A presentation on how Skills for Care can support the sector given by Claire Smout from Skills for Care Locality Manager for Birmingham, Shropshire, Solihull and Telford & Wrekin It outline who they are and what they do with a section on funding for the sector.

1. CLAIRE SMOUT
SKILLS FOR CARE -WHAT WE DO TO SUPPORT YOU

2. Skills for Care -what we do
to support you
Claire Smout, Locality Manager – Birmingham,
Shropshire, Solihull and Telford & wrekin

3. Who we are, what we do
Skills for Care is the employer-led workforce development
body for adult social care in England.
A charity and social enterprise largely funded by DH. We lead
on workforce, leadership and learning and development. We
develop practical resources and provide support for the
workforce from front line staff new to care, through to
Registered Managers and people in other leadership,
management and strategic roles.
Visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk

4. Taster Sessions
1. Workforce Development Funding and National
Minimum Data Set– red – blue – green
2. Recruiting and keeping a quality workforce -
blue – green – red
3. Learning and Development and
Apprenticeships – green – red - blue

5. National Minimum Data Set
in Social Care

6. What is the NMDS-SC?
Video

7. Why should I have an NMDS-SC account?

8. Use your NMDS-SC data to make informed
workforce planning decisions
Dashboards: interrogate your data against a wide
range of variables including qualifications,
recruitment and retention and workforce
demographics
Compare: see how you compare in terms of rates of
pay, turnover, etc

9. Dashboards
Open access dashboard – Summarises the data
held by the NMDS-SC and are available to the public
and not require a log in.
My dashboards – Allows logged-in users that have
filled out their NMDS-SC data to benchmark
themselves against similar employers (if you are a
parent company you can view all of your
subsidiaries)
There 2 kinds of dashboards

10. Open Access Dashboard Video

11. Sharing Permissions – It saves you time!
• By linking to your local authority it helps them
understand their local social care workforce
• You can link your NMDS-SC account with NHS
Choices so it will pre-populate 2 out of the 8 indicators
• By sharing your information with CQC you reduce the
number of questions you need to complete on your
Provider Information Return (PIR)

12. Workforce Development
Funding (WDF)

13. What is WDF?
• Funding from Department of Health which is disbursed by
Skills for Care.
• It is a limited pot of money which supports on-going
development of staff across Adults Social Care in England
• Employers claim back a contribution towards the cost of
employees completing health and social care qualifications,
units, apprenticeships and learning programmes
• Employers who directly incur costs for learning and
development, such as course fees, can access the WDF to
reclaim a contribution towards these costs.

14. Can I apply? What evidence is required?
Yes – As long as you are an adult social care
employer operating in England and can meet the
eligibility and evidence requirements.
• Units/Qualifications/Learning Programmes – Unit
summary sheets or Certificate of Completion
• Cost – Invoice to show amount paid
• NMDS-SC – has to be 90% or greater completed
before you are eligible to claim

15. What can I claim for?
• You can claim for units, qualifications and learning
programmes completed between 1 January 2017
and 31st March 2018.
• You can claim WDF 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 and wage
replacement costs.

16. What’s in it for me?
• There are over 400 units eligible for funding that make up
adult social care qualifications. A list of eligible units and
qualifications can be found our WDF section on our
website.
• WDF pays a contribution of £15.00 per QCF credit, with a
maximum of 60 credits per learner per funding year.
• How much you can claim back will depend on the
qualification, the units selected and how many credits make
those units.
• Learning Programmes and RQF qualifications are funded
to the value advertised on completion.

17. Some examples…
• Level 2 Diploma in Health and Social Care (Adults) (46 credits) - up
to £690
• Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care (58 credits) - up to £870
• Level 4 Diploma in Adult Care (minimum 70 credits) - up to £1050*
• Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and
Children and Young People’s Services, adult pathways (minimum
80 credits) – up to £1200*
• RQF Level 4 Certificate in Principles of Leadership and
Management in Adult Care - £400
• ‘Lead to Succeed’ learning programme - £350

18. What if we already receive funding?
• You cannot claim the same cost from more than one source e.g. if the
course fee has been covered from one source of public funding, or paid
for by the apprenticeship levy, it cannot be claimed via WDF.
• You are responsible to ensure that you do not claim more funding than
the cost for your employees undertaking training. Direct costs such as
course fees*, employees’ salaries and backfill if required (i.e. wage
replacement costs) can be included for this fund.
• Costs must be incurred before WDF is claimed.
• Employers must ensure that they have records in place to evidence the
costs of any funding claim they make.
*Employers paying the apprenticeship levy cannot claim WDF towards course fees or end-
point assessment costs but can claim it towards other direct costs, such as the 20% off the
job training time.

19. How does my organisation apply for
funding?
• If you are a large national organisation check with your Head Office to
see if you have a contract directly with Skills for Care to claim WDF.
• You can approach us directly – Go to our website and complete a
declaration form and send it to directaccess.wdf@skillsforcare.org.uk
You will be asked to sign a validation agreement to ensure you meet
the eligibility criteria.
• Approach a local partnership that will send you a funding information
pack for you to complete. If you are currently based in Solihull you can
access funding directly from Solihull Workforce in Care Development
Association.
There are potentially 3 ways…

20. Any Questions