We are very pleased to announce that for the social worker degree apprenticeship the level 7 pathway has been approved- both the L6 and L7 have been recognised as mandatory qualifications.

We want to thank the universities who contributed evidence to the UVAC paper sent to DWP earlier in July, and to everyone in the Trailblazer group and others who used their own contacts to push the case forward. We also want to thank all of our local authority employers and the LGA – 43 responded to the Local Government Association’s call for evidence for their own paper which also referenced their work with UVAC and the concerns that councils had about the impact on universities.

Whilst this still leaves us with a continuing battle for the other standards affected by the level 6/level 7 funding rule, This is an excellent (and clearly, sensible) outcome and gives us a policy line to take forward.

Government  have said that, as with all policies, this may be subject to change in future. We need therefore to focus on gathering evidence of impact with everything that we do so that we always have a clear case should we need one about the value of what we deliver to individuals, employers, communities and sectors.

We will be delivering four policy sessions from September for members (on SMEs, sectors, young people and locality) to help clarify how we can best position what we do – details on these and how to register will be at the State of the Nation next Friday (31 July) – register HERE