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The introduction of the social work degree is aimed at increasing the professionalism of social workers. To help students with the cost of doing the three-year course several bodies such as the General Social Care Council offer bursaries.

Now councils are also offering bursaries in return for a commitment from the student to start their career with the council.

Most councils that offer bursary schemes provide a grant of £3,000 for final year students. In return, students are usually expected to work for two years for the council although if the new social worker leaves before the period is completed they have to return part of the bursary. Most councils offer grants for working in children’s or adult services, which nationally suffer some of the worse staff shortages. 

However, Wiltshire Council is offering to spread the bursary over three years – £1,000 a year – with the student expected to do work placements with the council in the summer holidays. “It allows the council to offer work experience as well as supporting the student on the degree,” says Sue Coleman, senior personnel officer at the department of adult and community services.

The council intends to target first year students at colleges in September. But its attempts to lure final year students have met with little success although there was some initial interest.

Coleman puts it down to competition from other local authorities and a need for some tweaking of the scheme. Students may find that the commitment “is too much in the first few years of their career. They have to balance security with career.”

Wiltshire also offers bursaries across all fields, not just children’s services. Coleman says that the council wanted “to match the interests of students with areas of work. Also we wanted an influx of younger staff into the existing workforce.”

One area to look at, says Coleman, would be to offer bursaries to people on part-time courses and who want to work part-time. At the moment the bursaries are for full-timers only.

Other councils also have had problems with offering social work students bursaries. Enfield Council started offering bursaries last year but there have been no takers from Middlesex University where the council has a tie in, says Tracey Moore recruitment and retention manager for children’s services. “They may all be going through agencies,” she adds.

Instead the council has had more success using “grow your own” initiatives. The council has introduced the post of social work assistants to work with social work teams. “This year we have five or six and we are currently interviewing more and plan to expand to more than 10,” says Moore.

The assistants work in children’s services. They have caseloads – although not high risk ones – and attend meetings and courts with their social work managers. However, “they do not do any statutory work,” says Moore.

The increasing professionalisation of social work means that people will be leaving universities with a greater range of skills and be expecting a far more attractive and varied recruitment package.  Bursaries may be one part of this but councils will need to expand or find other ways of attracting staff.