Skills for Care has welcomed the announcement by Care Services Minister Phil Hope that they have been given £4 million to support Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSW) in their first year on the frontline.

Skills for Care have been working closely with the Department of Health to create the new NQSW framework announced by the Minister on World Social Work Day.

Skills for Care is inviting bids from Adult Social Work departments for funds which will provide £1000 to support every NQSW in their first year and an additional £1000 to support their supervisors to make sure they have effective levels of supervision.

The package also allocates funds to create Action Learning Sets, web-based resources, evaluation of the NQSW programme and support for experienced social workers to access Post Qualifying qualifications.

Funding forms are available by emailing NQSWproject@skillsforcare.org.uk, or on the Skills for Care website at www.skillsforcare.org.uk

14:47:11 2009-03-30