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Guidelines on funding for practice learning 2008/09

Contents

About these guidelines

These revised guidelines for the financial year 2008/09 set out the arrangements for funding for practice learning opportunities associated with professional qualifying training for social work students. They replace the original guidelines which were effective from September 2004 to March 2008 and issued by the then Scottish Executive. These funds will be distributed, monitored and audited by the Scottish Social Services Council (the Council) on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Guidance is attached at Annexes A, B and C to cover deadlines required for estimates of student numbers, days and timetables as well as procedures for payment and requirements for evidence linked to funding. Guidance on practice learning funding processes will be updated revised and issued as required.

Collaboration between all stakeholders and agencies continues to be necessary to ensure the successful operation of these arrangements in the longer term.

Background

The paper "Confidence in Practice Learning"[1] issued in January 2004 set out the new arrangements, including funding, for practice learning. These funding arrangements were designed to assist HEIs and agencies fulfil their responsibilities for practice learning. This set a daily fee per student per practice learning day spent in service delivery settings.

HEIs must ensure that students receive experience of practice learning which meets the requirements of the Standards in Social Work Education (SiSWE), including Key Capabilities. This will be monitored by the Council as part of its quality assurance role.

HEIs must ensure that the daily fee is used to deliver both the quantity and quality of practice learning opportunities in a broad range of settings. The fee will be paid by HEIs to the agencies.

An administration fee is payable to HEIs as a contribution to the costs of meeting the additional responsibilities arising from the funding process.

It is expected that in financial year 2008/2009 all HEIs individually or in relevant partnerships will have established a service level agreement or equivalent that can be seen to identify and plan collaboratively to minimise the potential for late starting practice learning. Guidance in the form of a model Service Level Agreement is available from the Council to assist HEIs and agencies http://www.scottishpracticelearning.com/images/stories/documents/SLA%20Final%20Feb2005.doc. Service Level Agreements by themselves will not create, deliver or sustain the required innovation and HEIs and employing agencies need to continue to work together to encourage and develop innovative ways of delivering practice learning.

In undertaking planning for the longer term, it is crucial that robust figures of student numbers are provided. These figures form the basis of forecasting and financial modelling that is needed between the Council and the Scottish Government.

HEIs and agencies should look not just to the immediate academic year but also to the longer term in planning for the provision of practice learning opportunities. Accurate three year projections must be submitted to the Council by the end of May in each financial year. Only on the receipt of the projections will the annual administration fee be paid to an HEI. This will be monitored by the Council's Regulation and Practice Learning Team as part of the Council's responsibilities for strategic planning and the national overview of practice learning.

Fee levels 2008/09

The daily fee is a contribution to the cost of the provision of practice learning opportunities. It is not intended to cover the full cost. The fee for local authorities in 2008/09 will be £18 per student per practice learning day. The fee for the independent sector (private and voluntary agencies) in 2008/09 will be £28 per day. The actual level of provision offered by the local authority, independent and other sectors such as health will be closely monitored by the Council and will inform its work with employers, and HEIs.

The daily fee per student per practice learning day is paid for all social work degree students and includes employment based routes.

Arrangements for distribution and monitoring

Annex A (Process Chart) details how funding will be distributed to HEIs over the year. HEIs will be expected to account for this money including the split between numbers of practice learning days spent in local authority and independent sector settings on an individual student basis. This will be achieved by completing a spreadsheet at specified times during the year and sending this to the Council with data in the required fields.

Figures supplied in support of end of year claims will be expected to be based on actual numbers of students and practice learning days.

The Council will expect HEIs to provide information about the following to support their claims:

  • Individual students, identified using the SSSC registration number
  • Programme details for each student
  • Practice learning opportunity details for each student
  • Details of any student achieving credit transfer for their practice learning opportunity
  • Details of any practice learning opportunities which started late
  • Details of any repeated, failed, or not completed practice learning opportunities, including students deferring continuation in a programme
  • Details of any extended practice learning opportunities
  • Details of any students who have withdrawn from a programme due to ill health
  • Practice Teacher details relating to each practice learning opportunity
  • Practice Learning Provider/Agency details relating to each practice learning opportunity
  • Number of practice learning days occurring in local authority settings
  • Number of practice learning days occurring in the independent sector and other settings including those supported by FPTUs outwith their funded numbers
  • Pattern of practice learning provision across each academic year
  • Projected total number of students undertaking practice learning each year
  • Projected total number of practice learning days required each year
  • Numbers of students withdrawing from programmes

See Annex B (Practice Learning Funding Spreadsheet) and Annex C (HEI Practice Learning Spreadsheet Guidance Notes) for more detail on the information required to be submitted by the HEIs.

Additional information not detailed above may be requested by the Council in support of claims by HEIs for funding. HEIs will be required to submit final claims in March of each year adjusting the number of practice learning days accordingly to account for the actual spend up to 31 March.

How these arrangements work in practice will be monitored and audited by the Scottish Government as part of its normal monitoring processes and the Council will provide the Scottish Government with monthly budget reports as part of this.

The Council is entitled to see all evidence at any time in respect of those functions for which it holds delegated monitoring responsibility and on request from the Council HEI's auditors must within a reasonable timescale provide a statement saying that they have audited these funds and that they have been properly administered.

Council officers or the Council's appointed auditors reserve the right to examine all relevant records in the event it is considered necessary.

What the fees cover?

All students regardless of route - undergraduate, postgraduate or employment based are covered by these arrangements. The fee is based on the number of days to be spent by students in practice learning in service delivery settings and the unit of accounting is therefore days and not practice learning opportunities.

The daily fee will be paid for those days spent undertaking practice learning in service delivery settings up to 200 days. Where the number of days in a service delivery setting exceeds the minimum requirement of 160 days supervised direct practice then HEIs can account for this and claim up to 200 days.

Where a student requires a practice learning opportunity to be extended through failure to achieve the learning outcomes or to repeat any practice learning opportunity and thereby exceeds the 200 day requirement this must be in accordance with relevant practice learning assessment procedures for each HEI and will be monitored by the Council.

For students who terminate a practice learning opportunity earlier than would be expected for whatever reason then the HEI will need to account for the actual number of days "consumed" by that student. The definition of days consumed in terms of days spent on preparation, actual days in a setting and days spent on endings should be agreed within Service Level Agreements. Each calculation would be situation specific.

Students who are studying in Scotland but are normally non Scottish domiciled, including those from EU countries or elsewhere, are also covered by these arrangements. This arrangement also applies to students who are self funding through social work qualifying programmes.

The fee is intended to contribute to the cost of providing and supporting the practice learning opportunity. Where one agency draws work from or supports a student in another agency or setting mutual agreement should make clear the differing responsibilities and contribution to the students overall experience that each is making. This should then be used to determine how the fee is to be shared if at all between such agencies. Arrangements that operate in some voluntary sector agencies where students are offered a "blended" practice learning opportunity where work to meet the students learning needs is identified and drawn from a range of settings offers a useful model and experience of how arrangements for sharing of fees can work.

Our expectation of the use of funding is that:

  • a) Where the student is based in the voluntary sector and the practice teacher in a local authority, the fee is claimed at independent sector rate and the local authority share should not be greater than the local authority rate.
  • b) Where the negotiation is for pieces of work rather than regular periods of time sharing the fee is not advised.
    Whenever possible it is expected that the range of variables relating to inter-agency expectations and practise in delivering practice learning opportunities will be included in the schedules of the Service Level Agreement

Second Practice Teachers

No additional daily fee will be made available for the use of second Practice Teachers.

Travel and subsistence allowance

HEIs are able to claim up to £1,500 per student per programme to cover the cost of travel and subsistence other than for employment based routes.

This budget should be used appropriately to support travel to learning opportunities and subsistence when the PLO necessitates the student living away from home. Most specifically it should support students who have no other source of funding from employers or their placing agency.

The Scottish Government sees this budget as important and potentially effective in promoting access to particular learning opportunities, and recognises the great variation in geography and student need which HEIs must manage.

It is recognised that each practice learning opportunity needs different levels of financial support and funds can be vired to support a particular practice learning opportunity assuming no detriment to the needs of other students.

Where employers sponsor a student to undertake a professional training programme it is expected that travel and subsistence will remain the responsibility of the employer.

It is expected that agencies will pay for travel and subsistence costs associated with work being undertaken on behalf of the agency during the practice learning opportunity and this should be included in the Service Level Agreement.

The use and monitoring of the travel and subsistence allowance will be reviewed to establish best value before the financial year 2009/10.

Administration Fee For HEIs

An administration fee based on a daily fee per student per practice learning day is paid to HEIs. In 2008/09 this will be £2 per student per practice learning day subject to a minimum and maximum amount per HEI. The minimum will be £18,000 per annum per HEI and the maximum will be £40,000 per annum per HEI.

This fee is granted to enable HEIs to administer and coordinate the practice learning funding process. Where two academic providers agree formally to deliver a social work degree programme in partnership, they will be able to claim one administration fee only.

It is expected that HEIs will be able to properly identify the use of the administration fee against the necessary systems for disbursement of the practice learning daily fee.

The use and monitoring of the administration fee will be reviewed to establish best value before the financial year 2009/10.

Audit

The Council will report to the Scottish Government on these funding arrangements and the functioning of the framework for practice learning. Practice learning data and spend will also be subject to the internal and external audit processes of the Council.

Practice Learning funding spreadsheet

The Practice Learning funding spreadsheet is available in Microsoft Excel .xls format:

icon Practice Learning funding spreadsheet (48 kB) 

Guidance on completing the Practice Learning funding spreadsheet

The guidance on completing the Practice Learning funding spreadsheet is available in Microsoft Excel .xls format:

icon Guidance on completeing the Practice Learning funding spreadsheet (453 kB)

Practice Learning fees process chart

The Practice Learning fees process chart is available in pdf format:

icon Practice Learning process chart (21.77 kB)

Contact point

Enquiries regarding the funding arrangements should be made to:

Karen McLaughlin
Regulation and Practice Learning Team
Scottish Social Services Council
Compass House
11 Riverside Drive
Dundee
DD1 4NY