We are very Happy to share some good News….working with our partners we are able to offer Government funded level 2 & 3 diplomas in Health and Social Care which have replaced NVQs and are provided by accessing the funding directly
As is usual there are eligibility criteria which you must meet;
- You or the staff member/s that you are putting forward for this diploma, must have been an EEC resident for the last three years and employed in an organisation that is a small or medium sized enterprise (employs less than 250 staff)
- These diplomas will be delivered flexibly. This means online & with some face to face visits, to fit in with your needs, schedules & within your workplace.
- Requiring level 3, eligibility is restricted to those aged 19-23.
- Learners must be committed to achieving a full level 2 or 3 diploma qualification and may be required to pay a small learning bond (£200) which is refunded in full completion of the course.
- To find out more, or to register yourself or your staff for this free Programme, simply call us on or fill in the form below and one of our skills advisors will be in touch shortly.
There is no single source of funding support for social care employers for workforce development, education, training or assessment.
All those who need to manage the delivery of learning or workforce development programmes will need to consider a number of sources of funding.
Sources of public funding will have specific requirements to check the outcomes of the funding, and for financial audit to avoid double funding, and applications and claim processes will differ.
It is always important to check for up-to-date details. The Skills for Care Regional Committees and Regional Development Staff are the best sources of information and advice.
Employers are advised that their first stop in managing workforce development and gaining funding support will be to prepare a Workforce Development or Training Plan, establishing the development requirements for the business and identifying the individual staff development needs.
Skills for Care strongly recommend the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care as the basis for workforce planning (see www.nmds-sc.org.uk).
Skills for Care recognise that the employers and employees are the most important investors in learning and qualification.
We recommend that employers should spend the equivalent of at least 3% of their workforce costs on developing their workforce.
We also agree with the Department of Health that, “The commissioning of social care services should include contribution to costs of establishing and maintaining an appropriately competent workforce” (‘Building capacity and partnership in care’ www.dh.gov.uk).
Skills for Care also recommends that individual employees should contribute 15% of the total cost of their training (includes fees, qualification registration costs, assessment, learning materials, time spent studying and required travel costs and time), but states specifically that this contribution should be made in time, not money, e.g. personal time spent compiling evidence for presentation to an NVQ assessor.
This was first stated in the 2000 national training strategy, modernising the Social Care Workforce, appendix 7, and has been cited elsewhere since.
The Skills Funding Agency is responsible for implementing the framework across the wider post-19 skills system in England and for delivering the changes made to the Personal Learning Record to support the additional Qualifications and Credit Framework services which will operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Workforce Development Fund
The Workforce Development Fund for 2011-2012 is a funding stream from the Department of Health disseminated by Skills for Care. It supports the ongoing professional development of staff across the adult social care sector through vocational qualifications. It replaces what was previously called the Training Strategy Implementation Fund. The fund is distributed by Skills for Care via a network of organisations and employer led partnerships and focuses on the achievement of qualification units.
Workforce Development Innovation Fund
The Workforce Development Innovation Fund is a related funding stream which can be applied for to fund innovative workforce development projects, which may be, but are not necessarily, linked to unit completions within the Qualification Credit Framework (QCF).
Workforce Development Fund
Eligibility Criteria
Lead Partners must:
- be employer led
- complete all sections of the application form and return it together with any supporting documents to wdf@skillsforcare.org.uk
- supply Skills for Care with financial records for the previous year
Organisations claiming funding must:
- be a Social Care employer
- comply with NMDS-SC requirements
- we have also developed a guidance document – NMDS-SC Completion Guidance
- complete a membership form and return it to the lead partner
- Complete NVQ and QCF unit summary sheets to evidence claims for the Workforce Development Fund.
Organisations contracting directly with Skills for Care for the Workforce Development Fund must complete a WDF organisation details form.
If you have any further queries about the funding you can email wdf@skillsforcare.org.uk
Contact Us
0845 319 2111 09:30am – 4:30pm, or via info@ajstrainingsolutions.co.uk
We look forward to hearing from You.