King's College London

The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce today publishes findings from an evaluation of the Department of Health and Social Care’s Adult Social Work Apprenticeship Fund. The report is by Nicole Steils, Mary Baginsky, Ian Kessler and Kalpa Kharicha, who have also written a blog to accompany its publication.

The evaluation examined how the Fund was used by local authorities, what helped or hindered its use and what could be learned from their experiences.

Social work apprenticeships were seen as an important part of local workforce strategies, supporting staff development and helping to build a more sustainable workforce. The Fund supported apprenticeship places as well as activities including mentoring, supervision, practice education and programme coordination. However, implementation varied between local authorities and more than one-third of the overall funding was unspent. Barriers included difficulties in recruiting apprentices and support staff, restrictions on how funding could be used, and a mismatch between the funding period and the length of an apprenticeship.

Despite these challenges, local authorities viewed the apprenticeship route positively. The evaluation highlights both the contribution that targeted funding can make and the importance of longer-term organisational, educational and workforce support for employment-based routes into social work.

This publication

Steils, N., Baginsky, M., Kessler, I., & Kharicha, K. (2026) An Evaluation of the Adult Social Work Apprenticeship Fund, London: NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, The Policy Institute, King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-258

• Blog post (11 September 2026) summarizing our findings
• Project page
• This study is part of the NIHR Policy Research Unit's core work in its current contract.

Acknowledgments and disclaimer

We thank all participants for taking part in interviews and focus groups, and for additional information that was provided after initial conversations.

We would like to thank the members of the Unit’s Public and Community Involvement and Engagement Group for providing their views on the wider topic.

This research is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
Policy Research Programme (NIHR206121 – NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and
Social Care Workforce). The views expressed here are those of the authors and not
necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.