MA Social Work / Course details

The student will spend 100 days in practice in an approved social work placement where s/he will gain experience carrying out statutory social work tasks involving high risk decision making and legal interventions. This will provide the student with opportunities to demonstrate their ability to manage complexity, risk, ambiguity and increasingly autonomous decision making across a range of situations. 

• Enable students to achieve and demonstrate the Social Work England Professional Standards by the time they complete the course.
• Enable students to achieve and demonstrate the achieve and demonstrate the Professional Capability Framework (PCF) PCF end final placement held by The British Association of Social Workers (BASW). 
• To provide a social work experience that facilitates the integration of theory and practice and provides opportunities for developing a sophisticated understanding and application of the Professional Standards and the PCF.

• Shadowing experienced practitioners
• Supervised and/ or observed work with service users
• Supervision with practice educator
• Peer supervision.
• Reading of case work undertaken by experienced practitioners
• Specific agency/ service user group related training provided by the agency
• Use of agency intranet and professional social care specific websites as a resource for information and best practice.

• Evaluate current research and advanced scholarship and apply it to social work practice.This will include elements of the required knowledge (and skills) defined within the Knowledge and Skills Statements from the Chief Social Workers, The Professional Capacity Framework for social work, the HCPC Guidance on Conduct and Ethics and the HCPC Standards of Proficiency.
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the application of social work research, theory, knowledge and legal and policy frameworks.

• Demonstrate a critical awareness of the values and ethics of the profession and of their own practice.
• Identify and gather relevant information and with support question and evaluate information in order to form, evaluate and review hypotheses and justify practice decisions.

Demonstrate the Social Work England Professional Standards and the Professional Capabilities for the final placement.

SWE Professional Standards:

• Promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities 
• Establish and maintain the trust and confidence of people 
• Be accountable for the quality of my practice and the decisions I make 
• Maintain my continuing professional development 
• Act safely, respectfully and with professional integrity 
• Promote ethical practice and report concerns  

Professional Capabilities Framework:

• Professionalism 
• Values and ethics 
• Diversity 
• Rights, Justice and Economic Wellbeing 
• Knowledge 
• Critical Reflection and Analysis 
• Intervention and Skills 
• Contexts and Organisations 
• Professional leadership 

• Exercise decision-making in complex and unpredictable situations, working with others and autonomously.
• Identify the appropriateness of a range of communication methods and adapt them in practice in order effectively to convey information, advice, instruction and professional opinion.
• Demonstrate a professional attitude in the social work role, including appropriate use of supervision, competent management of time and workload, maintenance of professional boundaries and commitment to own continued professional development.
• Identify risk and the factors which create or exacerbate risk and with support manage risk to service users and carers and self.

Students will have the opportunity to receive feedback from their Practice Educator on formative work submitted to the online PARE portfolio prior to the summative assessment. Online summative feedback is provided in PARE. Provisional feedback based on internal marking will be made available prior to the Exam Board on the basis that these marks are yet to be ratified at the Exam Board and therefore may be subject to change. PARE provides detailed and constructive feedback on each component and aspect of the assessment and identifies areas of strength and those aspects which could be enhanced. Student feedback is obtained via the online student Quality Assurance Practice Learning (QAPL) and the University unit evaluation forms at the end of the unit.