Skills for Care aims to encourage social care managers and their teams to engage with training opportunities with the launch of a new campaign.

Keep learning for success will highlight training and funding opportunities available for social care workers in 2023. It will focus on the benefits of continual professional development (CPD) for people working in social care and for the people they support.

The campaign, which uses the hashtag #KeepLearning, will run across Skills for Care’s website, social media and other communications channels. It will include resources to support with training, articles highlighting learning and development opportunities available in 2023, and real life insights from people working in social care.

As part of the campaign Skills for Care will also provide information about the Workforce Development Fund (WDF), how to claim, and what it can be used for. Employers have until 28 February to sign up to the WDF, which provides funding for staff training, and claims are due by 31 May.

Skills for Care data shows that investing in learning and development has a positive effect on staff retention. Average turnover rates decreased from 41.2% among staff who had no training, to 31.7% among those that received some form of training. Turnover was reduced by 9.1% for care workers who received more than 30 instances of training when compared to care workers with one instance of training.

“The start of the year is a good time to plot your learning and development plans for the next 12 months,” said Oonagh Smyth, Skills for Care chief executive. “Our latest campaign aims to highlight to social care employers the range of different options and funding available to support them in providing ongoing development for their teams. This is vital not only in supporting a good workplace culture and developing and keeping the people who work in care, but also in providing the best outcomes for people who draw on care and support.”