Step up to Social Work bursary to increase after decade-long freeze

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

For our 50th anniversary, we’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by either:

• Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
• Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

1. Undergraduate degrees – these generally take three years (full-time), are liable for tuition fees of £9,250 a year, with bursaries of £4,862.50 or £5,262.50 (in London) a year for most, but not all, students in their second and third years.
2. Postgraduate degrees – these generally take two years (full-time), though some courses allow students to gain a postgraduate diploma in about 18 months, while there are two accelerated master’s courses in social work that take a similar amount of time to the diplomas. Most students receive a bursary of £3,362.50 or £3,762.50 (in London) a year, plus a £4,052 annual contribution to their tuition fees, covering about half the cost.
3. Undergraduate apprenticeships – these generally take three years, with training fully funded and apprentices able to earn a salary from their employer.
4. Postgraduate apprenticeships – these are similar to undergraduate apprenticeships but take less than three years. Like undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and undergraduate apprenticeships, these are not targeted at any particular sector of social work.
5. Step Up to Social Work – a 14-month postgraduate programme delivered by partnerships of universities and councils/children’s trusts, which arrange placements for trainees – who are expected to have experience of working with vulnerable children, families or adults. Tuition fees, along with bursaries of £19,833 (£21,995 from 2026), are funded by the Department for Education (DfE), which sees the programme as a way of recruiting more children’s social workers.
6. Approach Social Work (delivered by Frontline) – following an initial five-week summer course, participants (who must be graduates) are placed within small teams in local authorities or children’s trusts and qualify in a year, before doing two further years during which they work towards a master’s while working as social workers. Tuition fees and bursaries of £18,000 or £20,000 (in London) are covered by the DfE and the scheme, including its curriculum, is geared towards training people to work in child protection.
7. Think Ahead – Similarly to Frontline, graduate participants are placed in small teams in NHS trusts or councils, following a five-week summer course, and qualify within a year. They then work towards a master’s in year two. The scheme is geared towards training people to work in mental health social work, with funding for bursaries of £18,250 or £20,250 (in London) and tuition fees provided by the Department of Health and Social Care.