CareHomeDeskCareHomeDeskCAR 2012 Regulation 10 requires that any employee who may encounter asbestos in their work receives suitable awareness training. In care homes, this includes maintenance operatives, grounds staff, decorators, cleaners and any staff who may access service voids, ceiling spaces or building fabric.
Regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 requires that any employee whose work could foreseeably expose them to asbestos receives adequate information, instruction and training. In a care home, this extends well beyond specialist tradespeople to include maintenance operatives, grounds staff, decorators, cleaners, and any member of staff who may access service voids, ceiling spaces, roof areas or other parts of the building fabric where ACMs could be present.
Asbestos-related disease remains one of the leading causes of occupational death in the UK, and the group most at risk today is not asbestos removal specialists -- who work under strict licensed controls -- but tradespeople and maintenance staff who encounter ACMs unexpectedly during routine work in buildings constructed before asbestos use was banned. Cleaners and maintenance operatives working in pre-2000 buildings without awareness of where ACMs are located are disproportionately represented in modern asbestos exposure incidents.
Asbestos awareness training should cover the properties of asbestos and the health risks of exposure, the different types of ACM and where they are commonly found in buildings of the relevant age, how to recognise materials that may contain asbestos, what to do if a material is suspected or found to be damaged, and how to access and interpret the site's asbestos register. It should be specific enough that staff understand the practical implications for their own role, not just generic health and safety content.
Anyone whose role could bring them into contact with building fabric that might contain ACMs should receive this training before starting relevant work, and refresher training at regular intervals -- commonly annually -- is considered good practice given the severity of the risk and the consequences of a lapse in awareness. New starters in maintenance, grounds and housekeeping roles should have this training built into their induction rather than added later.
Regulation 10 training is a legal requirement, not a discretionary addition to induction, and the record for each employee should show their name, the date of training, the training provider, and the specific topics covered, so that compliance can be demonstrated for each individual member of staff rather than relying on a generic assertion that 'staff are trained'. This level of record-keeping is what HSE and CQC inspectors will expect to see if asbestos awareness compliance is reviewed.
CareHomeDesk gives you compliance checklists, maintenance logs, and contractor management tools built around exactly this kind of knowledge.