Outcome: A social care and early years workforce that is suitably qualified, knowledgeable and skilled, with the right values, behaviours and practice

Why it’s important

To meet current and future demands, the workforce needs high-quality learning and development.

This will give workers the right knowledge, skills, understanding and approach to provide good quality care and support in the social care and early years sectors. It’s a key theme of the Workforce strategy for health and social care.

Education and training are critical to the supply of the social care and early years workforce.

They are also important in supporting employers to manage or develop services and produce compassionate leaders who work well with others.

We must continue to invest in training and learning in Wales for the social care and early years workforce. As well as increasing the numbers of people working in the social care and early years sector, our investment needs to provide the kind of education, learning and training that supports future needs and new service models.

Our impact

Investment in learning and development has increased, with more people gaining qualifications and attending learning events.

Our annual profile report on the registered workforce provides analysis on the qualifications held by those providing care and support.

A qualifications-based Register is an essential element of making sure registered workers are suitably skilled and knowledgeable.

The increased numbers on the Register provides us with the data of all the different levels of qualifications held by the workforce.

We’ve supported people who are employed in the social care workforce to develop their skills and grow their capabilities to effectively support people and provide care.

We invested in supporting the social care workforce, so they have the right knowledge, skills, understanding and approach to provide good care and support.

This included £7,149,350 which was paid to local authorities through the Social Care Wales Workforce Development Programme (SCWWDP) and was match-funded by £3,064,007 local authority funding.

In addition, we funded a regional facilitation grant that doesn’t attract match funding. In 2021 to 2022 this was £1,172,000.

During 2021 to 2022 we piloted an Introduction to Social Care online learning course, specifically targeted at those who were not familiar with the social care sector.

We used learning from the pilot to develop an all-Wales approach for 2022 to 2023.