An open letter urging Labour to support campaign to reform social work student bursaries | BASW England & SWU

BASW England and SWU have written to the new Shadow Minister for Social Care, Andrew Gwynne MP urging Labour to include a commitment to reforming social work student bursaries in their manifesto for the next General Election.

A previous “open letter” to the UK Secretaries of State for Health and Education set out the case for an end to the unique nature of hardships social work students face by reforming the presently unfair funding system. 

Ministers replied expressing sympathy with the important role social work students play, but stopped short of agreeing to consider options for bursary reform.

BASW England and SWU are now calling on Mr Gwynne and his Labour colleagues to meet with social work students to explore a way forward. 

The full letter text is as follows:

Dear Andrew,

Congratulations on your appointment as Shadow Minister for Social Care.

In April we wrote to Wes Streeting MP, Bridgit Phillipson MP and Anneliese Dodds MP expressing our concern about the financial hardships faced by social work students and asking for Labour’s support for these students. We followed up with a further letter in June.

Nearly six months on and we are disappointed that we have not had a response from the Labour front bench team.

Since then, over 400 students signed an open letter to the Secretaries of State for Health and Education calling for reform to social work bursary programmes in England. The Minister for Care did respond, on behalf of the Government. 

Helen Whately MP, who shares responsibility for social work training with the Department for Education, said: “I can assure you that both departments are committed to support the profession and those aspiring to enter the profession.”

However, the Minister’s warm words contained no promise to change the unfair bursaries system in England. 

We have already seen Welsh and Scottish governments take notice of the unique challenges social work students face and we had hoped that Westminster politicians would promise to look into the issue.

Students would welcome the opportunity to speak to you and your colleagues about the issues they face and how Labour can incorporate reform of social work bursaries into the manifesto for the next general election.