Government launches digital social care qualification but providers criticise level of training funding

The government has launched a new qualification to enhance social care leaders’ digital skills but has been criticised by a provider body for covering a “tiny fraction” of the sector’s training costs.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting launched the level 5 award in understanding digital leadership in adult social care last week, saying it would help the sector “harness the full potential of cutting-edge technology” to boost care quality and support people’s independence.

The qualification responds to research finding that leaders needed more support with identifying, researching and implementing technologies, upskilling staff and change management, said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), in a guide to the new qualification.

Aimed at registered and other managers of care services, senior practitioners and providers’ operational and regional managers, the qualification should take 120 hours and covers use of data and technology, implementing technology and leading change, and learning and improvement in adult social care.

Training funding frozen

Providers will be able to reimburse up to £1,000 of the costs of the course through the DHSC’s learning and development support scheme for the adult social care workforce (LDSS), its core vehicle for funding sector training.

The DHSC said week that the LDSS, launched in September 2024, would be continuing in 2025-26, with the same level of annual funding (£12m) and the same yearly limit for individual providers claiming back the costs of courses (£400,000).

It has also updated the list of courses covered by LDSS funding.

£115m cut to planned investment in learning

The LDSS’s launch was accompanied by a £115m cut by the then newly elected Labour government to the level of funding for adult social care training planned by the previous Conservative administration for 2024-25. The Labour administration blamed this on the state of the public finances that it inherited from its predecessor.

This left £24m in funding for 2024-25, consisting of the £12m for the LDSS along with resource for the workforce development fund (WDF) and Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, which is designed to help providers meet their legal requirement to ensure staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role.

The WDF, which performed a similar function to the LDSS, was wound up at the end of March 2025. The DHSC said that announcements on Oliver McGowan training funding for 2025-26 would be made in due course.

In response to the launch of the digital qualification, Homecare Association chief executive Jane Townson said: “The integration of appropriate technology in home care represents a vital opportunity to improve people’s lives while addressing significant challenges in our sector.

“The announced level 5 digital leadership qualification is a positive initial step, but we must address fundamental barriers to successful technology adoption at scale.”

Providers ‘expected to shoulder training costs’

However, the association estimated that the course would cost providers £3,800-£4,600 per staff member, around four times what they would be reimbursed through the LDSS.

It said that providers were “expected to shoulder these costs” but added that many may be forced to cut training provision to cover the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions, implemented this month.

More broadly, the association said that the £12m provided through the LDSS represented “a tiny fraction of total training costs”.

Alongside the announcements on the LDSS and the digital qualification, the DHSC has also expanded its career structure for the adult social care workforce, by adding four new roles to the existing four.

Care workforce pathway expanded

The care workforce pathway, developed with Skills for Care, sets out the expected knowledge, skills, values and behaviours for staff at each level of the workforce, and is designed to set out how people can develop a long-term career in the sector.

The new roles are personal assistant, enhanced care worker, deputy manager and registered manager, which have been added to new to care, care or support worker, supervisor or leader and practice leader.

In response, Townson warned that, “in the current financial climate, [the pathway] cannot be meaningfully implemented”.