Press Story

A new fast-track graduate recruitment programme like Teach First could attract high-calibre individuals into employment as mental health social workers, according to a new report from the think tank IPPR, to be published on Tuesday.

The report identifies a number of problems with the recruitment, education and effectiveness of mental health social workers and outlines the creation of a new social enterprise to run the two-year training scheme. On Tuesday Care Minister Norman Lamb will outline his support for establishing this programme, named Think Ahead.

The report also shows that, despite being an incredibly difficult, skilled and important job, the social work profession has not always been seen as prestigious and therefore struggles to attract high-calibre recruits and adequately train new recruits to cope with the demands of the job. Only 10 Oxbridge graduates went on to study on a social work MA course in 2011/12, compared to 10 per cent of the entire Oxbridge graduating class who applied to Teach First in 2010.

The fast-track programme proposed in the report would look to shift the balance of social work education further towards practical experience of working with service users and give special focus on how to work effectively within integrated teams. Recent innovations with graduate fast-track programmes such as Teach First and Frontline provide models for how this could be done.

The reports shows that over 90 per cent of Directors of Adult Social Services believe more needs to be done to attract the highest possible quality candidates into the social work profession. The report's survey also found that the five skills deemed to be most lacking among job applicants were:

analytical ability/critical-thinking skills/intellectual capacity (56 per cent)
awareness of evidence and its impact on practice (44 per cent)
practical experience of social work (39 per cent)
leadership skills (35 per cent)
knowledge of integration and partnership working (32 per cent).

A third of all families include someone who is mentally ill, and one in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their life. In 2009/10 saw over 1.25 million people using specialist NHS mental health services – the largest number since the services were introduced. A recent survey found 86 per cent of mental health social workers believed their services had come under increased pressure in the last three years

The report notes that the challenges faced by mental health services require a greater focus on preventative models of care that are based in the community, which are commonly provided by multidisciplinary teams, integrating both health and care professionals. It further notes the pressure the social work profession is under and the important role that social workers can play in community mental health services.

By the end of the proposed fast-track programme, participants will have completed both a postgraduate diploma and a master's degree in social work, along with the assisted and supported year in employment. They will therefore be fully qualified social workers, with a sound theoretical knowledge base, significant levels of high-quality, practical experience in both mental health and a range of other settings, and an understanding of the unique nature of mental health social work within integrated teams. They will therefore be well placed to lead the integration agenda in mental health going forward.

Care and Support Minister, Norman Lamb, said:

"We want to make the health and care system more supportive for people with mental health problems. We know that social work can struggle to attract talented groups of people, particularly in mental health and we want to change this. That's why I requested this report to take forward a recruitment programme that will transform perceptions of social work, attract talented people to the profession and improve mental health care for everyone."

Jonathan Clifton, Senior Research Fellow at IPPR, said:

"As the number of people diagnosed with mental ill-health increases, there is a moral imperative to develop effective services that can support each of them. When working effectively, mental health services can support people to live meaningful and independent lives. However, when these services are under strain this can result in considerable human and financial costs

"Too many people can be let down when things go wrong, causing distress and putting vulnerable people at risk. A fast-track programme like Think Ahead could be one step on the journey towards changing this.

"At the heart of effective services are the professionals who deliver them. A fast-track programme has the potential to provide community mental health teams – the 'hub' from which most mental health services are organised within the community – with a cadre of highly trained mental health professionals who are able to lead the integration agenda and help attract the best and brightest into mental health social work."

Notes to Editors

IPPR's new report Think Ahead: Meeting the workforce challenges in mental health social work will be available from Tuesday 6 May from http://www.ippr.org.

Think Ahead: Meeting the workforce challenges in mental health social work is launched on Tuesday at the British Academy with Norman Lamb MP http://www.ippr.org/events/think-ahead-meeting-the-workforce-challenges-in-mental-health-social-work. Please contact the press office if you would like to attend.

The Department of Health commissioned IPPR to conduct a scoping study into the creation of a fast-track recruitment programme for social workers who work primarily in adult settings. The report sets out the final recommendation to emerge from this study – the creation of a new fast-track graduate recruitment programme in mental health social work.

Applicants will be drawn from a range of talent pools, including recent graduates, career-switchers, and other health professionals. There is potential to target specific groups, such as those applying for heavily oversubscribed postgraduate courses in clinical psychology, and IAPT workers looking for a progression route.

Prior to selection, applicants will go through a rigorous selection process that includes high academic entry requirements (a 2:1 degree at minimum) and a thorough assessment centre where they will be tested in a wide range of competencies. This selection process is a common method among fast-track recruitment schemes, including Step Up to Social Work and Frontline. Successful candidates could be required to do some work-shadowing in a mental health service before starting the course.

In 2010 the Department for Education launched Step Up to Social Work, a programme designed to attract people to change career and train to become social workers over a period of 18 months.2 This was followed in 2013 by the launch of Frontline, a social enterprise which will recruit high-calibre graduates and give them greater 'on-the-job' training over a 13 month period.

Contacts

Sofie Jenkinson, 07981023031, s.jenkinson@ippr.org

Richard Darlington, 07525 481 602, r.darlington@ippr.org