Workforce Development Fund

Important Dates:

Qualification Eligibility:

1 January 2023 - 21 March 2024

ASC - WDS Updated between:

1 April 2023 - 28 March 2024

Claims Deadline:

21 May 2024*

Final date to join partnership

29 February 2024

You can no longer join the partnership

*Learning programmes and digital learning modules need to be submitted by 21 March 2024

Further guidance on the Workforce Development Fund and its replacement

We have been informed by Skills For Care that the Workforce Development Fund (WDF) will not be continuing in its current form beyond the 2023/24 funding year

The WDF will be scaled down in 2024-25. It will only be possible to claim WDF for learning on qualifications and apprenticeships which start on or before 31 March 2024 (as long as the learner completes), and the certificate is issued by 31 March 2025. Courses and qualifications which start on or after 1 April 2024 will not be eligible for funding through the WDF. Any claims will be done directly with Skills for Care not through WMCA.

WDF will be replaced with a new fund called the Adult Social Care Training and Development Fund

This will no longer be administered through Skills for Care.

ASC employers can get reimbursement for:

care skills funding, including for the newly developed Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate
revalidation funding

Guidance is now available on the government’s offer, ahead of the launch of the digital online claims service, with the aim of enabling the adult social care workforce and ASC employers to be able to start to plan their training and development for the financial year 2024 to 2025.

The fund is made up of 2 elements:

care skills funding
revalidation funding

Claims for reimbursement will be made through a digital online claims service, which will go live in summer 2024.

In the meantime we are still here to answer WDF queries you have until the end of May and we will communicate further details of the new Adult Social Care Training and Development Fund when we have them

The West Midlands Care Association is the Workforce Development Partnership for the West Midlands , Herefordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire

The Workforce Development Fund (WDF) is funding from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) disseminated by Skills for Care. It supports the provision of high quality care and the continuing professional development (CPD) of staff across the adult social care sector by providing a contribution towards the costs of vocational learning.

The fund allows you to claim back money towards the costs of workers completing a broad range of adult social care qualifications and learning programmes.

West Midlands Care Association runs the WDF Partnership for Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull, the Black Country, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire

Full details of the Workforce Development Fund can be found on the Skills for Care Website

How to claim funding through the WMCA WDF Partnership

What can be funded

You can claim funding towards the cost of qualifications and learning programmes completed as follows:

Qualifications and Apprenticeships:

Certificates with a date of issue between 1 January 2023 and 21 May 2024

Learning Programmes:

Certificates with a date of issue between 1 January 2023 and 31 March 2024

Digital Learning Modules:

Certificates with a date of issue between 1 January 2023 and 31 March 2024

The funding amount includes money towards the cost of course fees (or employer contributions) and associated costs such as:

employees’ salaries whilst they are undertaking training
coaching and mentoring costs
venue costs for the training
wage replacement costs.

All costs must be incurred before WDF is claimed and employers must ensure that they have records in place to evidence the costs of any funding claim they make.

List of Funded Qualifications and Learning Programmes

How do I comply with the ASC-WDS requirements

Read the ASC-WDS completion guidance.

To make a claim from the Workforce Development Fund in 2023/24 you must complete or refresh your ASC Workforce Data Set account. All existing accounts should have been updated since the 1 April 2023 in order to qualify to claim in this funding year. An establishment’s ASC Workforce Data Set account is expected to be an accurate reflection of its workforce.Large organisations may be subject to data quality checks and will be advised of any issues which will prevent claiming the fund.This guidance doesn’t apply to people who employ their own care and support staff (individual employers).

How will I know when I have met the ASC-WDS requirements for WDF?

Log into your ASC-WDS account and from the left hand menu click on reports. Choose ‘My WDF ASC-WDS requirements report’. This will tell you whether your establishment is ‘eligible’ or ‘not eligible’ in terms of meeting the ASC-WDS requirements for WDF. Where an establishment is not eligible, this report will show whether this is due to the establishment data or the worker data. You can then run the ‘My establishment report’ and / or ‘My worker list’ to identify gaps in the data. As these are live reports, you can update your ASC-WDS information and rerun the reports to get an updated position.

Parent establishments can run ‘My WDF ASC-WDS requirements parent report’. This will show which of your subsidiaries are ‘eligible’ or ‘not eligible’ in terms of meeting the ASC-WDS requirements for WDF. If you cannot see data relating to your subsidiaries via this report, this will be because of the data sharing permissions set by the subsidiary, which will have been set so that data is not shared with the parent account.

Can I claim WDF alongside apprenticeship funding?

Yes, you can claim money from the WDF for learners completing the Adult Care Worker or Leader Adult Care Worker apprenticeship standard. What you can claim for is different depending on whether you are a levy paying or non-levy paying employer.

I'm a levy payer, what can I claim for?

As a levy paying employer, you’ll use your levy pot to pay for the training and end-point assessment costs of the apprenticeship (up to the Government apprenticeship cap) – you can't claim WDF for this.

You can claim WDF towards any other associated costs of the apprenticeship up to our advertised funding value. For example, the learner is required to complete 20% off-the-job learning to fulfil the criteria of the apprenticeship, WDF can be used to cover wage replacement costs (if required).

I’m a non-levy payer, what can I claim for?

As a non-levy payer, the Government will contribute 95% of the training and assessment costs, up to the Government apprenticeship cap, and you can’t claim WDF for this. The remaining 5% and any additional cost will be met by you, the employer – you can claim WDF towards this cost.

You can also claim WDF towards any other associated costs of the apprenticeship, up to our advertised funding value. For example, the learner is required to complete 20% off-the-job learning to fulfil the criteria of the apprenticeship, WDF can be used to cover wage replacement costs (if required).

If you need further information about funding for apprenticeships in addition to what is available via the Workforce Development Fund, you can find additional information on the Skills for Care

website

Skills For Care have produced a very useful FAQ document which is well worth a read

Video: Everything you need to know about ASC-WDS

Making a Claim

Once your learner has completed their qualification or learning programme, complete the online employer claim submission form and upload a copy of the learner’s certificate(s) (you can claim as often as you like during the funding period).

List of funded qualifications and learning programmes 2023/24

The learner certificates must contain the following information:

Qualification certificates, including the apprenticeship diploma certificate

candidate name
candidate registration number
unique learner number
name of qualification
qualification number as per our list of funded qualifications and learning programmes
date of issue of the certificate - this must be between 1 January 2023 and 21 March 2024
name of the awarding organisation
name of the learning provider or centre number.

Final apprenticeship certificate

Please note: the certificate must be issued by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE).

candidate name
unique learner number
name of apprenticeship
apprenticeship code - this can be written on the certificate
name of qualification and qualification number as per our list of funded qualifications and learning programmes
date of issue of the certificate - this must be between 1 January 2023 and 21 March 2024

Learning Programme certificates

candidate name
date of birth
name of learning programme
claim code from the list of funded qualifications and learning programmes - this can be written on the certificate
date of issue of the certificate - this must be between 1 January 2023 and 21 March 2024
name of endorsed learning provider.

Submit Your Claim

Submit your claim by completing the online form and attaching scans of all your learners certifcates. Claims cannot be processed without this evidence (see above)

Claims must be submitted by the employer, a learning provider cannot do this on your behalf.

If you have any queries please contact the WMCA office on 01384 943000

Make a Claim

What Happens Next

We review the evidence received for fully evidenced eligible qualifications and non-accredited learning programmes and then submit funding claims to Skills for Care in line with the grant milestones.
Skills for Care reviews claims received and pays WMCA.
We then pay your claim.
WMCA can only pay the funding directly to our partnership members and cannot pay the WDF to a third party such as a learning provider under any circumstances