Complete Guide to Statutory and Mandatory Training.

Learn the difference between statutory and mandatory training and how you can better track your compliance.

As an employee, you might have come across the terms “statutory training” and “mandatory training”. It might be confusing to differentiate between the two, as they almost sound the same.

Both are requirements that employers are obligated to provide for their employees. However, there is a difference which separates them from each other.

In this blog, we’ll go through:

• What is statutory training?
• What is mandatory training?
• What’s the difference between statutory and mandatory training?
• Where does compliance come in?

Let’s get started.

What is statutory training?

Statutory training is training that is required by law or based on legislation.

This means that failure to provide such training could lead to prosecution, penalties, or even imprisonment.

This type of training is often required to ensure that organisations meet legal obligations, maintain safe working environments, or comply with regulations. Examples of statutory training include fire safety, data protection, and health and safety training.

What is mandatory training?

Mandatory training is training that an organisation deems necessary or compulsory for individuals to complete.

This type of training aims to ensure that employees have the required skills, knowledge, and behaviours to perform their job safely and effectively, and to protect clients/users and the organisation from harm.

The list of mandatory training requirements can vary depending on the organisation and the industry. However, common topics can include safeguarding, equality and diversity, manual handling, and infection prevention and control.

What’s the difference between statutory and mandatory training?

Statutory training refers to the training that is required by law or legislation. Certain individuals or organisations must complete this training to comply with legal requirements. On the other hand, mandatory training refers to the training that is required by an organisation or employer as a policy or standard practice.

While statutory training is legally mandated, mandatory training may vary depending on the organisation’s internal policies. It’s important to check with your specific organisation or industry to understand the exact requirements for both types of training.

It is important to note that while some mandatory training requirements may overlap with statutory training, the two are not interchangeable.

For instance, fire safety and health and safety training may be both statutory and mandatory training requirements, but not all mandatory training is statutory.

What is the statutory and mandatory training policy in the NHS?

The NHS in the UK has specific policies regarding statutory and mandatory training.

These policies may vary slightly depending on the specific NHS Trust or organisation, but generally, statutory training in the NHS includes training that is required by law or legislation, such as health and safety, infection control, fire safety, and safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.

Related: Complete guide to healthcare compliance

Mandatory training in the NHS typically refers to the training that is required by the NHS as an organisation, based on its policies and standards. This may include topics such as information governance, equality and diversity, manual handling, resuscitation, and basic life support.

It’s important to note that the exact list of mandatory and statutory training topics may vary between different NHS Trusts or organisations within the NHS.

To get the most accurate and up-to-date information on the specific statutory and mandatory training policy of the NHS Trust you are associated with, it is recommended to consult your organisation’s internal policies or reach out to your training or HR department for guidance.

Where does compliance come in?

Compliance is a term used by sectors like healthcare, legal, and financial to determine the training that needs to be completed by employees to ensure they’re hitting statutory and mandatory training requirements.

Related: How to track competency data across Trusts

Having a good compliance rate can impact tangible things like insurance premiums, but it can also positively impact the knowledge of your staff which can lead to improved productivity, quicker processes, and better business outcomes.

Compliance has a bit of a reputation for being a click-and-tick exercise with low engagement rates. This of course poses a real concern for L&D teams. How can they encourage engagement? How can they demonstrate the value of compliance? How can they ensure high rates of compliance?

All of these questions can be answered with one simple solution.

Integrating an LMS can help you create a learning ecosystem where development is encouraged, and employees feel motivated and inspired.

Hosting compliance-based learning in a Think LMS means you can:

• Put compliance front and centre
• Send reminders and nudges
• Easily report on compliance rate

Let’s look at these in more detail.

Put compliance front and centre

Our LMS is easily configurable meaning you can create bespoke dashboards using simple blocks.

That means you can push compliance courses to your people as soon as they log into the LMS. This keeps compliance front of mind and can help encourage engagement.

Send reminders and nudges

Using our ThinkNudge tool, you can send automated reminders for course completion via email and text.

When employees are busy with other work, learning can quickly slip to the bottom of the to-do list.

Sending out regular reminders can help to get compliance back to front of mind.

Easily report on compliance rate

Reporting on compliance in a Think LMS means you don’t have to manually pull stats.

We’ve created a simple reporting dashboard that shows you your compliance rate as an organisation, all the way down to an individual level.

This gives managers good oversight on where they need to push learning to encourage 100% completion.

Ensuring compliance starts with an LMS

Overall, statutory and mandatory training requirements are important to ensure safe, efficient, and legal workplace operations.

Understanding and fulfilling these obligations can help maintain a safer working environment, reduce the risk of accidents, and meet regulatory requirements.

While both types of training may require time and resources to implement, investing in the development of employees can have significant long-term benefits.

Creating, hosting, tracking, and reporting on that learning can all be done within an LMS.

Related: Complete guide to the LMS

To see the Think LMS in action, book a demo with our team. We’ll show you how you can easily track compliance.

In the meantime, learn how Circle Health improved its compliance rate from 5 to 95%.