Blog

Hello,
 

This new blog is a bit of an experiment. As much as anything, it’s a way of initiating some discussion and information-sharing about “the bigger picture” in terms of voluntary sector involvement in social work education.

As many of you will be aware, following on from the Final Report of the Social Work Task Force, there are big changes on the way within social work and social work training. Some of these will impact on placements and practice learning and some of them will impact on voluntary and independent sector agencies who have traditionally recruited newly-qualified social workers to their teams.

It would be really useful for us here at the PLC to know your responses/thoughts/suggestions/ideas about the emerging picture and also to hear about any questions you have or any implications you spot that we haven’t!

The rest of this first entry on the PLC blog is an overview of “what’s afoot” at the moment.  At the end I’ve put a few questions and key issues that I’d be really interested to hear people’s thoughts about.

Please read on and then email any responses you might have to:

nell.farrell@practicelearningconsortium.co.uk and we will add them to the blog.


BACKGROUND TO THE SOCIAL WORK TASK FORCE

The Task Force was established by the Government in January 2009, at the height of the national outcry about the death of baby Peter Connelly. It was set up to

  • conduct an in-depth review of training, recruitment, and frontline practice in social work
  • address long-standing concerns about the morale and status of social workers

During the initial period of the Task Force’s activity, in March 09, Lord Laming’s national review of child protection in England was published which called for an overhaul of social work training and management.

The Social Work Task Force produced two interim reports,  in May 09 and July 09, and the Final Report on 1 December 09.
If anyone is interested in reading the full report, you can access it via this link:

http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/01114-2009DOM-EN.pdf

All of the recommendations in the report have been accepted by the Government.

Some of the recommendations which have implications for those of us involved in voluntary sector practice learning - include:

  • The number of Practice Learning days is to be reduced from 200 to 130
  •  All social work students, at the end of their degree, will be required to undertake an assessed probationary year and only at the end of that will they be “licensed” to practice
  •  Whilst  “other professionals may helpfully contribute to the learning of social work students on placement and provide feedback, all  social work students should in future only be taught and assessed by qualified and experienced social workers” 
  •  “A date should be set for ensuring that as soon as possible, all those who take responsibility for the supervision and assessment of a social work student in their final placement hold a current practice teaching award or have demonstrated their competence against agreed national standards, with these to be finally determined by the board overseeing the reform programme”

SOME OF OUR THOUGHTS & RESPONSES SO FAR

  •  We feel very confident at this point that with our network of partnerships between social work qualified offsite assessors and trained and competent worksite supervisors/assessors we can continue to satisfy all requirements for delivering high quality practice learning – for first and final placements.
  •  As some of you will be aware, since the end of the CCETSW Award in Practice Teaching, a national Practice Teaching qualification no longer exists.
  • The accredited training which is currently on offer with regard to Practice Education is located within the “Enabling Others” module of the post-qualifying (PQ) framework for social workers offered by Universities .  (The PQ Specialist Award in Social Work, The PQ Higher Specialist Award and the Advanced Award in Social Work)

There are discussions underway with both local universities about the options for accrediting and enhancing existing agency-based practice assessor training.  This could possibly take the form of gaining accreditation for the course we deliver and that training then being supplemented by modules delivered by one or other of the local universities in ways which will satisfy the requirements of a proposed “Practice Educator Framework” currently being trialled in a number of regions.

  • We will keep everyone updated about any developments with regard to this important area.
  • The decision to cut the number of practice learning days shocked and surprised us. The stated reason is to allow more time for academic learning and the recommendation also states that any lack of practice learning days will be more than compensated for by the new Probationary Year.
  • We have a few questions about the assessed probationary year. It is envisaged as a partnership between employers and universities but has the flavour of something very much more easily delivered by local authorities than by medium-sized and smaller voluntary sector agencies . We wonder what support and structures will be put in place to enable voluntary sector agencies – some of whom do recruit newly-qualified social workers – to participate in and deliver the assessed probationary year if they wish to.
  • A lot of the discussion at the moment seems to be drifting back into that old “Social work = statutory work” territory and even social work = statutory child protection work.
  • Vitally important as good child protection workers are, they are not all there is to social work. 
  • Whenever the discussion about “ social work”  is dominated by a focus on statutory child protection work then social work and social workers in the voluntary and independent sectors become marginalised to the point of invisibility and  other core aspects of social work  seem to disappear from the discussion altogether.
  •  What risks being equally marginalised is the importance of third sector practice learning in producing sophisticated, creative and reflective practitioners who can recognise and deal with complexity whatever the setting or client group.

OVER TO YOU

  • I’d just be really interested to gather up any thoughts or responses you have to the Task Force recommendations.
  • It would be interesting to know:  have you had (or been aware of) any discussion about any of these issues in-house? At a regional level? Have you picked up on some of these issues in the social care or national press or is the first time you’re really tuning in to this?
  • Is there any other information about anything mentioned here that you would find useful?
  • Are there any other “bigger picture” issues you think the PLC should be responding to – or about which you would welcome further information or signposting?

Nell.
 

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