The council, like other local authority areas across England has a skills gap and challenge in recruiting qualified social workers. There is therefore ambition and planning underway to ‘Grow Our Own’ social workers in both Community Well Being and Children and Young Peoples directorates to address this issue. One mechanism for this is through the development and delivery of social work apprenticeships.

As a large employer the council is required to make a mandatory contribution to the government apprenticeship levy pot. However, the council is also able to benefit from this levy to fund Apprenticeship courses directly from the levy.

The successful Apprenticeship provider will be required to draw down the funding directly from the government Apprenticeship levy. The maximum that can be claimed for each Apprentice is £23,000 for the three year Social Work (degree) Apprenticeship programme. The council is seeking to train up to 16 Apprentices starting in 2023. Therefore, the maximum contract value will be £368,000 which requires an open tender process to procure a provider.

The provider must be registered on the Register of Approved Training
Providers to deliver an approved apprenticeship leading to a degree level qualification in social work.