Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what resources were allocated in, or are planned for, (1) 2016–17, (2) 2017–18, (3) 2018–19, and (4) 2019–20, for (a) university social work programmes via student bursaries and the Training Support Grant; (b) the Frontline social work trainee programme; (c) the Think Ahead trainee programme; (d) the Step Up to Social Work trainee programme; (e) social work teaching partnerships; and (f) the start-up and continuing costs for the accreditation of child and family social work.

The following table shows the funding allocated to the Frontline social work trainee programme, the Think Ahead trainee programme, the Step Up to Social Work trainee programme and social work teaching partnerships in the 2016-17 financial year.

The 2016-17 funding for university social work programmes via student bursaries and the Education Support Grant is currently being finalised and as such is not yet available.

The final costs of the assessment and accreditation system for child and family social workers are subject to future procurement, but will be met within the Department for Education (DfE) Spending Review settlement.

The budgets in future years for each of these programmes, with the exception of the contract with Frontline, an independent charitable organisation, to deliver a national fast-track programme, are not yet agreed and are subject to business planning in the normal way.

DfE has a protected budget of £320 million each year of the Spending Review period for children’s services and Ministers are in the process of making decisions about how best to allocate resources within this envelope. DfE programme figures in this response show the allocations which have already been made.

The following table below shows the allocations to Frontline, up to and including 2019-20, to deliver a national fast-track programme.