Proposed changes to the Social Work Bursary and the Education Support Grant

The Social Work Bursary (SWB) and Education Support Grant (ESG) have supported students training to become social workers since 2003. The SWB provides financial support to help students with the additional costs of studying social work. The ESG contributes to the costs of arranging and providing practice placements.

This consultation seeks views on options for reforming the SWB and ESG to ensure they continue to best support social work students. We are particularly interested in hearing from current and future students, higher education institutions and employers.

While the SWB has been available for up to 4,000 students annually, applications have declined in recent years. We want to understand how best to balance the amount paid per student with the total number of students supported. We are also seeking views on how ESG funding might better support high-quality, practice-based learning for social work students.

The government wants to secure a future workforce of high-quality social workers for adult and children’s social care, the NHS and the community and voluntary sectors who are representative of the communities they serve. The outcome of this consultation will be used to inform policy decisions for the SWB and ESG in future.