Workforce Development Funding
How to Claim

The Workforce Development Fund (WDF) is a funding stream from the Department of Health disseminated by Skills for Care. It focuses on the achievement of qualification units and supports the ongoing professional development of staff across the adult social care sector.

For employers, accessing WDF significantly contributes towards the costs of workers' completing qualifications on the  Regulated Qualification Framework (RQF) . It can also be used to help fund the delivery of intermediate and advanced level Apprenticeships in social care.

Funding is only available for specific RQF qualifications, as outlined by Skills for Care. You can view the full list of funded qualifications for 2022 / 23 by clicking here.

If you have previously claimed Workforce Development Funding through the Greater Merseyside Care Partnership you will have been contacted to renew your membership status, if in doubt, please contact LSCP using the details at the bottom of the page.

You must join a Partnership to begin claiming Workforce Development Funding, please ensure you have read our introduction to Workforce Development Funding and when completing your Membership Form, please put the name of the Partnership you are joining as 'Greater Merseyside and Cheshire Workforce Development Fund Partnership'.

It is advised that you fully complete your Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set prior to completing a Membership Form to ensure that all details match. Please note that each ESTABLISHMENT may only join ONE PARTNERSHIP. If you have previously registered your establishment or organisation to a partnership other than the Greater Merseyside Cheshire Workforce Development Fund Partnership (for the purposes of claiming Workforce Development Funding), there will be some further steps to undertake, please contact us for more information.

You should strive to complete as many parts of this form as possible, if required parts of this form are missing, you will not be added to the Partnership and be allowed to submit a claim, if in doubt please contact LSCP.

• Organisation Name

• ASC-WDS ID
  If you are unsure of your ASC-WDS ID please contact the ASC-WDS helpline on 0113 241 0969 or email ascwds-support@skillsforcare.org

• Contact Name

• Number of Employees in your Organisation

• Name of Partnership your are joining:

• Your ASC-WDS registered address

• Phone Number

• Fax Number - LSCP will not contact you via fax due to security concerns.

• Email

• Alternative Address:
  If you would prefer for all postal mail to be delivered to a separate address such as a Head Office, please put those details here.

• Alternative Phone Number

• Alternative Email

• Member Declaration
  Please read this section carefully before signing

• Signature & Date

The additional pages attached to your Membership Form will allow you to quickly add other ASC-WDS establishments using just the establishment name, address and ASC-WDS ID. If you only wish to register 1 establishment you may disregard these additional pages.

We will review your claim/s and submit to Skills for Care to be ratified.

At LSCP we review and check all claims for Workforce Development Funding before submission this process includes the following steps;

• Checking the claiming organisation's eligibility - Has a membership declaration form been completed for the 2022/23 funding year and what is their current ASC-WDS status.

• Check that the qualification submitted is included on the list of funded qualifications provided by Skills for Care

• Checks that the following information is contained on certificate/s; Candidate Name, Candidate Registration Number, Unique Learner Number (ULN), Name of the Qualification and its Qualification Code, the Issue Date of the Certificate and the Name of the Awarding Body/Awarding Organisation. 

• Checks ensuring information on Employer Submission Form matches the certificates submitted

If any of this information listed above is missing we will be in touch to advise how to obtain, please note: missing information can sometimes cause a delay in your claim.

Once all checks are completed and all require information is included we begin the submission process sending details of your claim to Skills for Care. You will receive an notification email confirming what has been submitted.

Once the ratification process has been completed we (LSCP) receive a notification with details of what has successful been claimed for.

We check and compare all information against what was submitted and send each organisation an email detailing what claims have been successful and when applicable any rejected claims and the reason for this.

Once we receive monies from Skills for Care it is then disbursed to successful organisations with an email sent confirming this.

It is an employer’s responsibility to maintain a clear audit trail of funding received and spent for six years. Skills for Care recommend you keep evidence of learning and development funded through WDF because you may be asked confirm details.