Workforce Development Fund (WDF)

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) recently announced their plans to develop the adult social care workforce in England as part of ongoing reform work.

The announcement from DHSC Government sets out plans to develop the domestic care workforce includes details of an uplift to the Workforce Development Fund (WDF), which is for the remainder of the 2023-24 financial year. This will support the delivery of the government's adult social care workforce reform objectives and provide an immediate boost to training for the frontline care workforce, by funding courses from the current WDF list of funded qualifications and learning.

Applications for new members to the Care Academy's WDF partnership are now closed however the window for claiming WDF for existing members has been extended to 15 May 2024.

Your ASC-WDS account needs to meet certain requirements. See Skills for Care: Workforce Development Fund to view the full requirements for completing ASC-WDS to meet WDF requirements.

What can be funded

We will only fund qualifications, learning programmes and digital learning modules which are included in the list of funded qualifications and learning - see Skills for Care: Workforce Development Fund.

We will fund a maximum of £2,000 per learner per financial year.

All qualifications, learning programmes and digital learning modules will be funded up to the value advertised on completion.

Funding claims from all sources (combined with our funding) must not be more than the total cost of the training (i.e. no profit must be made from these funds). Any excess shall be repaid to us before any other funder.

Apprenticeship levy paying employers cannot use the Workforce Development Fund to offset apprenticeship levy payments. It is possible to claim the Workforce Development Fund alongside the apprenticeship levy but it is not possible to use WDF towards apprenticeship training delivery or end-point assessment costs which have been funded through the levy.

Please County Durham Care Academy if you wish to request a claims form.

For more information on the changes to the WDF please visit Changes to learning and development funding for adult social care (skillsforcare.org.uk).