Staffing policy (Reg 18 staffing)

1. What the regulation says

Sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced persons must be deployed in order to meet the requirements of this Part.

receive such appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal as is necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform.

The full text of the regulation is at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2936/regulation/18. Where this policy and the regulation diverge, the regulation wins.

2. Plain British summary

You have to deploy enough suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to meet Part 3. Staff have to receive appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal. Where staff are health or social-care registered professionals, they have to be enabled to give their regulator evidence of meeting professional standards.

3. Scope

This policy applies to all staffing decisions across : workforce planning, recruitment, induction, supervision, appraisal, training, professional development, continuing professional competence, and the support a member of staff receives day to day. It covers every clinical and non-clinical role, employed and contracted staff, agency and locum cover, and external parties working alongside the team.

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4. Roles and responsibilities

• Registered Manager: accountable for Reg 18 across every site. Maintains the workforce plan; reviews staffing levels against the plan weekly; signs off the annual training cycle.
• Nominated Individual: holds provider-side accountability.
• HR Lead: operates the recruitment cycle, supervision and appraisal cadence, training-matrix register currency, professional-registration verification.
• Clinical Lead: accountable for the clinical-competence component of Reg 18: assesses clinical fitness for role, advises on clinical training needs, confirms clinical-skills currency.
• Line managers: deliver supervision, appraisal, day-to-day support; surface workload-and-capability concerns.
• All staff: engage with supervision and appraisal honestly; complete mandatory training within the required windows; raise capability or workload concerns to their line manager.

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5. Procedure

The Reg 18 procedure operationalises the staffing duty across the workforce lifecycle.

1. Workforce plan. The Registered Manager maintains a workforce plan: the role-and-headcount required to deliver the regulated activity safely at each location, by role, by shift pattern. The plan is reviewed quarterly and on any change of service shape.
2. Sufficient numbers. Daily staffing levels are checked against the workforce plan. Where actual is below planned, the gap is filled (own-staff cover, bank, agency) or service activity is reduced to a safe level. A pattern of repeated gaps triggers a workforce-plan review.
3. Recruitment. Recruitment follows the Reg 19 fit-and-proper-persons-employed process (Schedule 3 information per the Fit and Proper Persons Employed Policy). Sufficiency includes the right skill mix, not just headcount.
4. Induction. New staff complete induction before unsupervised work begins. Induction includes role-specific training, Reg 18 mandatory training topics, the platform's tour, the provider's policies, and a buddy or mentor arrangement for the first weeks.
5. Supervision. Supervision runs per the Supervision Policy. Cadence per role and per session type (one-to-one, group, peer, clinical, reflective practice). The platform's supervision register holds the record of every session.
6. Appraisal. Annual appraisal for every member of staff. Appraisal covers the year's performance against role expectations, training completion, professional development plan, any concerns surfaced, the year ahead's objectives. The appraisal record sits against the person record.
7. Continuing professional development. Each member of staff has a personal CPD plan aligned to the role and any professional-registration requirements. The CPD plan is reviewed at appraisal.
8. Professional registration. Where the role requires professional registration (NMC, GMC, HCPC, GDC, GPhC, Social Work England, etc.), the registration is verified against the live register at appointment, the renewal date is on the assurance calendar, and lapses are escalated immediately. Lapsed registration means the role cannot be performed.
9. Capability and conduct concerns. Where a capability or conduct concern surfaces (in supervision, appraisal, incident review, complaint, peer report), the concern is recorded and the appropriate process runs: capability process for skills-and-competence concerns; conduct process for behaviour or safeguarding concerns. Both processes preserve the staff member's rights and the service users' safety.
10. Workforce review at governance meeting. Aggregate workforce metrics (vacancy rate, sickness rate, training-currency rate, supervision-current rate, appraisal-current rate, professional-registration-currency rate) are reviewed monthly at the clinical governance meeting.

6. Training requirement

The training matrix covers the role-by-topic mandatory training requirements. Standard categories:

• Statutory and mandatory training for every role: safeguarding (level by role), Mental Capacity Act awareness, equality and diversity, information governance, health and safety, fire safety, infection prevention and control, manual handling.
• Clinical mandatory training for clinical roles: resuscitation (BLS, ILS, ALS by role), medicines management, sepsis recognition (where in scope), consent.
• Role-specific training per role per the role's competency framework.
• Professional development per the professional-regulator's revalidation cycle (where applicable).

Training records held in the tenant's training matrix register; renewals surfaced on the assurance calendar.

7. Audit

Compliance with this policy is monitored by the HR Lead and the Registered Manager jointly:

• Weekly staffing-versus-plan check: actual versus planned headcount per shift; gaps logged and addressed.
• Monthly training-currency dashboard: training matrix percentages by role and topic. Below-threshold cells investigated.
• Quarterly supervision-currency audit: percentage of staff with current supervision (per cadence) against the workforce list. Patterns of slipping cadence flagged.
• Annual appraisal completion: percentage of staff appraised in the year; outliers reviewed.
• Annual workforce plan review: the plan itself reviewed against the year's experience and the year ahead.

Audit findings recorded in the tenant's audit register; actions logged in the improvement-actions register.

8. Record-keeping

Staffing records (workforce plan, recruitment records, induction records, supervision records, appraisal records, training matrix entries, CPD plans, professional-registration verifications, capability and conduct records) are held for the duration of the staff member's tenure plus a minimum of 6 years after the end of tenure under the Limitation Act 1980, aligned to the standard limitation period.

Verivius preserves the per-record audit trail indefinitely while the workspace is active.

9. Related policies in this pack

• Fit and Proper Persons (Staff) Policy (hscra-reg-19-fit-and-proper-persons-employed)
• Registered Manager Policy (hscra-reg-7-registered-manager)
• Good Governance Policy (hscra-reg-17-good-governance)
• Safe Care and Treatment Policy (hscra-reg-12-safe-care-and-treatment)

10. Document control

This sample policy template was issued by Verivius as part of the Mock Inspection design partner onboarding pack. It is a template, not a substitute for legal advice or the tenant's own policy-development process. Where this template and the live regulation diverge, the live regulation wins.