Oliver McGowan training: do staff need Tier 1 or Tier 2?

Oliver McGowan was an autistic teenager with a learning disability who died in 2016 after being given medication his family had said he should not have. The training that carries his name became a legal requirement under the Health and Care Act 2022: every CQC-registered provider must ensure its staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is the government's preferred way of meeting that duty.

For people who need to understand learning disability and autism but are not providing care or support. In a care provider that is usually office and support roles. It is an e-learning module followed by a one-hour interactive online session co-delivered by people with lived experience.

For people who may provide care or support to autistic people or people with a learning disability, whether or not that is their main job. Care workers, senior carers, nurses, registered managers, team leaders, and anyone who steps in on the floor. It is the same e-learning followed by a one-day interactive session, again co-delivered with people who have lived experience. The lived-experience element is not optional; training that skips it is not the Oliver McGowan training.

1. List every role in the service.
2. Ask one question of each: could this person ever provide care or support to someone with a learning disability or an autistic person? If yes, Tier 2.
3. Write the decision down against the role. That document is what an inspector will ask for.
4. Where a Tier 1 role occasionally covers care, move it to Tier 2. Under-training is the risk, not over-training.

Completion of both parts has to be recorded, with the date and the tier, against each person. Refresher expectations come from the code of practice, so record a review date as well. When staff train through KCP Training Centre the completion lands on their record in Exhale HR with the review date already set, so the matrix shows who is covered and who is not without anyone chasing certificates. The Care Certificate does not cover this; it is a separate requirement.