On Thursday 4 June 2026 Combined Healthcare hosted an Oliver McGowan Training Recruitment Day.
The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is named after Oliver McGowan, whose death shone a light on the need for health and social care staff to have better training. The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a statutory requirement that CQC-registered providers must ensure their staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is the standardised training that was developed for this purpose and is the preferred and recommended training for health and social care staff.
All colleagues at Combined Healthcare are required to complete the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism. To help facilitate the sessions, the Trust is looking to employ more experts with lived experience of autism or learning disability, to support this essential training as co-facilitators.
To support with the recruitment of experts with lived experience, the Oliver McGowan Training Recruitment Day was organised to share information about the training and its importance with those who may be interested in getting involved.
A number of teams from across the Trust, and our partner organisations, supported with the running of the day – including the Oliver McGowan team, the Trust’s recruitment team, the Combined Ability Network, Staffordshire Wellbeing College and the Citizens Advice Bureau.
Reasonable adjustments were also made for the process, which made the application process and the recruitment day accessible for anyone who may have attended and been interested in becoming an expert with lived experience.
The day was a success, and a number of co-facilitators have now been recruited to support the training. We look forward to welcoming them to the Trust and are extremely grateful for their support with this important training programme.
