Fast-track social work scheme to end in 2027 after government decides to withdraw funding

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The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will not renew charity Think Ahead’s contract to deliver its scheme to train people to work as adult mental health social workers, which began in 2016.

This means that the 2025 cohort, due to start with Think Ahead this summer, will be the last to complete the two-year programme, under which participants qualify after year one, supported by a bursary of £18,250 to £20,250 and no tuition fees.

DHSC ‘reviewing investment in social work’

The DHSC’s decision is based on what it sees as the relatively high cost of training a Think Ahead participant, in the context of the current pressures on the public finances.

A department spokesperson said: “Mental health social workers provide an invaluable service, and they are critical to a thriving healthcare system.

“We inherited appalling economic circumstances and are reviewing how we invest in social work so we can ensure the best use of taxpayers’ money to help people as effectively as possible.

“This government is committed to ensuring we have the right professionals in the right places with the right skills to give people the care they deserve.”

The decision, which saves about £9m a year, is the DHSC’s second cut to investment in social work training since Labour came to power in 2024, following its cancellation of the second round of its Conservative predecessor’s social work apprenticeships programme.

Think Ahead ‘hugely disappointed’

The news comes just weeks after Think Ahead launched a campaign urging the DHSC to invest in 24,000 more mental health social worker roles in the NHS over the next decade, to add to the existing almost 4,000 full-time equivalent posts.

“We’re hugely disappointed,” said Think Ahead chief executive Philippa Mariani. “We absolutely believe that mental health social work should be prioritised in workforce planning and we’re worried that, without a secure pipeline of mental health social workers going into the sector, there will be an impact on teams, on service user experience and on service user outcomes as well.”

She said that employers, participants and stakeholders had expressed “great sadness” at the DHSC’s decision to end funding for the scheme, which currently trains about 160 people a year.

Programme ‘makes a huge difference on the ground’

A 2019 evaluation of the scheme concluded it offered a “robust preparation” for mental health social work for its participants, most of whom became “valued recruits” for the employers they were placed with.

Mariani said: “We’ve got a very successful programme and we’re hugely oversubscribed – we’ve got 90 applications for every place we have. We know there’s a big appetite for this and we know that it makes a huge difference on the ground. Eighty per cent of our partners say that their trainees make a difference to their teams within a very few months of joining.”

She said the programme’s key benefits were its focus on training people in social work “through a mental health lens” and the speed with which it could “bring committed people who are wanting to develop careers in mental health to the front line”.

“Being able to rapidly bring that new resource to the workforce in a way that’s really focused around the needs not only of the people who receive services but also the workforce development needs of the providers themselves is what makes it very very different to everything else that is on offer.”

However, she added: “We’re now in a time of real financial constraint and I think that is where this is coming from.”

‘Need to maintain pipeline of mental health social workers’

In response to the news, social care and mental health organisations stressed the importance of training sufficient mental health social workers.

“With the number of people needing support for mental illness increasing, it’s vital we maintain a good pipeline of new social workers specialising in this area,” said Association of Directors of Adult Social Services president Jess McGregor.

“Recruitment and retention of social workers remains challenging, so it’s important we review all the different routes into social work to ensure we develop a strong, stable and diverse adult social care workforce.”

For charity the Centre for Mental Health, chief executive Andy Bell said: “We urgently need more mental health social workers in England. Social work is an essential part of mental health care.

“Social workers help people to live independently, assert their rights, and build the lives they want. It is vital that sufficient training is in place to sustain and expand the workforce in the years to come.”

No changes to 2024 and 2025 cohorts

Mariani said the decision would not affect the 2024 cohort, who are due to qualify later this year before taking up jobs with their placement employer, or 2025 participants, who will start the programme in the summer.

“The funding for those cohorts is there, there’s no threat to that at all. We will be continuing, business as usual, to deliver those cohorts. There will be no impact to people currently on our programme or about to start it.”

According to its latest report, Think Ahead received £9m for the fast-track programme from the DHSC in 2023-24, 97% of its total income, with £234,000 from other sources for consultancy projects.

Think Ahead ‘still committed to mission’

However, Mariani said that despite the DHSC ending its funding of the organisation, it remained committed to its mission to recruit, train and promote a thriving mental health workforce and would continue with it.

“We’re very much looking to our partners in the NHS, local authorities and the voluntary sector to help us build from this, to build new programmes, new developments, new solutions around workforce so we can continue to fulfil our mission.”

She added: “It’s early days and we haven’t for firm plans that we can talk about as yet. But clearly what we want to do is build on the things we’ve been doing, [including] campaigning for more mental health social workers.

“We want to also make sure that whatever grows out of future activity for Think Ahead, it ensures that the social approach is absolutely embedded in mental health teams.”