Welcome to your July 2025 Workforce Development Update from Leeds City Council’s Organisational and Workforce Development Service. We hope that you find the articles and topics useful. In this edition you will find important news, updates, and information on some of the current topics, support, and training opportunities. Please feel free to circulate across your networks as appropriate.
Featured in this edition:
- Upcoming adult social care training sessions and events
- The Leadership Academy
- Leadership Academy courses
- Funding opportunities
- Adult Social Care Learning & Development Support Scheme
- Apprenticeship levy scheme
- Leeds Registered Manager Network
- Recruitment and retention
- International recruitment project
- Care provider bursaries
- Immigration rules changes
- Skills for Care update
- Call for providers to pioneer new care workforce pathway
- Celebrating one year of the workforce strategy for adult social care
- What’s new this month
- Exploring provider partnership in Leeds
- Leeds drug and alcohol strategy
- Peer to peer support for men working in social care
We are pleased to let you know that new dates for free mandatory training provided by the Leeds City Council Organisational & Workforce Development Team have now been added for July 2025 onwards. Please visit our website for more details about the courses taking place in July and beyond, and how to book a place Leadership Academy Courses
The Leadership Academy exists to support and develop leaders and managers across adult social care, improving their confidence and capability to ensure the teams they lead are better able to provide high quality care. It does this by providing a range of courses throughout the year. These courses are delivered by experts, professionals, and sector leads, providing training which underpins leadership and management best practice and qualifications, as well as supporting on-going individual continual professional development.
The following Leadership Academy courses are taking place in July, August and September:
- Understanding Self-Management 24/07/25 *
- Lead to Succeed starts 01/08/25 *
- Leading Change Improving Care starts 04/09/25 *
- Well-led starts 10/09/25 *
- Recruitment and Selection (ACAS) 21/07/25 (AM)
- Managing Performance and Appraisals (ACAS) 21/07/25 (PM)
- Discipline and Grievance 20/08/25 (AM)
- Disciplinary Investigations in the Workplace 20/08/25 (PM)
The following courses are delivered by acas, they are part of the manager skills passport essential manager training, and are free of charge:
Don’t forget, the programmes with a * are eligible for the Learning and Development Support Scheme (LDSS) funding, as such, you could claim back the full programme fees. This means that these courses are fully funded. See the article below for further details on the LDSS.
We have produced a prospectus which provides an overview of all the Leadership Academy courses for 2025/26. Prospectus 25/26
You can visit our website for more information about all these courses. Adult Social Care recruitment, training, and development
Adult Social Care Learning & Development Support Scheme
We hope that you have started to take advantage of the new Learning & Development Support Scheme (LDSS). The purpose of the LDSS is to provide financial assistance to any eligible adult social care employer towards the costs of recognised training courses and qualifications.
We are delighted that the Department of Health and Social Care have confirmed that the LDSS is available for 2025/26. As the overall funding amount is finite, we recommend that employers make their claims as soon as employees complete their qualification or courses.
The following link will provide all the information that you need to utilise this funding Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme
Step-by-step guide to access LDSS funding
463KB - PDF
Remember, many of the learning opportunities provided by our Leadership Academy are eligible for the LDSS.
Apprenticeship levy scheme
Apprenticeships are funded by the Apprenticeship Levy Scheme. If your organisation or company don’t have an apprenticeship levy pot or need support to top this up, please consider seeking funding from other organisations who have funds to transfer. Leeds City Council has funds to share and specifically supports the care sector within the region.
The link to our levy pledge for outside organisations to make applications for transfers of our levy funding is:
https://transfers.manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk/Opportunities
Search for Leeds City Council – if filter by most recent, or by Care services, comes up at the top - it should look like the screen shot below. Then click on ‘Leeds City Council (KDDN6K)’ and that will take you to the application page.
The network is a place for managers to come together with other managers from across Leeds. It offers a safe space to connect with peers, an opportunity to be open with each other and to support each other’s challenges, as well as building and sustaining a positive collective identity.
At each network, managers share knowledge and can access peer support. They hear from a range of guest speakers including local CQC inspection teams, commissioners, Integrated Care System (ICS) representatives and local wellbeing hubs etc. Certificates of attendance are also offered and are a great way for managers to evidence their CPD to the CQC.
The last network meeting was held on the 5th of March 2025. The notes from this meeting can be found by using the link.
These are the dates of the future network meetings:
- 23/07/25 14:00 to 16:00
- 22/10/25 09:30 to 11:30
- 25/02/26 14:00 to 16:00
All the meetings will take place at the Community Centre, Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Building, 311 Stonegate Road, Moortown Leeds, LS17 6AZ.
If you have any topics that you would like to be included in the meetings, please let us know. If you would like to be added to the network’s membership, please email either:
Ailsa.benn@skillsforcare.org.uk or trevor.hewitt@leeds.gov.uk
International recruitment project
Bursaries are now available via the Yorkshire and Humber International Recruitment project. The YHIR Project aims to support displaced international workers, who’s employer has had their sponsorship licence revoked, to help them find alternative sponsored employment in the care sector.
Care Providers: Home Office Approved Sponsor (HOAS) Bursary
This bursary is for Care Providers who do not currently hold a sponsorship licence, but who wish to apply to the Home Office to become an approved sponsor. YHIR have develop a comprehensive support package to help Providers understand their responsibilities and commitment of being a sponsor, prior to applying. We can also expedite the decision making to speed up the process once Providers have submitted their application. Upon approval of becoming a Home Office Approved Sponsor (HOAS), the YHIR will reimburse the cost of the application which will either be £536 (small employer < 50 staff) or £1476 (large > 50 staff). Further information is available here Help for Adult Social Care Employers – Sponsoring Workers > NY Resourcing
Care Providers: Sponsorship Bursary
To support existing HOAS sponsors who make an offer of employment to a displaced sponsored worker that is introduced to them by the YHIR programme there is a bursary available to help with costs. The YHIR Project will be making available a bursary of £1750.00 for each displaced international worker introduced by the project, subject to eligibility criteria. The YHIR team will provide support to Providers to confirm eligibility, and the bursary will be released once the worker starts employment.
There is also a bursary available for the workers to support in the visa costs.
For further details or to apply please contact the West Yorkshire project lead on: yhirwestyorkshire@bradford.gov.uk or the We Care Academy at wecareacademy@leeds.gov.uk
From April this year, care providers in England who wish to recruit a new worker from overseas, or those switching from another visa route, will have to first prove that they have attempted to recruit a worker from within the UK who is already in the route and needs new sponsorship.
Immigration Rules Changes
On 12th May 2025, the Home Office published the Immigration White Paper: Restoring control over the immigration system white paper set out that overseas recruitment into adult social care will end. This change to the immigration rules has been laid in Parliament on 1st July as part of a wider package of measures: Major immigration reforms delivered to restore order and control - GOV.UK. Subject to Parliamentary approval the new rules will come into effect on 22nd July 2025.
As outlined in the Immigration White Paper, for adult social care there will be a transition period until 2028, where in-country switching for those already in the UK will continue to be permitted. This switching will cover:
- Health & Care visa holders whose most recent sponsorship was under SOC 6145 (6135 since April 2024) Care workers and home carers’ or 6146 (6136 since April 2024) ‘senior care workers’; and
- individuals switching from other visa routes who have been legally working for the sponsor as a care worker or senior care worker for at least three months at the date of the application. This means that, for example, a student who is working in the social care sector part-time, could apply to continue working in the sector on a skilled worker visa during this transitional period. They must have been working in the sector for at least 3 months prior to their application. Further details will be set out in the sponsor guidance.
The rules set out that the transition period will end automatically on 22nd July 2028, but in line with the White Paper, the transition period will be kept under review.
International workers sponsored to work legally in the sector by the end of the transition period will be able to extend their stay, change sponsors, and apply to settle, subject to settlement rules in place at the time. The Government will consult on changes to settlement rules later this year.
Call for 90 care providers to pioneer new Care Workforce Pathway
Skills for Care is calling for 90 care providers to pioneer the Care Workforce Pathway as part of a new support programme building towards national rollout.
The Care Workforce Pathway is a new career structure for adult social care which has been developed by the Department of Health and Social Care and Skills for Care, alongside representatives from the adult social care sector and people who draw on care and support. The pathway currently includes eight role categories in social care, and was informed by a call for evidence from the social care sector.
The pathway details the knowledge, skills, values, and behaviours essential for delivering high-quality, personalised care and support. It aims to provide clear guidance for career development and progression within care, attracting people to join and remain in the sector and supporting sustainable workforce growth.
With groups beginning activity in July, September and October 2025 this is an exciting opportunity for care organisations to be at the forefront of embedding the Care Workforce Pathway across the social care sector.
The pioneers will be supported in identifying and addressing workforce challenges, while being provided with a clear framework for workforce development and career progression. Feedback gathered throughout the process will make adopting the Pathway better for other providers and inform the final version of the Care Workforce Pathway to ensure it meets the needs of the sector.
Employers will take part in a series of interactive group workshops designed to guide them through each stage of the Care Workforce Pathway, as well as having opportunities to attend a Care Workforce Pathway network and access to support and check-in opportunities throughout the year.
The Care Workforce Pathway was first trialled by 30 organisations as part of an Early Adopters scheme in 2024. Organisations who participated in the Early Adopter testing have praised how the Care Workforce Pathway has benefited their organisation and employees.
Celebrating one year of the Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care
People across adult social care are celebrating one year since the launch of the Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care. The official anniversary is on Friday 18 July 2025.
The strategy was first shared in July 2024, and we are all looking ahead to what’s next.
The Workforce Strategy is the first-ever of its kind for the adult social care sector in England and has been hailed as a turning point for care.
Led by Skills for Care, the Strategy has been a collaborative effort across adult social care and partners from health and education. It was also created with people who draw on care and support.
Since its launch in 2024, over 50% of the 56 recommendations and commitments are either completed or in progress. Recommendations currently being implemented include joined-up, consistent action on pay; expanding care workers’ skills through the Care Workforce Pathway and developing a ‘People Promise’ for social care focused on improving pay, security of income, work-life balance and career development opportunities.
Over 409 individuals, organisations, and groups have signed up to become Workforce Strategy Champions, advocating for the Strategy, helping to amplify its messages and ensuring its successful implementation at various levels across adult social care.
The Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock MP, has announced a commitment to dementia training for social care staff - a key recommendation of the Strategy, and many local authorities are mapping their local strategies against the Workforce Strategy. Additionally, Integrated care systems (ICSs) are also increasingly aligning their work with the Workforce Strategy.
Exploring a provider partnership in Leeds
You may already be aware that NHS statutory providers in Leeds, in collaboration with Leeds City Council and the ICB in Leeds, are exploring options for a provider partnership in Leeds. An independent, evidence-based strategic review is currently underway. The review aims to identify opportunities for further integration and shared delivery across the large statutory provider organisations in Leeds.
The review is part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration across the health and care system and improve outcomes for people in Leeds – a short explainer is here: Leeds provider partnership.
Leeds Drug and Alcohol strategy
The council’s Executive Board has endorsed a five year plan to reduce the harm caused by drug and alcohol use in Leeds. The strategy was shaped by people in recovery and sets out the six priorities for the city, based on evidence, insight and consultation, with the number one priority being prevention.
Alcohol awareness
Excessive alcohol consumption can have significant impacts on both a person’s physical and mental health. Next week is Alcohol Awareness Week (9-13 July) with a focus reducing alcohol harm. The council’s public health resource centre has useful resources, as does Alcohol Change UK
The city’s alcohol and drug service, Forward Leeds is launching a campaign about the risks associated with drinking in later life. The campaign includes a free training session for professionals on Alcohol and Later Life, available on the 16 July, booked via their website. Please also visit the Forward Leeds advice page: www.forwardleeds.co.uk/alcohol-in-later-life/
They are also running Open House sessions for their 10 year birthday - all welcome, please visit: Forward Leeds 10 Years On Open House Celebrations | Eventbrite
Peer-to-peer support for men working in social care
Men Working in Social Care is a dedicated group offering peer-to-peer support and opportunities to discuss the unique challenges men encounter in the social care sector, including the underrepresentation of men in care roles and strategies to retain male staff members and attract new applicants to the field. Past speakers have included Andy’s Man Club, which provides support to men with their mental health and Tom Riordan, the former Chief Executive of Leeds City Council. The group welcome new members and contributions from men across adult social care.
For more information email: Thomas.Featherstone@leeds.gov.uk
Disclaimer
This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. Leeds City Council does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information contained herein. We hope that you find the content useful and that it supports your workforce development and learning plans. Your contact details have been taken from the information that we already hold. Should you wish to unsubscribe from these newsletters please email us at leadership.academy@leeds.gov.uk
Newsletter Archive
For previous editions of this newsletter, you can click here
May 2025 Update
June 2025 Update
Trevor Hewitt
Organisational & Workforce Development Business Partner
Adults and Health Directorate | Leeds City Council | Merrion House | 5th Floor West | 110 Merrion Centre | Leeds | LS2 8BBT: 0113 378 9339 M: 07891 279701 | E: