Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism

The training is named after Oliver McGowan, a young autistic man with a mild learning disability whose death in 2016 highlighted how urgently health and care staff need a better understanding of learning disability and autism. His family campaigned for change, and that campaign shaped the training that now carries his name.

The Health and Care Act 2022 requires CQC-registered service providers to make sure their staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is the government's preferred and recommended package for meeting this requirement.

What makes it different is who delivers it: sessions are co-delivered with people with lived experience of learning disability and autism. Staff do not just learn about people — they learn from them.

For larger organisations, the most sustainable way to roll out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is to have your own approved facilitating trainers — people who can deliver the Tier 2 training day inside your organisation, again and again, as new staff join. That is what our Train the Facilitating Trainer programme is for. It is why we say: we train the trainers.

The programme runs over two full face-to-face days. On day one, participants experience the complete Tier 2 content exactly as their future learners will — co-delivered with co-trainers with lived experience of learning disability and autism. Day two turns to the craft of delivery: co-facilitation practice, handling difficult questions, and working respectfully alongside co-trainers with lived experience.

Completion is not automatic — participants must take an active part and demonstrate real knowledge and confidence in the subject. Those who do become approved facilitating trainers, registered under the national programme, and always deliver alongside approved co-trainers with lived experience — the feature that makes this training what it is.