The government has scrapped the second round of the adult social work apprenticeship fund.
The £4m payment would have enabled English councils to recruit about 130 additional social work apprentices to work in adult social care during 2024-25.
However, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has cancelled it as part of wider cuts to adult social care training, designed to help the Labour administration fill a £22bn hole in the public finances it claims was bequeathed to it by its Conservative predecessor.
The move was criticised by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England.
BASW’s concern about apprenticeship funding cut
Michael Chapman, of BASW England’s adults’ group, said: “BASW is concerned about the government’s announcement to withdraw the funding allocated for social work apprenticeships.
“Apprenticeships have been supported by the social work sector and developed since 2018 to provide an opportunity for many people to qualify as social workers who otherwise would not have been able to afford to. Many training providers have developed apprenticeship degree schemes and the future of these will depend on the continuation of funding.
“The previous scheme provided funding on a short term basis and BASW has approached the Government to clarify whether a longer term funding scheme will be developed to put the apprenticeship scheme on a secure footing alongside the traditional methods of entry to the profession.”
In their response to the decision, the chairs of the Adult Principal Social Worker Network said: “As PSW chairs we welcome any support from the government to support the training and retention of social workers working with adults.
“We would welcome the opportunity to talk to ministers and other stakeholders like Social Work England, BASW and Skills for Care about how we can work together to take a longer-term approach to recruiting and retaining social workers.”
One in ten social work posts vacant
It was launched with the vacancy rate for council social workers running at 10.5%.
The DHSC invited authorities to bid for up to £30,000 per apprentice, providing an initial £8m in the 2023-24 financial year, which meant authorities could recruit about 265 additional practitioners.
About social work apprenticeships
Social work apprenticeships are degree-level qualifications that generally take three years, though with some universities offering fast-track options now for candidates who already have a degree.
Apprentices spend at least 20% of their time on off-the-job training, delivered by a university or other learning provider. This is funded by the apprenticeship levy, a 0.5% charge on the pay bill of larger employers, including councils.
Apprentices spend the rest of the time carrying out their substantive role, though employers also arrange social work placements for them, in line with Social Work England’s requirements for students to do 200 days of practice learning across their courses.
Employers can put existing staff, such as social work assistants, family support workers, early help staff or community care assessors, through apprenticeships or hire people directly into social work apprentice roles.
According to Skills for Care, 740 people started social work apprenticeships in 2021-22, while in the same year, 82.7% of apprentices who started training in 2019 qualified as a social worker.
Purpose of apprenticeship fund
The DHSC said councils could use the apprenticeship fund for:
- recruiting the additional apprentices (excluding marketing costs);
- practice educator recruitment and training;
- setting up, co-ordinating and managing the apprenticeship programme or the relationship with the training provider;
- setting up contrasting practice placements, for example, in children’s services;
- other non-training costs not currently covered by the apprenticeship levy (excluding any backfill-related costs), such as travel or management costs.
They were not permitted to use the money to meet salary costs for staff covering apprentices while they were on training or to fund learning delivered by the authority’s training provider, which must be covered by the apprenticeship levy.
Recruiting additional staff
To be eligible for the funding, councils had to commit to using it to recruit additional apprentices beyond their existing plans and to employing those selected until they complete their courses.
The DHSC has said it will seek evidence from councils that the funding has been used appropriately and that relevant staff have completed the first year of their programme.
Enhancing social care staff skills ‘of critical importance’
Explaining its decision to make cuts to adult social care training funding, a DHSC spokesperson said: “This government is being honest about the appalling economic circumstances we inherited, but we are determined to grip the crisis in social care and implement the longer-term reforms needed to create a sustainable national care service.”
Creating a national care service is Labour’s long-term aim for the sector, but it is yet to flesh out what this means in practice beyond establishing national standards to ensure consistency of care across the country.
The spokesperson added: “Enhancing skills for staff working in social care is of critical importance to this, and we want that care to be of outstanding quality – fair, personalised and accessible.”
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Defo a strange decision. Next you will hear that there is a desperate need to recruit social workers from abroad at huge cost (not to mention the ethics of nicking qualified people from other countries)
Scrapping apprentices will create short term gain in savings, but long term pain in a lack of social workers
The councils should not be replacing social workers with unqualified social workers, as this is what some Councils are doing.
Thats what you get with promise breaking majority government, another assault on older adults, winter fuel etc
Over last few weeks,there be alot of,talk about Sw workers not be trained in domestic violence, so in one quick move they resolved that,by not training social worker. Government thinking out of,the box again.
We are well on our way to full privatization of services.
Well , I actually have no words I am stumped , clueless and very very confused . We have a shortfall in workers across all regions full stop.
I know , it must be no workers less work completed less cost less regional settlements then.
I have been a harsh critic of the outgoing party and its not because of the colour blue .
To get a lion out of the house to invite a bunch of wolves is not really a change at all .
There is a move here , the unseen hand , or it could be the brutal truth is we are bust and there is nothing we can do about it . Speechless .