Tag Archives: Kalpa Kharicha

Evaluating the Adult Social Work Apprenticeship Fund: Benefits, Challenges and Lessons

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With adult social care facing ongoing workforce pressures, could additional social work apprenticeships be part of the answer? Nicole Steils, Mary Baginsky, Ian Kessler and Kalpa Kharicha present findings from the evaluation of the Department of Health and Social Care’s Adult Social Work Apprenticeship Fund 2024-2025. Full report (published 7 September 2026) available here | Project page at King’s. (710 words)

Social Work Apprenticeships in Adult Social Care

Adult social care services in England are facing major workforce challenges. There are ongoing difficulties in recruiting and keeping qualified social workers, while demand for services and the complexity of people’s needs continue to expand. Within this context, social work degree apprenticeships have become an increasingly important part of workforce planning. They provide an employment-based route to becoming a qualified social worker, while also aiming to support a sustainable workforce and widen access to the profession.

Social Work Apprenticeship Fund

In January 2024, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) introduced the Adult Social Work Apprenticeship Fund. The Fund aimed to help local authorities increase the number of social work apprenticeships and to expand support for apprentices by covering some costs that were not covered by the Apprenticeship Levy, now known as the Growth and Skills Levy.

The evaluation

Our evaluation looked at how the Fund was used, what helped or hindered the use, and what results it achieved. We examined data from 70 local authorities who received funding, and interviewed staff in 12 different local authorities. Continue reading →

What are the experiences, motivations and plans of Health and Care Visa holders and their dependants?

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Kalpa KharichaDr Kalpa Kharicha is Senior Research Fellow at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce in the Policy Institute at King’s College London. She leads the Unit’s work on the Health and Care Visa, the report from Phase of 1 of which was published in October 2023. (679 words)

Internationally recruited care workers made the biggest contribution to reducing vacancies in frontline adult social care in England during 2022-3; 70,000 people came to the UK to work in a direct social care role. During this time the number of domestic recruits to care work fell. Vacancies in social care are currently at 152,000.

The increase in international care workers follows changes to government immigration policy in recent years. In particular, the addition of ‘Senior care workers’ and ‘Care workers’ to the shortage occupation list (on 27 January 2021 and 15 February 2022, respectively) allows people from other countries to apply for these jobs, with a licensed UK employer and if eligible for a Health and Care Visa.

Recent announcements on immigration policy mean that from early 2024 (exact date to be confirmed at time of writing), Health and Care Visa holders arriving in the UK after that time will no longer be able to bring their dependants with them Health and Care Visa holders who are already in the UK can bring dependants whilst on their current visa.

As part of our recent research to understand the impact of the Health and Care visa system on the adult social care workforce in England, we spoke to 29 internationally recruited care workers and dependants, as well as 22 social care providers, 8 brokerage agencies and 15 sector skills experts, who shared their views and experiences with us. Continue reading →