Social work bursary levels have been frozen for a tenth consecutive year, the Department of Health and Social Care revealed today.
The decision means that payments for students on undergraduate or master’s courses are worth between £1,150 and £1,800 per year less than they were in 2014, as measured by the Bank of England’s inflation calculator (see table below).
Also, the cap on the number of additional bursaries per year – 2,500 for undergraduate courses and 1,500 for postgraduate programmes – has also been frozen, in this case at a level set in 2013. The caps mean that not every student receives a payment.
As previously, undergraduate bursaries are only available to students in their second and third years, while master’s students who are allocated a bursary receive their payments across the duration of their course, alongside a £4,052 contribution to their tuition fees.
In addition, universities’ funding for placements through the education support grant (ESG) will be frozen for a tenth successive year, at £20 per day for practice placements and £10 per day for skills development days.
| Bursary | 2024-25 value | Inflation-adjusted value | Difference |
| Undergraduate – London | £5,262.50 | £7,058.26 | £1,795.76 |
| Undergraduate – outside London | £4,862.50 | £6,521.76 | £1,659.26 |
| Postgraduate – London | £3,762.50 | £5,046.40 | £1,283.90 |
| Postgraduate – outside London | £3,362.50 | £4,509.91 | £1,147.41 |
The confirmation about the value of bursaries and numbers being offered comes with less than two months to go until courses start for the 2024-25 academic year.
As a result, universities have not known until today how many bursaries they had been allocated, preventing them from nominating students to take them up.
This meant students had no certainty over whether they would receive a bursary, prompting warnings from academics that disadvantaged trainees would not take up places on their courses.
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As a Social Work lecturer it saddens me that this freeze continues to happen. I have seen students struggling so much they just could not continue to study or are working all hours to make ends meet. Social Work programmes usually consist of older students who.have families they need to support, the miniscule payment they get from the bursary just doesn’t touch the sides. How can we strengthen the workforce if this is how they are (not) supported.
As a mature student about to go into year 3, if I don’t get this bursary I feel.its unlikely I will continue. I struggle to work as well as do my uni work and not to mention the full time placement which we have to do! You’d think taking into account the position social workers are in that the government would want to encourage more of them to do the training.
When the LGA said showed that a “workforce crisis” was threatening council services and we have to recruit overseas social workers why would we freeze bursaries? Also I thought the DFE were wanting to recruit a 500 additional apprentices? Honestly, who gets paid to make these decisons!