User led organisation funding

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User led organisation funding

Each year, we disburse funding to user led organisations (ULOs) and/or disabled peoples organisations (DPOs) to deliver training for people who employ or contract with personal assistants (PAs).

Find funded training in your area

Find local and virtual training opportunities for PAs and IEs in our training directory.

We’ve successfully awarded 25 organisations to deliver training courses for 2025/26 and you can access the list of providers through ULO training courses website. The list is split by regional areas and also details the delivery method for example face to face or online.

These training courses are fully funded and have been designed by people with lived experience specifically to be suitable for individual employers and personal assistants and self-employed PAs (and individuals commissioning them) can access the training.

ULO training courses

Any questions?

If you would like more information please contact funding@skillsforcare.org.uk or call 0113 241 1275.

Aim of funding

ULO funding grants are awarded to pay for training which will improve the knowledge and skills of personal assistants (PAs) and their employers (individual employers).

Individual employers are people who employ their own care and support staff using a social care direct payment from their local authority or their own money.
Personal assistants (PAs) are people who are employed directly by individuals (or families) who require care and support, rather than care providing organisations.

What type of training will be funded?

ULO's will be funded for the cost of learning that meets the needs of individual employers and PAs, for example:

health and safety such as; assisting and moving, first aid or food safety
disability equality training
understanding the role of an employer or employer responsibilities
managing staff
boundaries and expectations of the employer and employee relationship
training to support specific situations (e.g. autism, dementia, BSL etc)
knowledge elements of the Care Certificate standards and where appropriate assessment that leads to the award of the Care Certificate.

Disability Positive case study - Appropriate skills to keep people safe

PDF - 121 KB

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Learn how Disability Positive's Learning Service has helped employers and PAs develop their skills.

Independent Lives case study - Training adapted to suit what PAs need

PDF - 87 KB

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Personal assistant Larissa Pavlova shares how she benefitted from accessing training through ULO funding.

Helpful links

Find support for Individual Employers and Personal Assistants, and read more about our Individual Employer Funding.

Sign up to our newsletter for further updates and information sent straight to your inbox. You can do so by following the below instructions:

and select the 'Newsletter for individual employers and those who support them' option under 'Contact preferences'.
If you already have an account, and select 'Update your contact preferences' under the 'Manage account settings' box. You can then select to receive the 'Newsletter for individual employers and those who support them.'

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