August 11, 2026
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If you manage a care team, you’ve probably heard of ASC-WDS, and you’ve probably also felt that small sinking feeling when funding rules change names again. It’s a lot to keep track of on top of everything else on your plate.
Here’s the good news: what’s less well known is just how much free and funded training ASC-WDS can actually unlock, if your account is set up and kept up to date. This guide walks through exactly what’s available in 2026, in plain terms, and how to actually access it.
ASC-WDS (the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set) is a free service run by Skills for Care. It’s where you record details about your workplace and staff, including training and qualifications.
If you’re not registered yet, or want the full step-by-step process, we’ve covered that in detail in our ASC-WDS Care Agencies Guide. This piece picks up from there, focused specifically on what your account can unlock once it’s active.
Beyond funding, an up-to-date account gives you a few practical wins:
But for most managers, the real draw is funding access, which is where things get useful.
Here’s the part that trips people up, and honestly, it trips up a lot of managers: ASC-WDS itself is free, but it’s also the gateway to funded training through a separate scheme.
That scheme is the Learning and Development Support Scheme (LDSS), run by the Department of Health and Social Care and administered by the NHS Business Services Authority. Skills for Care confirms that the LDSS is offered for 2026 to 2027, and to claim funding, employers need an up-to-date ASC-WDS account.
This funding isn’t going anywhere either. In April 2026, the government confirmed continued funding for adult social care learning and development in the 2026/27 financial year, a package worth up to £13.3 million, including up to £10 million for the Learning and Development Support Scheme specifically. In short: keeping your ASC-WDS account current isn’t just admin, it’s what makes your team eligible to claim.
The LDSS covers a specific list of courses and qualifications, not everything under the sun. Broadly, it supports:
Eligibility depends on staff working in non-regulated adult social care roles, and claims must be submitted within a set window after course completion. The full, current list of eligible courses is published on GOV.UK, and it’s worth checking before you book anything, since the list is updated periodically.
Separate from LDSS-funded courses, Skills for Care also runs The Training Hub, a library of self-paced online courses built by the organisation behind the Care Certificate itself. Some content here is free to access directly, while other courses are paid but kept deliberately affordable, with profits reinvested back into the sector.
This is a good starting point if you want quick, credible training without going through a funding claim at all.
Genuinely free resources through Skills for Care mainly sit within the Training Hub and its supporting materials, things like short awareness modules and induction resources. For anything beyond that, most in-depth qualifications move into “funded” territory instead, meaning subsidised through LDSS rather than free outright. It’s a subtle but important distinction, and one worth understanding before you go looking for a fully free Level 3 diploma that doesn’t exist.
If you’re an individual carer rather than an employer, your route in usually depends on your employment status:
So yes, in many cases, but the exact route depends on how you’re employed.
The Care Certificate itself doesn’t have a fixed price, it’s set by whichever training provider delivers it. The realistic “free” route is through your employer claiming the cost back via LDSS, provided their ASC-WDS account is up to date and the course is booked through an eligible provider. If you’re newly employed, it’s worth asking your manager directly whether this is something they can claim for you.
Fully free specialist training is rare, but funded routes cover more than people expect. Courses commonly available through ASC-WDS-linked funding include:
You can see the full, current list of funded courses available through ASC-WDS registration, including these and several others.
Nobody goes into care management to become an expert in funding schemes, and working out what’s genuinely free, what’s funded, and what your team is actually eligible for can eat up time you don’t have. That’s exactly the gap we’re here to fill. At London Cactus College, we help managers:
So whether you’re brand new to ASC-WDS or already registered and just want to make sure you’re not missing out on funding, we can help either way.
If you’d like a straightforward conversation about what your team could access, you can book a call with our team and we’ll talk it through.
Funding schemes change names, guidance gets updated, and it’s easy to feel like you’re always one step behind. You’re not expected to know all of this off by heart, that’s what guides like this one, and teams like ours, are for. If you take one thing away from this, let it be this: check your ASC-WDS account is up to date, and see what your team might already be entitled to.
Mostly short, self-paced modules through the Skills for Care Training Hub. In-depth qualifications like the Care Certificate are usually funded rather than free, meaning the cost is claimed back through LDSS.
Often, yes, though it depends on employment status. Employed carers typically access funding through their employer’s ASC-WDS account, while self-employed carers may use options like Advanced Learner Loans instead.
Fully free specialist courses are uncommon, but funded routes cover topics like dementia awareness, autism, diabetes care, learning disabilities, and mental health support.
The most realistic route is through your employer claiming the cost back via LDSS, which requires an up-to-date ASC-WDS account and a course booked through an eligible provider.
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