Evaluating Fast Track Social Work-Qualifying Programmes: Have We Learnt Anything?

Abstract

Abstract This article reflects on the cumulative outputs of evaluations of the various fast track qualifying programmes introduced into social work education in England over the past decade or so, in order to draw out some of the wider lessons available to us. The fast track programmes were introduced in response to a range of concerns about recruitment and retention within social work as well as the quality of provision within existing educational programmes. Subsequent evaluations have thus tended to focus on these aspects of fast track programmes in attempting to assess their merits and achievements. However, it is argued here that the substantial findings generated are capable of further analysis and reconsideration in order to generate messages of significance about the systemic and structural implications of this kind of initiative. Although evaluations of these programmes have been the subject of a number of criticisms because of their funding sources and association with programme providers, the aim is to show that their findings nonetheless offer us extensive opportunities to draw more rounded conclusions, which in turn contribute to ongoing debates about the value, contributions and impact of fast track programmes themselves, within and beyond the broader social work domain.