Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme 2026-27: Funding Guide

English adult social care employers can now claim back the cost of staff training through the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme 2026–27 — a DHSC grant, administered by the NHS Business Services Authority, that reimburses eligible training costs rather than handing out general operating funding. With up to £400,000 available per employer and a dedicated ring-fenced fund for Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training, it's worth understanding exactly what's covered and how the claims process actually works before assuming your organisation either qualifies or doesn't.

How much funding is available

Total adult social care learning and development funding for 2026–27 across three linked programmes comes to £13.3 million: up to £10 million for the Learning and Development Support Scheme itself, £2.3 million for the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment programme, and £1 million for the User-Led Organisations fund. Within the Support Scheme, individual employers can claim up to £400,000 in the financial year running 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 for general eligible training, with a separate cap of £25,000 specifically for Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training.

That split matters: the Oliver McGowan fund and the general training fund are ring-fenced separately and cannot cross-subsidise each other, so an employer that exhausts its Oliver McGowan allocation can't simply draw down more from the general pot to cover further Oliver McGowan claims, and vice versa.

What the funding actually covers

The scheme reimburses evidenced training and qualification costs for non-regulated care staff, CQC-registered managers and deputy managers, and agency staff. It explicitly excludes backfill pay — so employers can't claim for the cost of covering a staff member's shift while they attend training — and most travel and other ancillary costs. This is reimbursement for the training itself, not a general workforce-development budget.

Who's eligible and how to claim

Eligible employers are adult social care providers in England with a current Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set account — keeping that data set up to date isn't just good workforce practice, it's a prerequisite for accessing this funding. Claims for Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training specifically require the claiming organisation to be CQC-registered.

Claims are submitted through an online digital service and must be made within three months of course completion — leaving a claim until months after training was delivered risks missing the window entirely. Crucially, this is a first-come, first-served scheme: claims are paid in the order they're received until the ring-fenced funds for that financial year are exhausted, not pro-rated across all eligible claims at year end. An employer that waits until late in the financial year to submit claims risks finding the fund already depleted, even if their training spend was entirely eligible.

Why the timing matters more than the eligibility criteria

For most adult social care employers, the harder question isn't whether their training spend qualifies — Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training and other standard mandatory training for non-regulated staff and registered managers is squarely within scope — it's whether they submit evidenced claims quickly enough to draw down funding before it runs out. Building a simple internal process — someone responsible for logging course completions and submitting claims within the three-month window, rather than batching claims sporadically — is likely to matter more to whether an organisation actually benefits from this scheme than anything in the eligibility rules themselves.

This scheme sits alongside the wider mandatory training landscape for UK care staff more generally, and reflects a broader DHSC push to keep funded training accessible even as budgets tighten across the sector.

Where this fits alongside workforce pressures elsewhere in the sector

This funding lands at a moment when English care providers are already managing significant workforce pressure from other directions. Recruitment routes that many providers relied on for several years have narrowed considerably, pushing more employers toward training and developing existing staff rather than filling gaps through new international hires — which makes a scheme that directly funds staff training and qualification costs considerably more valuable than it might have been a few years ago, when recruitment pressure was lower and training budgets weren't competing with the same workforce-planning constraints. Employers rethinking their workforce strategy around growing and upskilling their current team, rather than recruiting externally, should treat this scheme as one of the more direct levers available to fund that shift — see our coverage of the care worker visa sponsorship closure for the wider recruitment context driving this shift.

FAQs

Can this funding be used to cover staff wages while they're in training? No — the scheme excludes backfill pay. It reimburses the training or qualification cost itself, not the cost of covering a staff member's absence.

Does every care provider automatically qualify? Eligibility requires a current Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set account, and Oliver McGowan claims specifically require CQC registration. Check your organisation's data set status before assuming eligibility.

What happens if the fund runs out before we claim? Claims are paid in order of receipt until the ring-fenced fund is exhausted for that financial year. There's no guarantee of funding if you submit late, even for fully eligible training.

Is the £400,000 cap per organisation or per individual? It's a per-employer cap for the financial year (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027), covering general eligible training costs across the organisation's workforce.

Learnsignal's Healthcare Compliance & CPD courses cover mandatory training requirements for UK care staff, including courses that fall within this scheme's eligible funding categories.