Principal social workers (PSWs) have said they are “deeply concerned” about the impact of Social Work England’s plan to raise registration fees by 33%.

The Adult Principal Social Worker Network has warned that the proposal risks increasing hardship for social workers and exacerbating workforce instability and retention problems, in a statement responding to the regulator’s plan.

Proposed fee rises

Under the proposal, issued for consultation last month, the fee to join the register, and to annually renew, would rise from £90 to £120 from 1 September 2025.

At the same time, the free to be restored to the register for practitioners who have left would increase from £135 to to £180, while overseas practitioners would face a £670 charge for scrutiny of their application to register in England, up 35% on the current £495.

All three fees would then rise by 1.85% per year up to 2028-29.

How Social Work England justifies plan

Social Work England’s rationale for the proposals is to take account of the higher-than-expected costs it has faced since becoming the profession’s regulator in 2019.

These excess costs have been borne by the taxpayer – via the Department for Education – with registration fees having remained flat, as they have been since 2015.

According to Social Work England, this was “not sustainable over the longer-term given the significant strain on public finances”.

Widespread criticisms from social workers

The plans have been widely criticised by social workers, across social media platforms and on Community Care, with UNISON also coming out in opposition to them.

Meanwhile, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and Social Workers Union have voiced concerns about the impact on practitioners, in the light of pressures on the cost of living.

These concerns were echoed by the Adult PSW Network, which said: “Social workers are already facing significant financial pressures due to the ongoing cost of living crisis which makes any additional financial burden particularly difficult to manage.

PSWs’ concerns for low-paid and retention

“An increase in registration fees adds to this strain and may disproportionately impact lower-paid social workers.”

It also highlighted the potentially adverse impact on part-time staff, those with caring responsibilities and practitioners working in the voluntary sector.

The network also warned that any fee increase risked “exacerbating workforce instability”, adding: “Social workers already experience high levels of stress and burnout, with financial pressures adding to their reasons for leaving the profession.

“A fee increase could further deter new entrants and push experienced practitioners out of the workforce.”

Some councils cover the costs to practitioners of their annual registration fees, but the network warned that the proposed rise could lead authorities to cease doing so, in the face of “severe financial deficits”.

Network seeks dialogue with Social Work England

The network said it was “committed to working with Social Work England to explore alternative solutions that support the financial sustainability of regulation without disproportionately impacting social workers”.

It said it was seeking dialogue with the regulator in relation to:

• Ensuring that any increase is proportionate, phased and justified, with clear evidence of improved regulatory functions.
• Engaging stakeholders across the sector to consider a universal reimbursement of fees.
• Exploring alternative funding models that do not place the burden solely on individual registrants.

Respond to the consultation

The consultation on the proposals runs until 13 May 2025; you can take part by filling in this survey or emailing consultation.responses@socialworkengland.org.uk, using the subject line, ‘fees consultation’, to answer the following questions:

1. To what extent do you agree that the proposed increases to fees in 2025 to 2026 are reasonable in balancing implications for taxpayers and for social workers?
2. To what extent do you agree that the proposed incremental increases to fees from 2026 to 2029 are reasonable in giving clarity about future fees?
3. Do you think that the proposed changes to the fees could have a positive or negative impact on people with any of the following protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity.

Almost a quarter of social workers in Wales are finding it difficult to manage financially, with most practitioners having seen their financial position worsen since 2023, a survey has found.

Just over a third of practitioners were dissatisfied by their pay, found the research commissioned by regulator Social Care Wales, answered by 5,024 members of the country’s social care workforce, including 838 social workers, in February this year.

However, compared with a similar survey carried out in March-April 2023, greater proportions of social workers reported higher morale, that their services were appropriately staffed and that they felt valued by managers, colleagues and those they supported.

The Have Your Say survey, whose results were published last week, was designed to capture what it was like to work in social care in Wales. It was carried out by researchers from Buckinghamshire New and Bath Spa universities, and from the British Association of Social Workers (BASW).

Quarter of social workers struggling financially

It found 23% of social workers were finding it very or quite difficult to manage financially, up from 20% in 2023, while 62% said they were finding it slightly or a lot more difficult to cope financially than a year earlier.

This is despite the annual rate of inflation having come down from 10.1% in the year to March 2023 to 3.4% in the 12 months to February 2024. In the meantime, social workers employed by Welsh councils received a pay increase of £1,925 for 2023-24, which was worth between 4% and 6% for most practitioners.

In relation to pay, 37% of social workers said were fairly or very dissatisfied with their pay, with a higher rate of dissatisfaction, 41%, among children’s practitioners.

Improved workplace satisfaction

However, this marked a fall from 47% being dissatisfied with their pay in 2023, one of a number of areas in which social workers demonstrated greater satisfaction with their roles in 2024.

Most significantly, 70% said they always or mostly had positive morale, up from 38% in 2023. In addition:

• 72% said they had good management support, up from 69% in 2023, while 74% felt valued by their managers, up from 68%.
• Though there was a fall, from 86% to 81%, in the share of social workers who reported always or mostly having good peer support, the proportion who felt valued by their colleagues rose from 78% to 85%.
• Just under three-quarters (74%) felt valued by individuals or families, up from 64% in 2023, and while only 35% felt valued by the public, this was up from 20% the year before.
• Under half (48%) of social worker respondents said they always or mostly had appropriate staffing, but this was an increase on the 34% who reported this in 2023.

In relation to retention, 23% of practitioners said they were considering leaving social work and anticipated spending a further 17 months in the sector. This compares with one in five (21%) social workers saying they were very or quite likely to leave the social care sector within the next year in 2023, when the equivalent question was phrased differently.

Rates of bullying and discrimination

Despite the positives, 11% of social workers said they had been bullied by their managers in the past year, with the same proportion reporting discrimination from managers. This was higher than the rates for all respondents to the survey, which was 8% in each case. Four per cent of social workers reported harassment from managers, in line with the rate for respondents in general.

Social workers were less likely to have been bullied (6%), discriminated against (4%) or harassed (2%) by colleagues than respondents in general, but were more likely to have faced these issues from individuals or families.

Notably, 12% of social workers said they had faced harassment from individuals or families, compared with 7% of all respondents, while 8% reported bullying and 6% discrimination.

Inequalities in access to adult social care are deepening due to the cost of living crisis, staff shortages and squeezed council budgets.

That was the message today from the Care Quality Commission in its annual State of health care and adult social care report.

The regulator said council funding for care was not keeping up with need, with requests for care per 100,000 population up 4.9% from 2017-18 to 2021-22, while the numbers receiving care as a result fell by 2.2%.

It found that a quarter of providers surveyed in July 2023 had considered quitting the sector over the past year, as council funding failed to keep pace with their rising food, energy and staffing costs.

Reduced service capacity

Workforce shortages had resulted in reduced service capacity. The number of registered care home beds shrank by 0.6% in the year to July 2023, and home care providers deemed hard to replace delivered almost 15% fewer hours’ care in the first three months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2021.

Care home profitability was at historic lows, and with council-funded care being less profitable than the private market, the CQC found a greater proportion of fees had come from private sources in the past year.

This risked leaving people in deprived areas, who are more dependent on state services, going without care, it warned.

Specialist services for people with learning disabilities and autistic people, including supported living, saw a sharp fall in their profit margins from 2021-23, driven by rising staff costs.

However, with a much smaller private market, they were less able to subsidise state-funded provision through self-funder fees, meaning that it was “vital” for them to receive increased funding.

People going without care due to cost of living

At the same time, the CQC found that some self-funders were going without some of the home care they needed because of the cost of living crisis and increased provider fees.

Staffing shortages resulted in providers deprioritising less urgent visits, sending one carer for calls that required two, overloading staff rotas, giving workers overlapping calls and leaving too little travel time between visits.

And despite the number of vacancies across social care falling in 2022-23, mainly due to international recruitment, 54% of providers surveyed reported recruitment difficulties and 31% retention challenges.

While the CQC welcomed Skills for Care’s decision to develop a sector-led social care workforce strategy, the regulator said it was vital that the government produced its own staffing plan.

“The work that Skills for Care do will be positive, but it will need to have an outcome which is why we are calling for a national workforce strategy,” said James Bullion, the regulator’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care. “The sector alone cannot solve those problems.”

State of social care ‘unremittingly grim’

Charity coalition the Care and Support Alliance said the 2022-23 State of care report was “without doubt the worst we have ever seen and within it, the picture painted of how social care is currently performing is unremittingly grim”.

The CSA’s chairs, Caroline Abrahams (Age UK), Emily Holzhausen (Carers UK) and Jackie O’Sullivan (Mencap), added: “In particular, the growing inequality in people’s ability to access social care, and the vanishingly small options for those with little money, living in poor areas, is a source of huge concern to us.”

For the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, president Beverley Tarka said: “Funding is not keeping up with people’s needs, so fewer can access care and people who can’t afford to pay for care themselves are more likely to be going without the support they need.

“And it’s left care staff overworked, stressed, and poorly paid, meaning many leave their jobs and we have difficulty recruiting people to replace them.”

People in deprived areas ‘unable to access care they need’

Nuffield Trust senior policy analyst Sally Gainsbury said: “Local authorities were already struggling to meet growing need for care services before rising cost pressures hit, so inevitably this means more people unable to access care they need, particularly in more deprived areas.

“Financial pressures as well as repeated failed reforms have left social care services fragile and seen council-funded care packages shrinking with increasing numbers of people shut out from publicly funded care.”

The situation prompted widespread calls for the government to not only find more money for the sector in next month’s autumn statement but also provide long-term investment in social care.

Call for more money

“Immediate investment is needed in the autumn statement to end the gridlock, address unmet and under-met need and ensure timely access to social care for all who need it, not just those who are able to afford it,” said the Local Government Association (LGA)’s community wellbeing board chair, David Fothergill.

“Local authorities need a good funding settlement this autumn to avoid further cuts to care, and a government commitment to a fully funded social care workforce strategy is long overdue,” added the CSA’s chairs.

Provider representative body Care England’s chief executive, Martin Green, said: “Social care must be seen as an essential part of national infrastructure. The social care sector is brimming with talent and provides essential support for our citizens.

“We need a government that understands the importance of social care and sets about creating an environment where it flourishes, rather than struggles.”

DHSC defends record on investment

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson defended the government’s record, saying the sector had access to an additional £8.1bn from 2023-25 “to put the adult social care system on a stronger footing including buying more care packages, helping people leave hospital on time and boosting the workforce”.

This comprises:

• £3.2bn extra through the existing social care grant, though this is for both adults’ and children’s services, with an expected 40% due to be spent on the latter.
• £1.6bn to tackle delayed discharges, with the funding split between councils and NHS integrated care boards.
• £1.6bn through increasing the adult social care council tax precept by 2% and raising standard council tax by 3% in each year.
• £1.08bn through the market sustainability and improvement fund, designed to help councils increase provider fees, tackle waiting lists and boost recruitment and retention.
• £570m through a separate market sustainability and improvement fund – workforce fund, which has the same objectives but is particularly focused on tackling staff shortages.

However, Gainsbury, for the Nuffield Trust, added: “Continued short-term funding injections into social care are fuelling uncertainty and leaving the sector susceptible to shocks, unable to invest in the workforce and infrastructure needed for the future.”

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Racism is driving black and minority ethnic social workers out of permanent local authority posts into agency work, research with over 1,000 practitioners has found.

Minoritised staff in London and the South East said they felt forced to leave council posts because of “poor experiences, lack of support and economic necessity”, said the report of the 2022-23 Big Listen survey, carried out by the sector-led children’s services improvement bodies for the two regions.

The research was designed to help the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) and South East Sector Led Improvement Programme (SESLIP) gain a better understanding of the workforce in order to better tackle the sector’s social work recruitment and retention challenges.

They surveyed 1,035 social workers and managers – representing 8% of those working in local authority children’s services across the two regions – 300 of whom were “black and global majority (BGM) staff”, in the terms of the report. LIIA and SESLIP also conducted focus groups attended by 150 people.

BGM staff accounted for a disproportionately high number of agency respondents to the survey (51.5%), compared with their representation in the whole sample (29%), and also constituted the majority of locums in the focus groups.

Racism ‘significant factor’ in agency move

LIIA and SESLIP said their research suggested that “racism was very significant factor for many BGM workers who decide to choose agency social work over local authority employment” and that councils were “fundamentally at higher risk of losing BGM social workers to the agency market”.

“The BGM workers we spoke to do not describe making this decision by choice, but rather expressing a feeling of being forced to do so due to poor experiences, lack of support and economic necessity,” said the Big Listen report.

On the economic point, the study found that BGM staff were “considerably more concerned than their white colleagues” about the cost of living crisis, with 83% being very concerned, compared with 64% of white staff.

They were also much less likely to say that their pay fairly reflected the job that they did (22%, as against 38% for white practitioners and managers).

Another significant gap was on supervision, with 69% of white respondents saying their authority ensured they received good supervision, compared with 62% of BGM staff.

Social workers’ experience of racism

The report follows survey findings published in March 2022 that one in four social workers had experienced racism from colleagues or managers at least once in the preceding 12 months while 42% had witnessed workmates experience it.

That survey was carried out by an anti-racist steering group comprising Social Work England, the adults’ and children’s principal social worker networks, the Department for Education (DfE), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and What Works for Children’s Social Care (now Foundations).

On the back of the research, the steering group pledged to work with stakeholders – such as directors of children’s and adults’ services – to “garner support for an action plan to address the findings of the survey”. This would take into account existing anti-racism work, such as the social care workforce race equality standard (WRES).

The WRES, launched in 2021, involves councils reporting on a range of measures of race equality in their social care workforces, including in relation to salary, seniority, access to training, disciplinaries, recruitment and retention.

No anti-racism action plan

However, 16 months on, no plan has been published by the steering group and one of its members, the DHSC, has ceased funding the WRES, with Skills for Care taking this on itself.

In response to the Big Listen report, social work leaders in London stressed the need for urgent action on race equality in the workplace.

“This new research is incredibly useful for revealing the experience of our black and global majority workforce,” said Jacquie Burke and Beverley Hendricks, joint strategic leads of the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services’ Leadership in Colour programme, which seeks to address the low representation of BGM staff in senior roles.

Burke and Hendricks, director of children’s services and assistant director, safeguarding and social care, at Haringey council, respectively, added: “We have to address the structural inequalities in our workplaces that lead to black and global majority workers choosing agency over local authority employers. We must redouble efforts to champion and support change. Our workforce is our most precious asset.”

Social Work Recap is a weekly series where we present key news, events, conversations, tweets and campaigns around social work from the preceding week.

From the government’s controversial asylum bill becoming law and children being subjected to solitary confinement in a young offender institution to an update report on the Child Q case, here’s our week in social work:

Social work sector decries passage of ’small boats’ legislation

Social work bodies have decried the passage this week of the government’s flagship legislation to tackle small-boat crossings across the English Channel.

Once in force, the Illegal Migration Act 2023 will require the home secretary to detain asylum seekers deemed to have entered the UK illegally and then deport them to their country of origin or a safe third country.

While this duty will not apply in relation to unaccompanied children, they can still be detained under the act. The legislation also enshrines in law the practice of them being accommodated in Home Office hotels, a practice introduced in 2021 to deal with shortages of local authority placements.

In a joint statement alongside 289 other charities and campaign groups, the British Association for Social Workers said “this truly senseless act will have a devastating impact on people’s lives”.

The groups said it would “force people into situations that threaten their lives – whether by placing children in detention or sending people off to countries where their lives might be at grave risk”.

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ president, John Pearce, said the legislation ran counter to several key council duties under the Children Act 1989.

He warned it would also “create an incentive for children to run away before they turn 18 to avoid being returned to their home country, therefore placing them in danger of being exploited”.

Campaigning charity Social Workers Without Borders described the act as “morally repugnant” and “unworkable”. It has published a briefing to help social workers raise concerns over the law with their senior management teams.

However, the act’s full implementation is dependent on the government winning its ongoing legal dispute over its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which is due to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Solitary confinement ‘normalised’ at YOI, find inspectors

Solitary confinement has “become normalised” at Cookham Wood young offender institution (YOI), where 65% of children have been in care, the prisons inspectorate has said.

At an inspection in April, inspectors found that most of the 77 boys – aged 15-18 – were locked in their cells for 23.5 hours a day with “no meaningful human interaction”.

Others did not come out of their cell for days, with two boys locked away for more than 100 days for their protection.

The normalisation of confinement and isolation stifled any attempt “at meaningful and sustainable access to education, work or activity” for the boys.

Even when children could attend classes, the quality of the education was inadequate, with children allocated to vocational subjects on the basis of whom they mixed well with, not their needs and aspirations

Inspectors also found “a near total breakdown in behaviour management” at the YOI. A quarter of children reported feeling unsafe, up from 5% at the previous inspection, due to the widespread availability of weapons and the feeling that violence would arise if children mixed.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor concluded: “There will need to be urgent, concerted, long-term commitment from leaders at the YOI and from the Youth Custody Service to improve standards at Cookham Wood and make it an acceptable establishment to hold children.”

UNISON and BASW urge increase to “out-of-date” mileage rates

UNISON and the British Association of Social Workers have urged the government to raise “out of date” mileage rates to stop public sector staff being left out of pocket due to rising fuel costs.

The current tax-free 45p-per-mile rate, set by HMRC, has not been updated since 2011, and is used by most councils and other public sector bodies to set mileage allowances for staff.

However, UNISON said the gap between fuel costs and mileage payments for staff who drove every day was over £6,000 a year, according to research it carried out with the RAC Foundation, published last week.

Some staff were using annual leave or calling in sick to avoid having to top up their fuel tanks for work. Others had had to sell their cars and shift to public transport, increasing travel time and limiting the number of visits they could make.

“Mileage rates are woefully out of date,” said UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea. “No one should pay a penalty effectively for doing their job, least of all those providing vital service.”

UNISON urged the government to increase mileage rates to 63.4p, which the RAC Foundation calculated was in line with the rise in motoring costs since 2011.

Meanwhile, BASW England and the Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) backed a petition to raise the rate to 60p per mile, in a letter to chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

They said social workers and care staff were “currently absorb[ing] the impact of rising fuel costs, causing stress and worry when they’re trying to support people, often in difficult circumstances”.

Strip searches of children in London down 45% since Child Q case – report

Strip searches of children in London fell by 45% from 2021-22, in the wake of the Child Q case, a report has found.

Child Q, a black schoolgirl, was strip searched while on her period by Metropolitan Police officers at her school in 2020, with no appropriate adult present, after school staff reported her smelling of cannabis.

The decision to strip search Child Q was “insufficiently attuned to her best interests” and likely to have been influenced by racism, found a safeguarding practice review for City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP), published in March 2022.

In a follow-up report, the review’s author, CHSCP’s independent child safeguarding commissioner, Jim Gamble, found that “progress has been made”.

Alongside the decline in the number of strip searches across London in 2021-22, no children in Hackney had been subjected to a strip search since March 2022.

However, the commissioner concluded there was still work to be done – especially in schools.

He recounted asking a group of black children if they had been searched in school, and every single hand went up.

The new report called for the CHSCP to carry out annual surveys of children on whether they felt safe and respected in school.

It also urged the Department for Education to amend its guidance on strip searching in schools “to better emphasise the very exceptional circumstances in which such action would ever be considered appropriate”.

You can watch Jim Gamble set out his findings here.

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At 19, Omar Mohamed was travelling four hours a day to study social work, working a part-time job and the sole carer of his nine-year-old sister.

He was also a recipient of a social work bursary. But, as for many others, it wasn’t enough to sustain him.

Living in Milton Keynes to be with his sister while studying in Birmingham, he would often arrive home at 7pm. So, on top of rent and utilities, he had to pay for after-school clubs and childcare.

And with no help from his family, these costs all fell on Omar.

In England, every year, 2,500 undergraduates are awarded a bursary of £5,262.50 (within London) or £4,862.50 (outside London) per annum for their second and third years of study. This is divided into three termly instalments.

Part-time work and no hobbies

This limited resource can leave social work students facing significant hardship – especially when on placement – if they have no savings or financial backing from family.

For Omar, a part-time job at a nursery, and then one at a local authority where he had previously been on placement, became vital sources of extra income

“I say part-time job but literally every bit of free time I had was [spent working],” he says.

I’d never go out or buy myself something unless it was a necessity.”

“I’d never do something that I was interested in or engage in a hobby. If I ever had money, it would be spent on my sister. It was extremely tight, definitely a challenge.”

The first, bursary-free year was the worst, when the absence of funds forced Omar to frequently forgo lunch while on campus.

“It was five pounds for a sandwich on campus. I was like, ‘I’m not doing it, I can survive, when I get home, I’ll eat’. But I was home at 7pm and I’d leave at 6am It was hard.”

Now, at 22, a newly qualified child protection social worker, Omar has made peace with the sacrifices he had to make. However, he can’t help but wonder what life could have been like with more financial support.

“I know that, if I had a bit more money, I could have had more for myself. I would be a full-time student, which is what I was meant to be, and it would have allowed me more time with my sister,” he says.

The falling value of bursaries

Omar is but one of many students in England struggling financially because of inadequate support.

This has been exacerbated by bursaries being frozen since 2014, which means the undergraduate bursary is worth about £1,500 less than it was nine years ago, due to the rising cost of living.

The postgraduate bursary, worth £3,762.50 in London and £3,362.50 outside, has reduced by about £1,000 in value since 2014. Postgraduate bursaries are capped at 1,500 a year, but unlike for undergraduates, recipients get to their tuition fees (currently £4,052 a year) and can access further means-tested support of £4,201 in London and £2,721 outside the capital.

The government gives no indication of addressing the falling value of financial support for students, with care minister Helen Whately saying in March that it would not be reviewing the bursaries’ adequacy in the coming year.

“If you value social work, you have to value social work students,” says John McGowan, general secretary of the Social Workers Union (SWU).

“That means an accessible, properly funded system where no student feels they have to make the decision between continuing their course or heating their home or having to get extra work.”

Students ‘using food banks and warm banks’

In early May, the SWU launched a student-led campaign with the British Association of Social Workers to increase bursary levels in England.

This came after multiple accounts of students dropping out or living in poverty to finish their course, some accessing food banks or sleeping in cars or friends’ sofas.

“There are a lot of mature students that have families,” says McGowan. “It’s an expensive decision for them to train if they can’t get access to the funds, because then they can’t look after their family.

“We’ve also had members who rely on food banks, and I heard from one recently about a warm bank, where twice a week there’s a local community centre they go to get some heat and electricity so they can fire up the computer. That shouldn’t be happening in 2023.”

This is not only bad for students but worrying for the profession at a time of staff shortages, including vacancy rates of 20% and 11.6%, respectively, in statutory children’s services and adults’ services.

Community Care’s latest poll on the subject, which drew 631 responses, found that 70% of social workers would not have trained today with the current bursary levels, while 21% would only be able to train through a fast-track course.

The financial support for these courses – Frontline, Think Ahead and Step Up to Social Work – is much more generous that for university courses, with guaranteed bursaries of £18,000-£20,000 for just over a year’s training and tuition fees paid.

And while the number of people qualifying from a social work course grew from 3,360 in 2020-21 to 3,860 in 2021-22, this is 19% down on the figure in 2013-14 (4,760), when bursaries were last uprated, according to Skills for Care.

The struggle to get a bursary

Omar’s case is also a special one.

Aged 15, he became the carer of his then five-year-old sister, through a private arrangement with his parents that prevented him from being able to prove his position.

Despite letters from his sixth-form lecturers supporting his claim, he received the minimum level of student finance available and was initially rejected for a bursary.

“I remember in my first year talking about it to the student support and admin team for the course and they basically just explained that they don’t have a lot of flexibility to choose who gets it.”

It took multiple students dropping out at the end of the first year for Omar to secure one of the 46 available bursaries at his university. Still, he finds that the process lacked a human focus despite being created to help students in need.

“You don’t really talk to a human at the end of it, you are just sending documents to a website. So, there’s no one to really actually understand what’s going on here.”

This issue was also raised in the letter that began the bursaries campaign back in 2021, by the BASW England student and NQSW group. Addressing the government, the letter raised the lack of clarity around the eligibility criteria and each university’s flexibility to decide their own criteria.

“This has resulted in a postcode lottery system, with all students in some parts of the country being eligible regardless of circumstances, whilst others are assessed based on grades or attendance,” it wrote.

Campaign for Scottish bursary

The fight for higher bursaries is also not limited to England.

In Scotland, another bursaries campaign, backed by the SWU and the Scottish Association of Social Work, is calling for bursaries of £7,500 a year for the third and fourth year of university and a reform of the assessment criteria and the value of postgraduate bursaries.

Scottish undergraduate social work students currently have no access to bursaries but receive free tuition if they are residents in the country, unlike in England and Wales.

“I’ve never had a month where I think I’m going to be okay,” says Emma, a 33-year-old third-year student in Scotland.

Emma is a single parent of two, who has often found herself having to borrow from family to make do.

“It has been a bit difficult to keep on top of bills, in particular gas and electricity. And, being a parent, I’ve got a lot more costs for necessities for the children or clubs they might have,” she says.

“I’ve been having to borrow from family a lot of the time, especially the last couple of months. And then there’s the days where I have to attend university and it’s like, do I have enough bus fare to even get there?”

As someone who’s had “quite a challenging few years”, she has learned to push through and keep going, her eyes focused on the end goal – becoming a social worker. Her enjoyment of the course and the high employment rate in social work act as a gentle reassurance – “as hard as it is, I know it will be worth it in the end”.

Still, she looks forward to when she can provide her children with “the kind of life they deserve” – simple things like going on holiday or “if my daughter needs her phone bill paid, I can pay it that day and not have to push it a week because I don’t have the funds”.

In March 2023, the Scottish bursary campaign secured some help from a committee of MSPs, who agreed to write to raise it with the minister for higher education.

“It would obviously be a great help if this petition was successful and we got a bit more extra money a month to keep going,” Emma adds.

“I wouldn’t even say to live comfortably, because that’s not really going to happen.”

Boost in support to Welsh students

In Wales, where a similar campaign took place, students secured a 50% boost for undergraduate bursaries, following an 18-year freeze, and a doubling in master’s payments, last year.

The British Association of Social Workers Cymru welcomed the changes and hailed them as a victory for a group of master’s students from Cardiff University, who had been campaigning for improved financial support for postgraduates.

For undergraduates, bursary levels went from £2,500 to £3,750 per annum, while for postgraduates they rose from £6,640 to £12,715. As in England, Wales has a fixed number of bursaries, at 224.

While undergraduate bursary recipients in Wales still get less per year than those in England they receive more funding overall, as their award covers all three years of study, rather than just the last two.

Social work ‘losing out on talent’

In England, the bursaries campaign has produced a letter to be sent to ministers in late June, which has been signed by over 350 social workers.

According to BASW’s policy and campaigns lead, Josh Dixon, this fight is not just about securing current social work students a better life while they train, but also about ensuring no talent goes untapped.

“We’ve got to consider those who decide not to pursue social work at all because they see what’s happening and that they won’t be supported,” he says.

“You don’t necessarily get to hear those stories and I guess I feel for how much untapped potential there is out there. Social work is a wonderful profession, it’s life-changing and it’s exciting, but we shouldn’t be putting up barriers for students to undertake it, we should be making it so attractive that they come from day one.”

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Council leaders have offered social workers and other care staff in England and Wales a £1,925 pay rise for 2023-24, matching last year’s increase but well below unions’ claim.

Employers said the proposal was their “full and final pay offer” and that it would put additional pressure on already tight budgets.

The £1,925 rise would apply to staff earning up to £49,950 in the majority of councils in England and Wales – those covered by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services (NJC) agreement. Staff earning more than this would receive a 3.88% boost, which is worth more than £1,925 in cash terms.

Offer worth up to 6.4% for social workers

For social workers, the deal would be worth up to 6.4%, an increase that would apply to newly qualified practitioners on NJC pay point 23, earning £30,151.

Such an increase is well below the current rate of inflation, which was 10.1% in the year to January 2023. However, the government has said that inflation is due to average about 5.5% in 2023-24, meaning the deal could constitute a real-terms increase in pay for at least some social workers.

The offer is well below the 12.7% hike claimed by the three local government unions, UNISON – which represents an estimated 40,000 social workers – the GMB and Unite.

However, the employers said they would go no higher.

The chair of the National Employers for local government services, Sian Goding, said: “The National Employers are acutely aware of the additional pressure this year’s offer will place on already hard-pressed council finances, as it would need to be paid for from existing budgets. However, they believe their offer is fair to employees, given the wider economic backdrop.”

Workforce pressures grow ever more severe

The rise comes as already significant workforce pressures within local authority social work grow ever more severe.

Latest data in relation to council adult social workers in England shows that:

• Pay fell in the decade to September 2022.
• The vacancy rate rose to 11.6%, up from 9.5% in September 2021 and 7.5% in 2022.
• Turnover in the year to September 2022 increased to 17.1%, a record level, up from 15% in 2020-21 and 13.6% in 2019-20.
• Days lost to sickness averaged 12.1 per social worker in 2021-22, another record and up from 10.3 the year before.
• The number of social workers employed by councils was stable year on year, at 17,300, as was the number of full-time equivalent posts (15,600).

The situation appears even worse in children’s services, according to the DfE’s annual workforce census, released today. This showed that:

• 31,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) children’s social workers were in post in English councils as of September 2022, down 2.7% on the year before.
• 820 of the 868 lost posts were in case holding roles – those that held cases but were not a senior practitioner or manager.
• There were 14,910 case holding posts as of September 2022, down by 5.2% since September 2021 and 7.6% since September 2020.
• The average caseload was 16.6, as measured by the DfE, up from 16.3 the year before.
• One in five (20%) of posts were vacant, up from 16.7% in September 2021.
• 18% of posts were held by agency workers, up from 15.5% as of September 2021.

“I want my kids eating well, and I want them dressed appropriately, that they at least have a school uniform. If we’re actually going to be happier with me in the benefits system, then why not? Why push poverty on my family unnecessarily?”

Amy*, a newly qualified social worker, has been contemplating switching to agency work or going on benefits to provide for their family in the midst of rising costs.

The mother of three, the main earner in their family, with their partner earning half as much as them, previously had to borrow money from their parents to travel for work. To avoid that, they are now £1,200 in debt, using a credit card to cover travel costs, as most of their salary goes on childcare, rent and essentials for the children.

Inadequate mileage allowance

Amy was among the 90% of respondents to Community Care’s cost of living crisis survey to say that their mileage allowance did not cover the cost of petrol used during working hours.

In their case, working for a large county council in England, many of their weekly visits, which often number more than 10, involve driving long distances.

“Just getting to the office alone in a week is usually a tank and a half – that’s £60 to £110,” they say.

From September’s pay, after bills, Amy had to take out an extra £400 for fuel, leaving them with £9 in their bank account and three weeks to go until the next payday.

Struggles with childcare costs

Alongside providing for their two older children, Amy previously had to spend £1,000 to £1,300 a month for their son’s childcare, before he turned three, and  the family became eligible for 30 hours’ free childcare a week, last year.

However, this scheme only covers term time, and so they had to pay full fees during the summer.

And the saving has not stopped the family being in debt, because of rising costs elsewhere.

“It’s like that money I got back from childcare, I’ve lost again just to find the bare essentials,” they say.

I get into the end of the second week after being paid and I don’t have any money.”

“And we’re not silly with money, right? We have an Excel spreadsheet [for our expenses].”

The financial strain means Amy and their partner have had to seek help from friends and family. Their mother had to buy their daughter a jumper after she started school wearing one that was small on the wrists and struggled to close.

Amy has also had to make their own share of sacrifices. To afford new shoes for their children this month, they were left wearing a pair with holes.

“I just don’t have the basics of what they need,” they say. “My two older ones [aged 10 and 14] share a room because we can’t afford to move. I tried to get a room divider built so they get their own personal space.

It’s only 100 quid, but I can’t afford it. And I just think that’s absolutely ridiculous. I’m a specialist, I work full-time.”

To deal with the high cost of energy, the family will not be switching on heating until at least November, and they are still unsure whether they will have it on over Christmas. The result, according to Amy, is parental guilt.

“The way my processing works is, I take that on and I feel like I’ve failed as a parent. I took so much time from my daughter to get my education, but even with the long hours that I work, I can’t afford to take them to the beach.”

Worsening mental health

These feelings have affected Amy’s eating disorder, exacerbating self-harming behaviours, such as bingeing.

“When I feel really down or like I haven’t been a good mum, I would then be like, ‘you don’t deserve to be healthy and be looked after’, so I binge junk food.”

However, under their current financial situation, Amy can neither afford to be healthy. The leftover money is used to ensure the children eat healthily meal while they settle for cheap fast food.

“If I had access to healthier food, my brain fog maybe wouldn’t be as much, I’d have more energy, and might rationalise better,” they said, adding their struggle continues at work, where they have to mask so colleagues don’t realise their struggle.

“It just makes me incredibly tired over the weekend because I’ve got to come down from hiding that feeling,” they say. “And then I have to give my kids what they need, in a way that they need, and make time for my partner.”

It’s incredibly demanding. I’m absolutely exhausted this week.”

Lack of employer support

Amy was among 94% of survey respondents to report that their employer wasn’t taking any steps to mitigate the impact of the cost of living crisis.

The focus in their authority has been on emotional, not financial, support.

“We’ve had a couple of conversations, just acknowledging how difficult things have been for us,” they say.

“[That] if we feel that we’re struggling [we should] let our managers know. But in terms of financial support, there have been no discussions, we’ve just been encouraged to write good evidence-based reflections so we can apply for a pay rise.”

In September, they got a pay rise of just under £200, but with that money used to pay down debt, they say it hasn’t made much difference.

One reason respondents may have said their employers had not mitigated the impact of the crisis on them is that most would not have had a cost of living pay rise this year.

Real-terms pay cuts

Last week, unions agreed to a pay rise of £1,925 – or 5% – for council staff in Scotland, which should enter pay packets shortly. A similar deal is likely to go through in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with members of the biggest union, UNISON, already having given their assent.

The offers are the biggest in many years from council employers. However, with inflation running at 9.9%, they constitute a significant real-terms pay cut.

Amy was among over a third of survey respondents (35%) to call for a rise of more than 10%. They call for employers to provide “decent pay that actually addresses issues”.

“[The current situation] is putting unattainable expectations on social workers to preserve [quality], when it’s not sustainable,” they add.

We have emotions, we have needs, and you need a healthy workforce.”

She adds: “We’re being pushed quicker to burn out. I can’t even buy nutritional food for my family – this is not investing in quality social workers.”

*Not their real name

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UNISON members have voted to back councils’ offer of a £1,925 pay rise for local authority social workers this year.

The union – which represents an estimated 40,000 social workers – announced the move on Twitter earlier today.

However, the result does not mean that UNISON has accepted the offer from representatives of English, Welsh and Northern Irish councils.

The union – the biggest in local government – said it would await the results of the ballots held by GMB and Unite before reaching a common trade union view. It is likely that, if members of one of the other two unions back the offer, it will be agreed.

In a bulletin to local authorities, the Local Government Association said UNISON members had voted 63.5% to 36.5% in favour of the offer.

Real-terms pay cut

The £1,925 is worth 5-6% on average to social workers and is the biggest offer made by employers to council staff in many years. However, with inflation running at 9.9% in August, according to the government’s preferred measure, the deal represents a real-terms pay cut for staff.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, all three unions have accepted a similar offer from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, worth £1,925 or 5%, whichever is higher, for social workers.

The pay negotiations come with social workers reporting that the cost of living crisis has taken a severe toll on their family finances, forcing several into debt or into cutting back on essentials, such as heating and lighting, and some into using food banks.