Wiltshire and Swindon Care Skills Partnership
TSI Funding

Who are Skills for Care? Formally known as TOPPS England, Skills for Care (SfC) is the employment led body that supporting, promoting and providing a reasearched lead on  workforce development in Adult social care England. It is jointly licensed with DfES as part of the‘Skills for Care and Development’ Sector Skills Council (SSC). Skills for Care have a lot of useful information on their main web site and their regional site.

Skills for Care South West  and their regional site sfc-sw

Skills for Care (SfC)  provide funding to support training and qualifications for managers and staff in social care - This funding is known as the Training Strategy Implementation Fund - OR, as we refer to it, TSI.  SFC nor the partnership are a training provider and as such we cannot recommend or endorse any courses or training providers - this has to be a decision made by your organisation that meets with Care Quality Commission guidelines.

SfC works with Partnerships and Large Social Care organisations throughout England.  They provide opportunities around qualifications and standards in Social Care.  They are an organisation that promotes standardised development and learning in the Social Care Workforce.

SfC support and promote the use of the National Minimum Data Set in Social Care (NMDS-SC or NMDS). For any funding through SfC  there is a requirement that the Organisational Questionnaire has been completed and you have updated both your establishment and worker details information since 1st April 2010.

Training Strategy Implementation Fund - T S I

What is it?

    Skills for Care provide a CONTRIBUTION towards statutory training, this includes support towards Induction’s (inc. Managers), LDQ and NVQ 2,3 and 4 (including leadership and management), Assessor Awards and First Induction’s into Social Care

    It is given to successfully achieved adult NVQ ‘units’ of competence.  Units are the individual outcomes that when combined in an NVQ lead to the award. The current Skills for Care list of acceptable units can be found here word icon or for a pdf click here pdf icon

The maximum amount of units that can be claimed for each person per completed NVQ are:

  • 5  / 6 Units can be claimed for an NVQ 2.  
  • 7  / 8 Units can be claimed for NVQ 3 and
  • 7  / 8 Units can be claimed for NVQ 4.

Additionally in this funding year, Skills for Care wish continue supporting accredited training in:

  • Food Hygiene
  • First Aid
  • Manual Handling and
  • ESOL (English Speakers of another Language)

    • (Accredited Training definition) Employment Context:- Training which is recognised by an official training organisation. For Example: CIEH, Anyone Registered through HSE including the  St John’s Ambulance.

  • We cannot double fund - if you have full funding for an NVQ from another source including any from Business link or any training provider - we cannot provide you with any funding.

How much do I / we get?

During 2010 - 2011 we will be supporting you with £70 per awarded unit

The amount of units will vary and depend on your application - each application is assessed individually.  We do hope to provide something, but please bear in mind, we have a limited amount of units and an increasing demand.

What do I / we need to provide as evidence?

All inductions require completion of the relevant Skills for Care standards. Certificates should be sent to us with your claim form.

NVQ’s these are being phased out this year, but summary sheets normally provided by training provider can be sent to us. The must have the candidates name, assessor and verifier signatures and be within the current claimable year (Jan 10 until March 11)

Additional units- First Aid, Manual Handling, Food Hygiene and ESoL must be accompanied by an Accredited Certificate stating the competence. (please note Attendance certificates will not be accepted)  Skills for Care fund only on Accredited learning. Ask your training provider if they have an awarding body and ensure your certificates have their relevant logos. 

Can I apply?
  • Joining an employer led Partnership: Joining an employer led Partnership
  • Any Adult Social Care organisation; Residential Care Organisation, Domiciliary Care Organisation, Care Home Organisation, Direct Payment Service User or Charitable organisation supporting social care in Wiltshire or Swindon can apply  - provided they have registered onto the data set and given Skills for Care permission to use the data.
  • You can only claim for staff employed by your organisation working within Wiltshire and Swindon - you can approach other partnerships in other regions to support staff working in these regions.
  • It does not fund individuals in who have accessed funding from other Skills for Care funding partnerships or any fully funded training

When can I apply?

We start to send out applications hopefully by the end of May to go to our panel in August. We do welcome new businesses and partners to apply for units - Please call Wallace to discuss further.

Some useful points
  • You must register your organisation with the NMDS-SC
  • You must update your workforce data regularly throughout the financial year starting with 1st April every year
  • You can update your information or register following the link below if you have not already done so  www.nmds-sc-online.org.uk
  • You will need to complete your data as an ongoing process throughout the year
  • we expect ongoing claims throughout the year, not just at year end            
  • NO profit can be made from this funding, if your employee pays for their NVQ, you cannot receive the payment, this would be regarded as making a profit
  • You cannot charge your staff for any induction or training this funding provides
  • It cannot be used against an already funded NVQ, induction, or other fundable units.
  • Inductions must follow the Skills for Care Common or Manager Induction Process
  • Learning Disability Qualification (LDQ) counts as one unit
  • Assessor Award counts as two units

What has to be done to have this funding?
  • complete your NMDS-SC including workforce data regularly
  • apply to join the Partnership and agree to follow Skills for Care’s terms and conditions
  • Apply for funding from the Partnership
  • Complete the required systems and admin correctly
  • Submit at least half of your allocation by the end of December 2010
  • Have all your evidence sent to us by no later than 15th March 2011. 

2010-11 Application will be posted here in May 2010.

I don’t have any units yet?
  • You need to register your establishment or care provision with the NMDS-SC and include your workforce in the data / update your information since 1st April
  • To stand the best chance of accessing funding, complete the application form before we go to our allocation panel.

More Info:
  • NVQ units of competence (Adult Care only) - your training provider can send the evidence directly to the partnership - ask your training provider to contact us.  We are not responsible if you do not submit your claims.  We do advise good networking links between you the training provider and us.

To ensure your completed units can be reclaimed:

    • All claim forms need to be fully completed including the national insurance number (to help if previously submitted) and signatures by all parties on the right form and within the claim timeframe - on the current claim form
    • Ask your Training Provider to send us completed NVQ units. These  have to be signed by the assessor and verifier within the claim timeframe (January 2010 until 17th March 2011)
    • Remember, if you have not started using your units by January, return them to the partnership to allow others to make use of them.

    To help this process the partnership needs to have these units at least a week before the milestone date.  The Skills for Care collect and verify the units at ‘milestones’ (key points of submission of information) These dates are:

        • 30th September 2010,
        • 30th November 2010,
        • 15th -January 2011 and
        • 15th March 2011.

All claim can be sent to use before this time if they have been completed - and will likely mean earlier payment too

How long does it take to get the funding paid?
  • Skills for Care inform us at the earliest, about 30 working days after each submission of any successful claims. This may be longer at a milestone time, as there are higher demands on their systems.

PLUS

  • Once they have advised us of any successful claims, we will process these through  Wiltshire Council who will make a payment to your organisation named on the partnership form, this can take up to 30 working days.
  • Your payment will reflect the words ‘TSI’ - this is your indication that it has been paid.
  • We will write to you and advise you that your claim has been awarded by Skills for Care.   You will need to take responsibility in checking any payment has been made .
  • The Partnership has an agreement with the training providers that means they will accept this time scale - you may wish to pay your training provider at time of agreeing any training and await payment from the Council.
  • If we have enough claims sent back to us before the milestones, we will submit them to Skills for Care for earlier verifying and therefore earlier payment.