We need to stop this blame culture it is counter productive and only serves to demoralise our workforce in a time when leaders should be inspiring and resilient. There is room for everyone in the world of social work regardless of their chosen educational route, there will be good and bad students from all pathways. My worry after reading some of the comments above is that if the Social Work Apprenticeship Programme is adopted in the North East how will these students be viewed – I dare not even imagine!

You need to get your facts right, the step up to Social Work Programme has no summer institute

We are likely to see further shortages of social workers if this trends continues. Several courses have already closed their doors. Social work is a hard profession – those students eligible for fast track courses are not immune to the stresses and strains of practice. They need a good grounding in complex academic concepts and ideas to function effectively as a practitioner and ensure self care. Fast track schemes aimed at propping up in the profession in the short term, getting more people out their in to practice are short sighted. Many of these social workers of the future will learn how to function in a team with depleted resources and depleted supervision and guidance. They will not learn the basics of good social work practice.

Institutions are forced into delivering fast track schemes so they do not go under, when in reality, ideological drivers behind them. As the student says above what happens to the diverse areas of SW practice that do not encompass child protection or mental health.

I do not wish to undermine those undertaking fast track programmes. I am sure there are some great practitioners in the making; but fast track programmes train workers – not professionals.

Charlotte – I suspect (suspect only!) that the thinking is that those other social work fields you mention (and others) are not considered a priority, and that work should eventually be managed by families, the community, health, voluntary organisations.

Therefore, the UK would only need to train social workers in child protection work, as a) that is considered the ‘sharp end’, and b) if you have done that, surely you can do everything else?

My view is that the present government will sacrifice any and all public services, including education, health and policing, in order to secure a “vibrant economy”. Conservative ideology has never been about long-term strategy, only short-term benefits and rewards.
We are, as a country, feeling the significant impact of certain decisions made thirty years ago during the Thatcher era, the most obvious being the housing situation. The unfortunate outcome of the “it’s the economy, stupid” mentality is that maintenance of that economy becomes the absolute priority for all successive governments.

Social work and social work training, in the wider context of the country’s current problems, is not going to a be priority. Certainly not for universities that need to manage their provision under a business model. Supply and demand, and the bottom line, have become prioirties for all universities now, whether Russell Group or ex-local colleges/polytechnics.