Loading ...A fast-track scheme for training social workers will end in 2027 after the government decided to withdraw funding on financial grounds.
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.”
About the Think Ahead programme
- The two-year programme trains people to become adult mental health social workers within a year.
- It has three elements:
- a five-week “summer institute” to provide a grounding in mental health, social work and the law;
- a one-year placement within a unit of trainees managed by a consultant social worker within a local authority or NHS trust, during which the participant does further academic study and qualifies as a social worker;
- a second year employed by the same organisation, during which the person completes a master’s in social work practice and their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).
- It is fully funded, to the tune of £9m a year, by the DHSC, which includes financing bursaries of £18,250 (or £20,250 in London), tuition fees and placement costs in year one.
- The scheme is open to graduates with at least a 2.2 (previously a 2.1) in a subject other than social work.
- The academic component has been delivered by Middlesex University since 2019.
- The programme trained its first cohort in 2016, when 95 joined the scheme, with cohorts of about 100 until 2020, and then of about 160 since 2021.
‘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.”
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Due to the rise in apprentice social workers there are no jobs for those of ius who paid for our degrees, are qualified to a higher standard than apprentices and couldn’t work due to the degree being full time. I realise it’s not a them or us situation, we need more social workers across the board, however, it is unjust that there are no jobs left for those of us who have worked just as hard for qualifications and have masters degrees. So in my opinion, in this current climate, the withdrawal of funding is a good thing.
I am due to start a Masters in September and it’s worrying there are no jobs ready. I was led to believe on graduation we have a very good chance of a job as its what we are training for. I feel the traditional University route with placement is the best learning method.
Very sorry to hear about your situation Susan. I hope you get a good job opportunity soon. I have just been made redundant from my University teaching post because of declining student numbers. There is nothing wrong with looking at different ways of training social workers, but there should be some proper planning and consideration of the impacts regionally of these different initiatives. As I pointed out my local authority “partners”- If you embrace all these schemes and then end up needing to come back to your local University once all the funding gets pulled then you may find that there is no local University course anymore to provide you with new staff.
I’m in the nhs listing very nice band 5 and 6 roles in somerset mhst that social workers could apply for, an often get very few applicants. So odd to hear there aren’t any jobs-i guess it depends where you live + look?
It’s not cost effective and many leave soon into their career. Bursaries need to be reformed with the money saved.
The fast track schemes rarely work and Think Ahead seems like a very expensive scheme. Those trained through these schemes often don’t stay in Frontline SW or leave the profession altogether as soon as they realize it’s just not for them. There needs to be a whole reset in Social Work….not many people are resilient enough to withstand the very high levels of abuse we see in social work these days. Anything to say Social Work England?!
I think you have misunderstood the programme. While training, people on this programme complete their masters degree.
Fast track programmes and apprenticeship programmes as you point out correctly do lead to Masters awards. However, graduates of these programmes do have an advantage over normal graduates who paid for their degrees because they already have a job and do not have to compete for one. I don’t know how good a course Think Ahead is but the other Fast Track programme Frontline only focusses on child care and is not a generic qualification.
I tend to agree with other comments: Fast Track is likely to be inadequate training and is unlikely to equip social workers to survive in the mental health environment. I managed to stay in Social work for 25 years and it was always hard. It just became harder and harder: fighting for funding for every area. Just train more Social Workers, value them and provide ongoing on-job training and support. When I started there were regular training days (which stimulate and remind one why one is doing the job). In the last five years of my working life the only training I manage to get was a course on getting ready for retirement. People leave Social Work for a reason: it is very hard and many people leave: some before even working.
Personal experience on a similar children and families programme made me realise it does little to prepare people for the job. I qualified via the traditional university route, which was supportive and relevant. However, many LA’s are increasing their apprenticeship places which have higher success rates and reduced staff turnover.
I’m in agreement with the traditional University route to social work. I can’t imagine that 2 years of fast-tracking could equate with 3/4 years of hard slog and continual reflection! It’s certainly not value for money when fast tracked social workers are leaving the profession! Perhaps more money should be invested into a proper regulator that will support the profession instead of the palaver that we currently have.
I have been a Social Worker for 21 years and I did the full-time 4 year degree. I have worked in different roles, Child protection, Foster care, adoption and Adult social work. It is very easy to transfer your skills for a new role because the values and principles of SW are the same everywhere. All the employer does is offer you ongoing training for the new role and within 6 months you will be a master of that role. I strongly believe the fast track programs create social workers with less skills and adaptation.
I think the apprenticeship is a much better route as the candidates have previous experience – unlike majority of Think Ahead students
Also the programme employs lots of staff – but v few with MH and/or SW experience and they don’t deliver the programme !
I support the principle behind fast-track programmes like Think Ahead — they’ve brought passionate, capable individuals into the profession who may not have entered otherwise. But a mixed economy of routes is essential.
In my experience, being involved since 2026, Think Ahead can prepare people well for frontline mental health practice if employers invest meaningfully in their development over the two-year period. You get out what you put in. Where there’s strong local support, structured supervision, and a focus on integration into team culture, these practitioners thrive. Where that’s missing, the model falls short.
The real issue isn’t one route versus another — it’s the fragility of the system they enter. We need better national and local workforce planning, investment in post-qualifying support, and parity of esteem across all entry routes. That’s the conversation we should be having