Fast-track programme Think Ahead will train 320 more mental health social workers after the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) extended its contract up to 2027.
The £18.9m extension covers two cohorts, starting in 2024 and 2025, each of 160 trainees, the same size as the 2023 cohort.
Following a five-week grounding in social work law and theory, mostly delivered online, the participants will be placed in units of four to six in NHS or local authority mental health services and expected to qualify as a social worker in one year. During this time, they will receive a bursary of £18,250 outside of London and £20,250 within the capital, a £250 increase on current levels.
They will then be expected to complete a master's degree, alongside their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE), in year two of the programme, during which they are employed by the council or NHS body.
Think Ahead's record so far
Since its inception in 2016, the scheme has trained almost 1,000 social workers to work in adult mental health - including its current 2022 and 2023 cohorts - with 92% of trainees qualifying as social workers, up to and including the 2021 cohort (source: Skills for Care).Of those who complete the second year of the programme, 84% remain in social work practice after 12 months, said Think Ahead, based on figures drawn from its 2016-20 cohorts.
The contract extension follows calls earlier this year from NHS leaders for the programme to continue, after a workforce census revealed a 15% vacancy rate for mental health social work roles, despite a 20% boost in the number employed by NHS trusts from 2019-22.
As of last year, Think Ahead participants, qualified and unqualified, represented 3% of the NHS mental health social work workforce and 1% of local authority practitioners. This reflects the fact that the programme places more trainees in trusts than councils, with partnering with 17 NHS bodies and 10 local authorities for its 2023 cohort.
'Essential to invest in social work' - Lyn Romeo
"We are delighted by this opportunity to continue bolstering the workforce: finding, training and supporting compassionate and dedicated trainees who can help change the lives of the people they support," said Think Ahead chief executive Philippa Mariani.
The DHSC's chief social worker for adults, Lyn Romeo, added: "We know that mental ill health affects people across the life course and that social workers working with people in many areas will be providing support in relation to their mental health often alongside other multiple needs. It is essential we invest in and develop social work capacity and capability to provide the right support at the right time for those we are here to serve."
The news came as figures released by Think Ahead showed a shift in its make-up since its inception in 2016, with trainees older, more likely to have worked in health and social care and, increasingly, from black, Asian or minority ethnic groups.
Changing profile of Think Ahead trainees
Just under half of trainees (49%) in the 2023 cohort this year were aged 31 and over, compared with a quarter in 2020 and just 17% in 2016.The proportion who joined the programme from a related role increased from 34% to 46%, from 2020-23, while the share from minority groups grew from 17% to 27% over this time.
The latter is above their proportion in the NHS mental health social worker workforce (24%) and the target set by DHSC for representation from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups (22%) on Think Ahead.
Mariani said: "I think the workforce is shifting and changing – people are going into other types of roles and testing what they want for their careers – which means we are getting more applications from people already in health and social care, like mental health support workers. And Think Ahead offers a career development pathway, which people find very attractive."
She added that the programme had sought to increase representation from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups by "making our recruitment and marketing campaigns very diverse so they reach out to people in communities and speak to people in ways they recognise".
Focus on recruiting men to scheme
The DHSC has set the programme a 30% target for the proportion of men recruited to the 2024 and 2025 cohorts, a proportion it achieved in 2021 and 2019, but not in 2022 (23%) or 2023 (20%). A quarter of NHS mental health social workers were men, as of 2022.Mariani, who was previously chief executive of mental health charity Mind in Croydon, said: "There’s an underlying tendency for men not to talk about their mental health. And that applies equally to people working with social workers.
"To bring men into the profession is a really good thing - it provides more roles models for young men and boys – both in terms of future careers but also in relation to talking about their mental health."
The extension of Think Ahead's contract underlines the significant diversity of training routes into social work in England (see box, below).
Routes into social work in England
- University undergraduate courses (2,270 starts in 2021-22, excluding degree apprenticeships): three-year generic programmes, with fees of £9,250 a year, annual bursaries of £4,862.50 (£5,262.50 in London) for some second and third-year students and placements in years two and three.
- University postgraduate courses (1,148 starters in 2021): two-year generic programmes, with fees of about £9,000 a year, annual bursaries of £3,362.50 (£3,762.50 in London), tuition fee contributions of £4.052, additional means-tested support for some and placements in each year.
- Step Up to Social Work (868 starters in 2022): 14-month, biennial, Department for Education-funded (DfE) programme to train children's social workers, with no tuition fees and bursaries of £19,833, delivered by regional partnerships of universities and councils, with trainees hosted by one of the councils.
- Frontline (an estimated 450 starters in 2023): employment-based, DfE-funded programme to train child protection social workers, with no fees, bursaries of £18,000 (£20,000 in London) and trainees placed in council or children's trusts units, managed by a consultant social worker. They qualify as social workers after a year, before being employed by the council or trust and taking a master's and their ASYE in year two. The master's will move to a third year from 2024, with the units renamed as learning and practice hubs.
- Think Ahead (an estimated 160 starters in 2023): employment-based, DHSC-funded programme to train adult mental health social workers, with no fees, bursaries of £18,000 (£20,000 in London) and trainees placed in councils or NHS trust units managed by a consultant. They qualify as social workers after a year, before being employed by the council or trust and taking a master's and their ASYE in year two. The bursary will rise to £18,250 (£20,250 in London) from 2024.
- Degree apprenticeships (740 starters in 2021-22): three-year programmes for people employed by an organisation (mostly, a local authority), funded, in most cases, by the employing body's apprenticeship levy, with around one day a week's learning delivered by a university.
- DfE-funded degree apprenticeships funded by DfE (461 to be delivered): these will be delivered in the same way as other apprenticeships but will be funded directly by the DfE, with apprentices based only in local authority children's services departments.
