Quick Answer
Mandatory training is training that an employer, regulator or organisation requires you to complete so you can work safely and meet legal, professional or local standards.
For doctors, this commonly includes areas such as:
Basic life support / resuscitation
Safeguarding adults and children
Infection prevention and control
Information governance / data protection
Fire safety
Moving and handling
Equality, diversity and human rights
Mental Capacity Act / consent
Health and safety
Why This Matters
Because mandatory training is one of the easiest ways for an appraiser to check that a doctor is keeping the basics of safe practice up to date across their role.
Mandatory training often covers areas that are fundamental to safe practice — resuscitation, safeguarding, infection control etc.
For appraisal, it is useful because it can show:
you are meeting the requirements of your employer or role
key safety training is current
there are no obvious gaps in essential knowledge
you are maintaining competence across your scope of practice
you have evidence of some structured CPD during the year
It is especially important for locums, IMGs and doctors working independently, because there may not be one employer routinely checking and chasing all of this for you. An appraiser may therefore look more closely at whether core training such as BLS and safeguarding is current.
What Does the Guidance Actually Require?
The Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF) is essentially the national benchmark used to standardise statutory and mandatory training.
The CSTF covers 11 core areas: conflict resolution, equality/diversity/human rights, fire safety, health/safety/welfare, infection prevention and control, information governance/data security, moving and handling, Prevent, resuscitation, safeguarding adults and safeguarding children.
These are normally completed through e-learning modules.
NHS England’s e-Learning for Healthcare provides a training programme aligned to the CSTF:
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/statutory-and-mandatory-training/
So, if you are doing a private appraisal, this is a great resource where you can complete your mandatory training for free and download certificates to include in your appraisal portfolio.
Importantly, mandatory training can contribute to your CPD, but many appraisals will only count a limited amount towards your annual CPD total — often around 10 hours, even if you have completed more training than this.
What Mandatory Training Should I Keep Up to Date?
Mandatory training is often an annual task, although the exact renewal period depends on the subject, your employer and your role.
Before your appraisal, check the expiry dates on your certificates and make sure any training relevant to your current scope of practice is still in date.
How to Evidence Mandatory Training
Upload the completion certificates for the mandatory training you have completed to the CPD section of your appraisal portfolio.
Ideally, your training should cover the 11 core CSTF areas:
Conflict resolution
Equality, diversity and human rights
Fire safety
Health, safety and welfare
Infection prevention and control
Information governance and data security
Moving and handling
Prevent
Resuscitation
Safeguarding adults
Safeguarding children
You do not normally need to write lengthy reflections for every mandatory-training module. The certificate and a clear record of the training completed are usually enough, unless a particular module generated useful learning that you want to reflect on.
What Good Looks Like
This is an area that should generally be easy to check off before your appraisal.
Your relevant mandatory training is:
completed
in date
clearly evidenced with certificates
uploaded to the appropriate section of your portfolio.
If important mandatory training is missing or out of date, your appraiser is very likely to pick this up and may make completion an urgent PDP objective or ask for it to be completed before the appraisal is fully signed off.
Common Mistakes
Assuming last year's certificates are still in date without checking the expiry date.
Completing the training but not uploading the certificates to the appraisal portfolio.
Using mandatory training as almost the whole CPD portfolio. It is useful CPD, but your learning should normally be broader than compliance modules alone.
Myth Trap
“If I have completed all my mandatory training, I have enough CPD for appraisal.”
No.
Mandatory training is useful evidence that you are keeping important safety and compliance requirements up to date, but it should usually form only one part of your wider CPD portfolio.
Completing a full set of mandatory modules is a good foundation. It is not the same thing as demonstrating a broad year of CPD.
Sources / Last Reviewed
Skills for Health — Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF) Sets out the national framework for the main statutory and mandatory training subjects used across health and social care.
NHS England e-Learning for Healthcare — Statutory and Mandatory Training Provides free e-learning aligned with the CSTF and is a useful option for doctors who do not have mandatory training provided by an employer.
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/statutory-and-mandatory-training/
GMC — Continuing Professional Development Sets out the expectation that doctors keep their knowledge and skills up to date across their whole scope of practice.
Last reviewed: August 2026