Our staff have initial full day training then the staff are observed practising by a qualified trainer. We have 3 qualified trainers in school. They train any new staff and deliver training through our outreach service to other schools. Once trained, as long as they are continuously practising they do not get refreshers. The trainer staff will support on any new equipment and maintain equipment and slings etc. The trainers refresh every two years.

In Derby City (outreach team) there are two of us trained plus we have 2 trainers within the ERB for PD. The 4 of us deliver the training to mainstream school staff as required. We are all Centaur trained and like you have to do 6 monthly evaluation (no charge for this) and a 3 yearly practical refresher which costs approx. £250 pp.

The trainers (I'm one) did the 5 day course and then the refresher every 2 years. In the interim we do regular assessments to confirm we are up to date with our knowledge.

Other staff are trained on appointment for general manual handling and then individually assessed for each transfer they will need to enable. They act as second with an experienced lead, then as lead with an experienced lead acting as second. Once lead welfare is happy they are now secure and safe on that transfer they are authorised for that transfer with that child.  All staff receive refreshers annually, its one of our September INSET sessions to ensure we all remember why we have our rules, check the common things we do etc.  A lot of this session is practical with staff carrying out actions for which they have previously been assessed to ensure they still remember the correct techniques.

We PD Advisory Teachers in Devon used to use Centaur to train us as trainers, but are now part of our local Joint Agency Group of moving and handling trainers / back care advisers etc who work in NHS hospitals in our area. We attend termly meetings where we peer review each other to keep up our accreditation and attend the Back Care Conference. We then train trainers (Initial 4 day course + annual refresher 1 day) who in turn train their staff. We also run a full day initial training and half day refresher training for practitioners - usually school staff. The refresher is often annual, but definitely not more than 18months after their last course to reduce the risk of injuring themselves as in a mainstream pre / school / nursery they can often be just one or 2 people doing the job in the school so don't have the back of a team to support them with any queries / advice etc.

Sorry - that was a rather long winded way of saying that some schools in Devon - mainly Special Schools, have their own trainers who carry out training for their staff and most mainstream schools receive training from us on an annual / 18 month basis.