Healthcare support workers could receive compulsory training, if advice from the Royal College of Nursing is followed. An article from the Nursing Standard claims that healthcare assistants are increasingly doing work which is traditionally carried out by qualified nurses. These staff are unregulated and there are no laws to make sure they are adequately trained.

The numbers of nurses are expected to increase once graduates alone, will only be able to become nurses in 2013. Dr Peter Carter of the RCN believe that the situation has become urgent as healthcare workers' skills vary widely depending on the trust.

Dr Carter said: "There are some areas where support workers are not given any training and are asked to pick up skills on the job." He is calling for the government to bring in mandatory training standards to ensure that acquired skills are used between trusts.

Dr Carter continued: "The job title from trust to trust may be the same, but the training will vary hugely. Healthcare support workers are an invaluable part of the workforce. They provide a huge amount of front line nursing care. We need a framework that outlines a set of competencies, and we need to be clear about what we want support workers to do."

Scotland and Wales are to follow suit, with Scotland's mandatory standards coming into force by the end of 2011.