TRAINING
Professionals can navigate the nuances of complex scenarios.
pressure, effectively mitigating legal and operational risks. A necessity for verified competence has become
the bedrock of modern healthcare estates compliance. We are seeing a decisive move away from mere documentation toward Competence Validation. This transition makes high-quality, practical training an operational necessity, inevitable, rather than an optional. Joanne Thirlaway, a leading consultant for City & Guilds, emphasises that high-quality upskilling does far more than tick boxes for administrative compliance. In practice, it drives measurable improvements across the entire estate’s performance. By focusing on operational efficiency, high-level training reduces the time and cost associated with complex task completion, while simultaneously boosting technical productivity by minimising errors through skilled memory and hands-on familiarity. Ultimately, this move toward practical-based certification ensures that when an individual is signed off as ‘competent’, that status is grounded in a proven, demonstrated ability to manage risk mitigation within high- stakes, real-world environments.
a simulated environment builds automaticity, providing memory anchors allowing the professional to bypass panic and follow HTM protocols accurately. Operating and authorising maintenance within
Gemma Bolton
Gemma serves as the marketing executive at PPL Training, where she leverages over two years of specialised experience in the digital marketing industry. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Gemma combines academic rigor with creative strategy to deliver high-level brand development solutions. Since joining PPL Training, she has focused on modernising engagement within the technical compliance and engineering sectors, ensuring that complex industry standards are communicated through compelling and accessible digital narratives.
a healthcare facility environment does not allow opportunities for fault tolerance – training within simulation-based practical facilities provides professionals with a ‘safe to fail’ space. In a controlled practical training setting, the Authorised Person (AP) can intentionally ‘trip’ a system or simulate a critical failure to observe the consequences firsthand, all without endangering patient safety or disrupting clinical services. This builds the cognitive flexibility required when rigid HTM procedures meet the unpredictable, site-specific variables of a real- world plant room, ensuring professionals are prepared for the unpredictables that manuals cannot fully capture.
Regulatory catalyst for 2026 The UK’s Regulatory landscape is shifting towards stricter enforcement. Stringent health and safety mandates now demand more than just a ‘certified’ workforce; they require a demonstrably competent one. Arguably, traditional training ensures employees understand the rules, and practical simulation ensures they can execute them under
Impact of HTM 05-01 and Fire Safety Following updates to HTM 05-01, the emphasis has moved away from viewing fire safety as an administrative checklist towards operational readiness. Crucially, the updated HTM 05-01 marks a departure
from static compliance by mandating a formal Fire Safety Management System (FSMS) that integrates fire safety directly into clinical risk management. This framework moves beyond the technical validation of equipment to establish a clear ‘golden thread’ of accountability, making the demonstration of real-world capability essential, ensuring that safety is proven through practice rather than just promised on paper. Reiterating that board-level responsibility to front-line Fire Safety Advisors, issuing operational readiness. NHS Estates Fire Safety Forum highlighted a major
shift in how the CQC and local fire authorities view compliance. Inspectors are set to ask deeper questions: Can the
Responsible Person (RP) demonstrate the physical testing of fire dampers? Is there evidence that the Competent Person (CP) has undergone practical assessment on the specific fire alarm architecture installed on-site? The NHS Estates Fire Safety Forum has clarified
As regulations and HTM standards evolve, this baseline of competence creates an allowance for seamless ‘up-skilling’, ensuring that both the individual and the estate remain sturdy against shifting compliance landscapes.
32 Health Estate Journal March 2026
that ‘competency’ is no longer generic. It must be site and equipment specific. The RP is the bridge between management and technical execution. Their role has shifted from overseeing contracts to technical validation. They are responsible for ensuring that the Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) is not just a document, but a live action plan where high-risk items are mitigated in real-time, governing essential regulation. Regulations like these are the ultimate catalyst for high-quality, practice-based training. They underscore the urgent need to move beyond theory and toward practical, scenario-based instruction within the actual facility environment. Practical training critically identifies ‘unconscious incompetence’ that theoretical testing alone may not be able to detect. An example: a professional might pass a multiple-choice exam on HTM 06-02 (Electrical Safety) yet fail to identify a degraded neutral connection when presented with a live mock-up. This discrepancy highlights a dangerous ‘compliance gap’: an estate may appear 100 per cent compliant on paper, yet remain operationally fragile due to the hidden skill gaps of the individuals maintaining it. In an era where the NHS is facing a retirement of
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