Skills for Care’s Workforce Development Fund (WDF) is now open for grant applications for 2023-24.

The funding, which supports social care providers to offer continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities for their staff, is provided by the Department of Health and Social Care and distributed by Skills for Care.

Oonagh Smyth, chief executive, Skills for Care said: “We are delighted that the Workforce Development Fund for 2023/24 is now open for grant applications.

“This is the first stage in the launch of this year’s funding, and we’re thrilled that we’re once again able to support the social care workforce with their continuing professional development.

“We know from our data analysis the hugely positive impact that learning and development has on staff experience and in improving retention rates. As reported in our ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report,  the average turnover rate for care workers is reduced by 9.5 percentage points amongst those that received some form of training compared to those that hadn’t. Additionally, turnover is reduced by 9.1 percentage points for care workers who received more than 30 instances of training when compared to care workers with one instance of training.

“The funding provided by the Workforce Development Fund can really support social care organisations in providing effective and valuable training to their team, including of course their leaders and managers.

“This year’s fund will continue to provide enhanced support for leadership and management training, as strong leaders and managers are key in providing the best quality of care and supporting our workforce.”

At this stage applications are only open to large national organisations (an individual organisation that has more than 1,000 care providing employees and operates in two or more Skills for Care areas), and lead organisations for a local or national employer-led partnership within England

The deadline for grant applications is 1pm on Tuesday 13 June 2023.

Visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk/WDF2023-24 to find out more and apply. You can view the full list of funded qualifications and learning at www.skillsforcare.org.uk/WDFquals2023-24