There is no single source of funding support for social care employers for workforce development, education, training or assessment. All those who manage delivery of learning and development programmes will need to consider a number of sources of funding. Especially in view of Train to Gain being brought to a close on July 31st 2011, the Care Brokerage recommends consideration of the newly established Workforce Development Fund (WDF) which, though it focuses more definitely on vocational qualifications, takes the place of what has been known as the Training Strategy Implementation fund (TSI).
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 recommends the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care as the basis for workforce planning (see www.nmds-sc.org.uk). Skills for Care recognises that the employers and employees are the most important investors in learning and qualification.
Skills for Care recommends that employers should spend the equivalent of at least 3% of their workforce costs on developing their workforce. There is agreement 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.