In this section you will find answers to some frequently asked questions…
(This section will be updated as further useful questions are submitted by Partners)
The new Apprenticeship Levy came into force on 1st May 2017. Guidance from Skills for Care regarding Apprenticeships can be found here.
A-levy-paying-employers-journey
A-non-levy-paying-employers-journey
Skills for Care have produced an informative leaflet on Adult care apprenticeships information for employers which provides additional information.
Apprenticeship Funding Information for Non Levy Payers and Levy Payers can be found on the following link to Skills for Care.
Skills for Care have awarded WDF contracts to Lead Partners for 2023-24 i.e. this funding stream will continue until March 2024. Partners must keep good records to illustrate that they are not double-funding the qualifications for their employees – see questions below.
WDF is a retrospective funding stream to cover costs up to, but not exceeding, the cost of training your employee/s. If training is ‘free’ only additional costs incurred can be funded, e.g. wage replacement costs, overtime costs while the employee is engaged in the training; cost of using a workforce Assessor to observe a candidate. Records must be kept of costs incurred for a period of six years, and Skills for Care may audit them.
For each qualification or learning programme the employer cannot claim back more than the advertised WDF contribution, even if the costs incurred exceeded this.
Where employers are claiming from more than one source of public funding they must ensure that they do not claim the same cost from more than one source, ie. if the course fee has been covered from one source of public funding, it cannot be claimed again via WDF.
No, WDF is only for employees in the Adult health and social care sector. To date, Skills for Care is not aware of any similar funding available from Department for Education (DfE) which has responsibility for children’s services.
- All organisations that directly employ adult social care staff are able to claim the funding. This includes hospices, agencies employing social care bank staff, community care services, advocacy services and more. Adult social care employers can claim WDF for volunteers as well as paid employees, and workers recruited from overseas.
- Individual Employers, for example those who employ Personal Assistants under a Personal Budget arrangement, may be able to claim Individual Employer Funding direct from Skills for Care.
To be eligible for WDF your ASC-WDS must be updated on/after 1st April 2023.
Checking your Workforce Development Fund eligibility. Once logged into your ASC-WDS account, you can undertake different activities. There are prompts on the right hand side of the screen which take you either to Bulk Upload or View Reports.
To see whether you are eligible for WDF Click on the Workforce Development Fund this takes you to a summary page which tells you either:-
Both the worker records and the establishment records parts of your ASC-WDS must be updated, if this hasn't been completed the following screen information may display:-
Overall: your organisation isn’t meeting the criteria, so you are not eligible for WDF. Your workplace information is meeting the requirements, but your Staff records aren’t.
or If all is completed the following screen will display (take a screen shot of this and send to ARC):-
Overall: Meeting Criteria Workplace information: meeting criteria Staff records: meeting criteria
Skills for Care’s website may also help with completing your ASC-WDS Requirements
If you require any assistance please contact Skills for Care directly, either by email: [email protected] or call 0113 241 0969
A final certificate which contains: Also see our guidance section on How to Claim WDF Submit the claim as normal, but include a brief letter to advise which learner has had the name change, providing the existing and the new details. We can then update our records and any further claims will not require the same letter.