Final year social work duo hope to leave behind legacy with student bursary
Two GCU students are leading a campaign for financial support from the Scottish Government to help secure the future of their profession.
At the end of October, Lucy Challoner and David Grimm sent a letter to Minister for Higher Education Jamie Hepburn, calling for a student bursary for third and fourth year social work students in Scotland.
Final year students Lucy and David have first-hand experience trying to juggle unpaid placement with their own part-time jobs, families and social life - and they’re not alone in understanding the challenges. The letter had more than 300 signatures attached to it from students and lecturers across the country.
We caught up with them both to find out more about their campaign:
So to start us off, how did this all come about?
David: “We’d been told in first year that we wouldn’t be able to work in fourth year due to placement and I think most of us had that, ‘awk, it’ll be fine’ attitude. Now that we’re here, we’ve all realised that there’s no way we could do it.
“It’s an incredibly demanding time: you’re on placement four days a week and also have to be in University. You could still work at night but it’s a real struggle mentally and physically. There’s definitely no prospect of a social life either.
“We were having discussions just before fourth year about how someone should do a campaign to help raise awareness of the challenges. One woman in our class spoke about how she has six kids, and how her and her husband still have to work while she studies. We just felt that something had to change.”
Lucy, for anyone that doesn’t know, paint a picture for us with what’s involved in placement and how you’ve been coping with it?
Lucy: “At GCU, we complete different placements in a variety of settings during our third and fourth year. The idea behind this is for us to gain experience for what the job is like before we head into the world of work. Third year placement is 70 days and fourth year is 100 days, but because of Covid we didn’t get the chance to do it in third year, so it's longer for our final year.
“It’s been stressful because you're on placement Monday to Thursday and then have University on a Friday. You also have to complete weekly reflective accounts too, which can become a lot on top of an already busy schedule. I’ve also got caring responsibilities for my mum, so trying to work and study alongside that is incredibly challenging.”
Has a social work bursary been close to being implemented in Scotland before?
David: “It has been discussed quite a bit and I think it’s been well recognised that it’s needed. One of the main inspirations for us was the social work students in Wales. They campaigned and lobbied their government, and they got a bursary in place for Undergraduate and Masters students.
"One of the things we’d like to make clear is that it doesn’t mean a student has to stop working, it just becomes a choice.”
You received more than 300 signatures with the letter, have you been surprised by the level of support?
Lucy: “It’s been incredible, to be honest. We sent it around different Universities and received a lot of positive messages. At first, we only got a few signatures but it just started going higher and higher. We still had people getting in touch asking to sign even after we had sent it off!"
David: “It’s definitely been reassuring. We’ve also had international students - especially Americans - getting in touch saying how helpful this would be because there’s a lot of financial packages they’re not entitled to.
“We’ve had a huge amount of support from lecturers too, especially our own here at GCU, so that means a lot. They really have been incredible for us and it feels like they’re doing everything in their power to help us.”
What points did you focus on within the actual letter?
Lucy: “We basically gave our reasons why the bursary has to be introduced and explained how people have been struggling to work during placement. We also said how this would be an important step in encouraging more individuals into a career in social work.”
David: “As Undergraduate students, we get financial support from SAAS but obviously that can then eventually lead to debt, so this would help tackle that issue. We’re quite lucky at GCU because Undergraduates do get travel expenses, but that’s not the case across all Universities.
“We want to use this as a way of encouraging more people to leave their steadily paid jobs to work in social work.”
If this is successful, do you think there’s further scope for other health disciplines to receive similar support?
David: “There’s been a slow movement for quite a while now, and it all started with the nurses who, quite rightly, got it first. The paramedics followed suit and also definitely deserved their recognition. We’re now hoping that we will be the same and that other students on different programmes will benefit in future.
“Take Occupational Therapy students for example; I’ve been working alongside them in a hospital-based setting on my current placement and they do an absolute tonne of work. They really should be supported, along with anyone else who does a placement.”
Do you feel it’s important, as fourth year students, to leave this behind as your legacy?
Lucy: “I would definitely say so. It’s massively important to us as social workers, but also to the future of social work across Scotland.
“If we want people to come into this profession then they need to be financially supported, especially just now with the rising cost of living - it’s the ideal time to do it. No student should be in the position where they can’t afford to study.”
David: “For our legacy, it’s important for us to show other social work students that someone cares and someone wants them here, whether that be at GCU or one of the other Universities across Scotland.”
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter