Social work students call for better support

Student social workers in England and Scotland are lobbying politicians for more availability and accessibility of funding support to widen opportunities into the profession. 

Both campaigns are being supported by the SWU Campaign Fund, working alongside BASW England and SASW.

In England, bursaries for social work students are distributed unequally and only around one in six students benefit from them as they are limited in number. Where bursaries are available, the funding has been frozen for over eight years resulting in a real terms cut in support for many students. They’ve also been capped at the same numbers (1,500 postgraduate and 2,500 undergraduate) since 2013.

Emma Lewell-Buck MP lodged a parliamentary question to establish what UK Ministers are doing to improve the equality of distribution of – and access to – bursaries for student social workers in England. Disappointingly, the Health Minister, Helen Whately MP responded to say that the UK Government has “no plans” to assess the adequacy of student bursaries in the coming year.

Ms Lewell-Buck MP commented: “As more and more public and support services are crumbling, social workers are needed more than ever. Bursary support is vital to grow the profession and ensure the most vulnerable in society get the help they need. Instead of recognising this, once again the Government are disrespecting the profession.”

BASW and SWU will be continuing to make the case to UK Ministers for the bursary system to be levelled up for all. Given the serious recruitment and retention crisis our profession is experiencing, we must have a system that encourages people into social work and makes it a viable career option.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, MSPs are preparing to hear a petition from student social workers in Holyrood on 22 March. The petition was launched in December calling for the Scottish Government to introduce a bursary scheme for undergraduate students whilst on placement and for reform of the limited funding scheme available to postgraduate students. Over 2000 people supported the petition after more than 300 students and officials had previously written to the Minister for Higher Education on the matter.

In response, Scottish Ministers claim that social work students can access general undergraduate student support which is not available to students on nursing, midwifery, and paramedic courses. However, the social work students point out that the total for nursing, midwifery, and paramedic bursaries is a non-repayable £37,500, but for social work students the basic support available is between £20,400 and £32,400, mostly in the form of a repayable loan and depending on household income.

MSPs on the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will now consider the petition and decide whether it merits further discussion with Scottish Ministers. The full session will be available to watch on Scottish Parliament TV on Wednesday 22 March, 9.30am.