This study explores issues about securing quality of provision in social care using evidence from research into training in the adult care sector in two English local authorities. It shows that progress towards securing a trained workforce is slow and explores reasons for this. It argues that since the government is making particular efforts to increase training in this sector, these data provide a good test case of the problems about using regulation to raise care standards. It concludes that significant progress is unlikely to be made in respect of training unless the impact of other factors, such as the occupational segregation of the workforce and contracting out, are also taken into account.