Epilepsy Awareness

Epilepsy awareness training delivered at your workplace or live online. Half a day. The knowledge, confidence, and practical understanding your team needs to recognise a seizure when it happens, respond safely, and support individuals with epilepsy in a way that is genuinely person-centred.

Course Overview

There are over 60 types of seizures. Most care workers and education staff have been trained on one.

The tonic-clonic seizure, the full-body convulsion that films and television have made the default image of epilepsy, accounts for a fraction of the seizures that happen in care homes, schools, supported living services, and community settings every day. Absence seizures look like someone drifting off for a few seconds. Focal aware seizures leave the person fully conscious but experiencing unusual sensations, movements, or emotions. Focal impaired awareness seizures produce confusion, repetitive movements, or unresponsiveness without any falling or convulsing at all. Staff who have only ever been shown a tonic-clonic do not recognise these. And staff who do not recognise what they are seeing cannot respond to it appropriately.

There is also a persistent tendency to read seizures as mental health episodes, particularly focal seizures with emotional or behavioural features. Epilepsy is a neurological condition, not a psychiatric one, and the two can present similarly in ways that matter clinically. Misreading a seizure as a behavioural episode delays the right response, damages trust with the individual, and in some cases leaves a genuine medical emergency unescalated. The stigma attached to epilepsy compounds this. People are reluctant to disclose, reluctant to ask questions, and reluctant to challenge assumptions that have been in the room unchallenged for years.

This course changes that. It gives care workers, education staff, and support workers an accurate, grounded understanding of what epilepsy is, what different seizures actually look like, and what to do when one happens. It is not a clinical programme and does not cover emergency medication. It is the awareness foundation that every member of a team who supports someone with epilepsy needs, regardless of role. The course reflects NICE guideline NG217 (Epilepsies: diagnosis and management, updated 2024), best practice guidance from Epilepsy Action and the Epilepsy Society, and aligns with CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment and Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care. Read our plain-language guide: Epilepsy: Let’s Clear a Few Things Up.

Course Details

  • Duration: Half day (3 to 4 hours). Full day available on request.
  • Delivery: Face-to-face in-house or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams
  • Certificate: CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Epilepsy Awareness
  • Awarding organisations: CPD-Accredited
  • Validity: 2 years
  • Group size: Maximum 12 learners per trainer

Who This Course Is For

This course is right for anyone who supports, works alongside, or is responsible for the care or supervision of individuals with epilepsy.

  • Care assistants and support workers in care homes, supported living, and domiciliary care
  • Senior carers and team leaders
  • Education staff, teaching assistants, and early years practitioners
  • School and college support teams working with children and young people with epilepsy
  • Health and social care staff across residential, nursing, and community settings
  • Managers and supervisors responsible for staff competence in seizure response
  • Anyone who may encounter a person having a seizure in a workplace or community setting

For staff whose role includes administering prescribed emergency rescue medication, our Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication course covers all of this content and adds the controlled drug legal framework, buccal midazolam technique, and competency sign-off. Not sure which course different members of your team need? Get in touch, and we’ll help you work it out before you commit.

Why This Training Matters

Epilepsy affects around 630,000 people in the UK. Around 87 people are diagnosed every day. Despite this, it remains one of the most misunderstood conditions in care and education settings, and the gap between what most people believe about seizures and what seizures actually look like is one of the most significant risks in everyday practice.

The myths cause real harm. The belief that you should put something in the mouth of a person having a seizure to stop them swallowing their tongue is one of the most persistent. It is also wrong and potentially dangerous. You cannot swallow your tongue. Putting an object in someone’s mouth during a seizure can cause injury to them and to you. NICE guideline NG217, updated in 2024, provides the current clinical framework for epilepsy diagnosis and management. This course ensures that care workers understand their role within the wider care and risk management framework and can respond in line with an individual’s documented seizure management plan.

Under CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment, providers must ensure care is delivered in a way that protects individuals from avoidable harm. For services supporting people with epilepsy, that includes staff who can recognise a seizure when it happens, respond appropriately, and escalate correctly. Under the Equality Act 2010, epilepsy is a protected characteristic as a disability. Understanding seizure triggers, environmental risk factors, and individual needs is part of meeting the reasonable adjustments duty in practice.

What the Day Covers

All content reflects NICE guideline NG217 (Epilepsies: diagnosis and management, updated 2024) and current guidance from Epilepsy Action throughout. Topics covered include:

  • What epilepsy is, how it develops, and the most persistent misconceptions, including those that cause the most harm in care and education settings
  • The full range of seizure types: tonic-clonic, absence, focal aware, focal impaired awareness, myoclonic, and atonic, and what each looks like in practice
  • Why epilepsy is a neurological condition, not a mental health condition, and why that distinction matters for recognition and response
  • Seizure triggers and individual risk factors: what they are, how to identify them, and how care plans reflect them
  • Safe seizure response: what to do, what not to do, and the specific myths that must be challenged
  • When to call 999: the specific criteria that require emergency services, stated clearly
  • Post-ictal care: what happens after a seizure, how long it may last, and how to support recovery with dignity
  • Individual seizure management plans: how to read them, follow them, and contribute to them
  • Recording and reporting: what information to capture and why it matters clinically
  • Environmental risk assessment and reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010
  • Dignity, inclusion, and person-centred support for individuals with epilepsy in everyday life

Every course is also built to include your organisation’s recording, reporting, and escalation procedures, and the specific care plans relevant to individuals you support as standard.

How the Course Is Delivered

This course is available face-to-face at your workplace or chosen venue, or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Both formats are fully interactive. Online delivery is a live session with the same scenarios, discussion, and trainer engagement as the room-based version, not a pre-recorded module.

Groups are capped at 12 to ensure every learner gets sufficient time for the scenario-based discussion and honest conversation that this topic generates. Every session is built around your setting, the seizure types most relevant to the individuals you support, your internal recording and escalation procedures, and any specific care plans in use. For services supporting individuals with complex or actively changing epilepsy, we can discuss how to build that context into the session during the enquiry process.

Delivery includes:

  • Scenario-based learning covering the full range of seizure types, including presentations that are commonly misread or missed entirely
  • Direct challenge of the persistent myths that lead to unsafe responses in practice
  • Discussion of real care situations, including how to follow a seizure management plan and when it applies
  • Practical guidance on recording, reporting, and escalation

For teams who also need to cover emergency medication administration, this course can be delivered on the same day as Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication, with awareness for the wider team and medication training for the smaller group who are authorised to administer.

Epilepsy Awareness or Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication?

Some staff need epilepsy awareness. Some staff need medication competency. Many organisations need both, but for different members of the team.

Epilepsy Awareness Training (this course)   is right for staff who support individuals with epilepsy but are not required to administer rescue medication. It covers seizure recognition across all types, safe seizure response, myth-busting, post-ictal care, and what to do while waiting for emergency services. It is appropriate for all frontline staff in settings where epilepsy is part of the population they support.

Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication is right for the staff who have medication administration as part of their role: the carers, team leaders, and support workers who will actually be reaching for the buccal midazolam when a seizure reaches the five-minute threshold. It covers everything in this course and adds the controlled drug legal framework, the buccal midazolam administration technique, and the practical competency sign-off that awareness training cannot include.

Many organisations book both on the same day: awareness training for the wider team, medication training for the smaller group who are authorised to administer. We don’t make the determination of who needs which level; that sits with your organisation’s medication governance policy and the prescribing clinician. But we will help you work through it during the enquiry process.

Certification and Validity

On completion, learners receive a CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Epilepsy Awareness, valid for 2 years.

Refresher training at the two-year mark keeps knowledge current, maintains practical confidence, and reflects any updates to NICE guidance or organisational care plans. For services supporting individuals whose epilepsy is complex or actively changing, earlier refresher training is advisable. Our Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication course is the natural next step for staff who move into a medication administration role.

Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura

Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.

Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.

It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.

A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:

  • 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
  • All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
  • We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Where We Deliver

We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.

All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 12 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.

Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.

FAQs

When should emergency services be called?

A 999 call is required if a seizure lasts longer than five minutes, if a second seizure begins without the person recovering from the first, if the person is injured during the seizure, if it is the person’s first known seizure, if the person does not regain consciousness, or if there are concerns about breathing. Where an individual has a seizure management plan in place, that plan may contain specific instructions. This course covers the decision-making criteria clearly, so care workers know when to act without hesitation. If in any doubt, call 999

Does this course cover emergency medication such as buccal midazolam?

No. This course covers epilepsy awareness and seizure response. The administration of emergency rescue medication such as buccal midazolam or rectal diazepam requires separate, role-specific training. If your team needs to cover emergency medication alongside awareness, our Epilepsy Awareness with Emergency Medication course covers both. We are happy to advise on the right option for your setting.

Is this course suitable for schools and education settings?

Yes. The course is suitable for schools, colleges, and early years settings and can be built around individual healthcare plans, safeguarding responsibilities, and the specific duty of care obligations in education. For schools, this course supports compliance with the DfE guidance on supporting pupils with medical conditions. We deliver across Greater Manchester, the wider North West, and nationally.

Does this course meet CQC expectations?

Yes. The course supports compliance with CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment and Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care. CQC inspectors look at whether staff can demonstrate safe, informed responses to medical conditions including epilepsy, whether individual care plans are known and followed, and whether recording and escalation processes are in place and understood. This course addresses all of those areas.

Further Reading

Related Courses

You may also be interested in the following related training courses:

Book or Enquire

Book your training or request a quote

Tell us your team size and your sector. We’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance

At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.

This course is reviewed against updates from NICE, Epilepsy Action, the Epilepsy Society, the Care Quality Commission, and current UK legislation, including the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and the Equality Act 2010. Course content aligns with NICE guideline NG217 (Epilepsies: diagnosis and management, updated 2024).

You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.

Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027

This page is for general guidance only and reflects current UK legislation, NICE guidance, and sector best practice at the date of review. It does not constitute clinical or medical advice. Epilepsy Awareness Training is an awareness-level course and does not replace clinical assessment, specialist neurological input, or the management of epilepsy by appropriately qualified healthcare professionals. This course does not train or authorise staff to administer emergency rescue medication. Where individuals require emergency medication as part of their seizure management plan, staff must receive separate, role-specific training. Care workers must always act within their role, in line with the individual’s epilepsy care plan, and in accordance with their organisation’s policies and procedures. If a seizure emergency arises, call 999 immediately if the criteria for emergency escalation are met.

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