Fast-track children's social workers 'no better than traditional recruits'

Research commissioned by the Department for Education found no statistically significant difference between the two groups on a variety of measures including job satisfaction, career aspirations, progression and self-belief.

This is despite each student on the fast-track route costing an estimated £40,413 to train - almost twice as much as the £23,225 cost of students qualifying via post-graduate university course.

"The evaluation findings suggest no major points of distinction between Step Up to Social Work graduates and comparators following other qualifying routes," the evaluation states.

The Step Up to Social Work programme was created in 2009 in response to employers' concerns about the "practice readiness" of those entering children's social work via traditional qualification routes. The programme offers students a bursary while they study and the opportunity to qualify as a children's social worker in 14 months.

While the evaluation found no differences between those who became social workers via Step Up for Social Work and traditional routes, it did find that employers regard those who took the fast-track programme more highly.

The evaluation said employers "sometimes seem ready to make specific efforts to accommodate their professional development needs".

It warned that: "There is a potential risk here, of stereotypical assumptions becoming established, and ultimately of unjustified preferential treatment being offered, because of the perceptions of Step Up to Social Work which are clearly held."

The study did, however, find that Step Up to Social Work graduates are more likely to enter the profession than those taking under- and post-graduate courses. Of the first 382 Step Up to Social Work graduates, 82 per cent became social workers compared with 67 per cent of under- and post-graduates.

The evaluation said the difference may be due to those selected to join Step Up to Social Work being more committed to a career in social work from the outset.

Step Up to Social Work graduates also found it easier to get a job in social work, possibly because they spend more time on placement and so gain a foothold with their sponsoring local authority prior to graduation.

The findings come as the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) called on children's minister Nadhim Zahawi to freeze plans to expand fast-track social worker training programmes.

In an open letter to Zahawi, BASW urges the government to further investigate the effectiveness and value for money of such programmes before proceeding.

The letter also warns that further expansion of fast-track training schemes for children's social workers could undermine university courses and research programmes.

"The proposed expansion of a fast-track children's social work training to cohorts of up to 450 students per year will pose a significant challenge to the viability of current postgraduate programmes in universities across England," says the letter.

"We are concerned that this expansion will reduce applications to - and thereby threaten - courses in some of the most prestigious, research-orientated universities where such post-graduate provision tends to be clustered. Once damaged, the sector's capacity for research will be very difficult to repair."