The flexible workforce development fund 2022-23: guidance for social service employers in Scotland

Social service workers can access funded training or qualifications which can lead to career progression and help in the development of crucial new skills. This includes the types of skills needed more than ever as care services pursue recovery while dealing with the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article contains two types of guidance which you should choose from.

1. Guidance for small to medium sized organisations (SMEs), with less than 250 employees, for learning delivered by colleges or The Open University.
2. Guidance for employers who pay the UK Government Apprenticeship Levy, for learning delivered by colleges or independent training providers.

This article provides guidance about the £10 million fund provided for the 2022-2023 academic year (£7m for levy payers and £3m for SMEs); a further £3m may be available subject to further budget discussions with the Scottish Government. Please see guidance for each part of the fund for information about when training must be arranged and when it must be completed.

General points

• The fund can help employers to promote equality of opportunity and make sure workers have the right support to learn and progress.
• In its guidance, the Scottish Funding Council states 'employers should give consideration to how they can support women workers, disabled workers, minority ethnic workers, and other groups protected under the Equality Act 2010 to gain access to training through the FWDF.  Up-skilling and re-skilling these priority groups is a way of tackling occupational segregation, which also addresses skills gaps, and the FWDF is an important means by which employers can support colleagues to develop their skills and be successful in their careers.'
• Colleges and the Open University in Scotland should adopt the Fair Work First criteria as an employer in their own right and should also ensure that employers they engage with through the FWDF are committed to advancing Fair Work First, in particular through investment in effective workforce development.
• The FWDF does not support provision of industry qualifications/training where there is a statutory obligation required by law, such as training legally required for businesses to operate.
• Training which is credit rated and certificated should be prioritised, for example SVQs and personal development awards (PDA). Qualifications which can be used towards meeting SSSC registration requirements are eligible for funding.
• An employer’s allocation of funding can be used as part-payment of a programme of training.
• Employers and social service workers can continue to access other funding sources including modern apprenticeship funding, the National Transition Training Fund, the Part Time Fee Grant and Individual Training Accounts.
• Employers may be eligible for more than one funding route (levy-payer and SME) however they must choose a route and submit only one application.

• SME employers will be able to apply to access training via Independent Training Providers (ITPs) if the training is not available at their local college. Colleges should refer SMEs to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) when it is identified that they are unable to offer the required training.

John McVeigh, SVQ coordinator and lecturer, shares his experience of the fund. 

‘At City of Glasgow College we’ve been supporting providers to access the fund, including support to gather the elements needed to make a successful application. Providers are allocated a designated Business Development Officer who works with them to discuss their training needs and create a bespoke, costed training plan.

‘Training can be existing, scheduled courses or bespoke, contextualised training that is created for that client by college staff. We have used the fund to provide dementia awareness, mental health awareness and manual handling training. We have also used it for SVQs (for example, SVQ Social Services and Healthcare) which can enable workers to meet SSSC registration requirements. We’ve also looked at plans to use the fund for the PDA in Health and Social Care Supervision.’ 

Guidance for small to medium sized organisations (SMEs) with under 250 employees, for learning delivered by colleges or The Open University

£3 million has been allocated this academic year to help smaller employers provide upskilling and reskilling opportunities to their existing workforce. This is particularly welcome within the context of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen social service employers and workers develop new, innovative ways of working and adapt to increased use of technology and enhanced levels of responsibility. Many social service providers are SMEs.

Here is the full guidance from Scottish Funding Council.

Key information

SMEs:

• can access up to £5,000 of training delivered by colleges or The Open University in Scotland
• are advised to make an application as soon as possible as access to the fund will be on a first come first served basis.

Colleges

If arranging learning with a college, the SME will work with the college to complete an application which includes an assessment of their skills needs. Colleges will have a range of courses available to help inform this process, designed in line with national priorities and previous work with SMEs in their local area.

You can find a list of all colleges in Scotland here.

The Open University

The Open University (OU) is Scotland’s largest provider of part-time education with over 50 years’ experience of providing innovative distance learning. The FWDF will allow employers to access OU courses at SCQF level 10 and above for their employees.

Suzanne McQuade, Business Relationships Manager, with the OU in Scotland said:

‘Training options available from the OU will focus on Scotland’s skills priorities: health and social care, leadership and business, digital and IT, and the green economy with a range of selected courses at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Level 10 - undergraduate - or SCQF Level 11 - postgraduate - or through industry recognised provision.’

The OU advise that they are developing their portfolio of courses for SMEs so more courses may become available, including those in health and social care.

You can see which courses are currently available on the OU website. 

Important dates for SMEs*

* The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) advise that when there are exceptional or extenuating circumstances to the start of training and/or delivery and completion dates (eg SVQ training), colleges or The Open University in Scotland should contact the SFC to discuss any possible revision to these deadlines.

Guidance for employers who pay the UK Government Apprenticeship Levy, for learning delivered by colleges or independent training providers.

£7 million has been allocated for levy-paying employers. The fund was originally introduced in direct response to feedback from the Scottish Government’s consultation on the introduction of the UK Government Apprenticeship Levy.

You can read the full guidance from Scottish Funding Council here.

Levy-paying employers can:

• access training up to the value of £15,000
• the option for Levy-payers to relinquish all or part of their allocation to their supply chain companies has been removed.
• employers can include supply-chain company staff in training they have identified as a collective priority. The number of supply-chain companies/employees accessing training through this avenue is not limited, providing they are not Levy-payers or accessing the FWDF as an SME in their own right.

Applying for training to be delivered by colleges

You can contact colleges to find out about the suite of training provision they have made available in support of the FWDF. This training provision should be informed by the local labour market, regional skills assessments and your needs as an employer. If a college cannot offer the training you require you can look to the guidance below about applying to an independent training provider instead.

You can find a list of all colleges in Scotland here.

Applying for training to be delivered by independent training providers

You can find out more about applying to a training provider in the Scottish Funding Council guidance (above) or the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) Our Skills Force website.

In the academic year 2022-23 the Open University in Scotland and ITPs (funded through SDS), will have the opportunity to deliver provision to both Levy-payers and SMEs. SME employers will be able to apply to access training via ITPs if the training is not available at their local college. Colleges should refer SMEs to SDS when it is identified that they are unable to offer the required training.

Key dates

The Scottish Funding Council advise that where there are exceptional or extenuating circumstances (eg delivery of SVQ training) colleges should contact SFC to discuss any possible revision to these deadlines.

For training delivered by independent training providers, SDS advise that the training can’t start before you receive, sign and return the grant award letter so you will need to consider this within your timeframe. Afterwards you will need to send the invoice to SDS with supporting documents to show the training has been completed and SDS will pay the invoice.