CQC-registered providers must ensure staff receive learning disability and autism training suited to their role, and the government's Oliver McGowan Code of Practice, finalised in September 2025, names the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training as its preferred and recommended package. Skills for Health consulted in 2023 on adding a learning disability and autism subject to the CSTF, but version 1.1 of the England guide does not include one. See our guide to Oliver McGowan training.

Why "CSTF-aligned" is worth checking for, not assuming

Because the CSTF is a voluntary standard rather than a legal requirement in its own right, not every training course marketed as "mandatory training" is actually built against CSTF-defined outcomes. A provider auditing its training programme should check whether each course maps explicitly to CSTF learning outcomes for the relevant subject, rather than assuming that because a course covers the same broad topic — fire safety, say, or safeguarding — it meets the same competency bar the framework defines.

Building CSTF alignment into a training programme

• Map your existing mandatory training subjects against the 11 CSTF subjects rather than assuming your own subject list already lines up — gaps or mismatches are easier to fix before an inspection than during one.
• Check CSTF alignment with your training provider directly, particularly for subjects like safeguarding and infection prevention and control where the specific learning outcomes matter as much as the topic title.
• Treat CSTF alignment as a floor, not a ceiling. Some care settings will genuinely need training that goes beyond the 11 core subjects — the CSTF standardises the statutory baseline, not the full scope of what a given service might require.
• Keep training records that reference CSTF outcomes explicitly where possible, since this gives inspectors and commissioners a recognised reference point rather than relying on a provider's own internal course descriptions.

How the CSTF differs from an individual employer's own training policy

An individual employer's mandatory training policy is free to go further than the CSTF, add local subjects relevant to its own service, and set its own refresher cadence beyond what the framework recommends. What it can't easily do is substitute for CSTF alignment entirely and still expect the same recognition from commissioners or a new employer reviewing a staff member's training history. The practical value of the framework is portability: a member of staff whose training genuinely maps to CSTF-defined outcomes carries a training record that means something consistent when they move between employers, rather than one that has to be re-verified from scratch each time.

Frequently asked questions

Is the CSTF a legal requirement?
No. The CSTF itself is a voluntary standard, not legislation — but the subjects it covers (fire safety, safeguarding, infection prevention and control, and others) are often independently legally required, and the CSTF can help providers evidence that they meet CQC's expectations on suitably trained, competent staff.

Does the CSTF apply outside the NHS?
Yes. It's designed for use by any UK healthcare employer, including independent and voluntary sector providers, not only NHS trusts.

How many subjects does the CSTF cover?
11 core subjects for England, spanning safety-critical topics like fire safety, moving and handling, resuscitation, and safeguarding, through to information governance and preventing radicalisation.

Aligning statutory and mandatory training with a recognised national standard makes compliance easier to evidence and easier to defend at inspection. Learnsignal's CPD training library covers statutory and mandatory training requirements for healthcare and care organisations, including the subject areas the CSTF standardises, alongside Learnsignal's guide to the difference between statutory and mandatory training.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Check the current Core Skills Training Framework subject guide and your regulator's requirements when setting your own training policy.