Care Academy provider charging policy for training course cancellations or non-attendance
The Care Academy is committed to offering a range of quality training and development opportunities to social care providers in County Durham (or those outside of the County that are commissioned to work with County Durham Service Users). There is a cost implication when Provider staff do not attend a course or cancel at late notice. Therefore, this charging policy is required to ensure that public money is used effectively.
By booking staff onto Care Academy training, Providers are deemed to have accepted the terms of this charging policy which applies to all commissioned courses and qualifications.
Providers are encouraged to support the Care Academy by ensuring attendance at training by identifying replacement attendees where possible and notifying the Care Academy of this change in replacement attendee before the training commences.
Note: All charges incurred for late cancellations and non-attendance are the responsibility of the employer and the Care Academy will only invoice the employer for the charge and not the individual staff member(s) that the charge relates to. It is the employer's discretion whether they implement their own charging policy in house with their own staff that the charges relate to.
Charging policy and process
It should be noted that the policy applies to both short course classroom based and online course provision. Please also note that programmes of learning will be subject to a separate learner agreement which must be signed by the student and the employer before learning commences, those learner agreements will detail any charging arrangements.
* The time period does not include the training course start date, for example, a course being held on a Monday would need to be cancelled by the preceding Monday (in office hours) to avoid a charge.
** All non-attendances and non-completions will be followed up by the Care Academy to understand the reasons for this.
Cancellation timeframe | Provider process | Care Academy process | Charge |
---|---|---|---|
14 calendar days or more* | Cancellations made 14 calendar days or more before the training event start date must be made to the Contact County Durham Care Academy via email. | The booking will be cancelled. | No charge incurred. |
13 calendar days or less* | Cancellations made 13 calendar days or less before the training event start date must be made to the Contact County Durham Care Academy via email. | The booking will be cancelled, and an invoice will be generated for the charge and sent to the employing organisation stating the name of the absent learner using the normal DCC process. | A standard late cancellation charge will be applied per person per day, as follows:
|
Non-attendance**
| Where staff have booked places and:
| An invoice will be generated for the charge stating the name of the absent learner and sent to the employing organisation using the usual Council process. | A non-attendance charge will be applied recovering the full cost of the place on the course. |
Non-completion | Where staff have attended some of the course and not undertaken the assessment / evaluation required for completion of the programme. | An invoice will be generated for the charge stating the name of the absent learner and sent to the employing organisation using the usual Council process. | A non-completion charge will be applied recovering the full cost of the place on the course. |
Appeals process
All appeals for charging will be considered. Any appeals on charges will be referred to the Commissioning Development Manager in the first instance. If the Provider is not satisfied with the appeal decision, the matter will be considered by a Senior Commissioning Manager for a final decision. Where an appeal is made, the charging invoice (if still required) will not be generated until this appeal process has been completed.