Unit information: Practice Learning 1 in 2011/12

Unit name	Practice Learning 1
Unit code	SPOLM5103
Credit points	60
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Ms. Gail Kitchin
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	Social Work Studies, Applied Social Sciences and Law.
School/department	School for Policy Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

The unit comprises two parts. Part one seeks to ensure that students are ready to commence practice-based learning. Teaching covers the core tasks and skills of social work practice, and is supported by skills-based workshops, aimed at ensuring that students have a basic competence in communication and interviewing skills. The rationale for Part One derives from the department of Health (2002) requirement to ensure that social work students are safe to practice before undertaking any placement. Part Two of the unit provides students with a practice placement of 85 days, in an agency setting, supervised and assessed by a suitably qualified and experienced practice assessor. Placements in the region are managed on cooperative basis involving key HEIs and placement agencies. Students' practice is assessed according to the National Occupational Standards defined by TOPSS (now Skills for Care), and placements are monitored and evaluated via established arrangements for quality assurance.

The aims of the unit are:

• To enable students to develop a critical understanding of the common stages and processes of helping people and to think systematically about their work.

• To equip students to see beyond the individual cases to the family, the community, and the broader social context out of which social problems arise so that they can try to intervene at the most appropriate point.

• To review the core values of social work and develop students’ awareness of their implications in practice.

• To ensure that students are competent in communication and interviewing skills and that they are safe to begin practice learning.

• To provide students with a practice placement in a social work context, managed and assessed according to the National Occupational Standards and the Department of Health (2002) Requirements for Social Work Training.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will:

• understand the stages of the helping process and the skills associated with each;

• be able critically to use theory and research to inform practice

• have acquired a sound foundation in communication and interviewing skills,

• practise, in a social work setting, the 6 Key Roles defined by the National Occupational Standards, to a level commensurate with a student part-way through initial professional education.

• be familiar with core social work values, with ethical dilemmas that arise, and to make an appropriate response, both personally and professionally.

Teaching Information

Lectures, skills workshops, practice learning in a social work setting, supervised and assessed by a suitably qualified practice assessor.

Assessment Information

Part one will be assessed by each student producing a video or DVD recording of a suitable role play situation in which they demonstrate their communication and interviewing skills; a 1000 word critical reflection on their role play; and a short reflective account together with a report from a qualified social worker on a required 2-day experience of shadowing that worker. This information will be examined alongside Criminal Records Bureau checks and personal references to determine each student’s fitness to practice at the level of a beginning practitioner. This work will all be assessed by the Programme team on a pass / fail basis, and all elements must be passed.

Part two will be assessed by means of a Portfolio of practice evidence (assessed by the practice assessor in consultation with a University tutor and other relevant people who may be involved with the placement) and by a Case Study assignment (4000 words) marked by the University tutor. The outcome of the assessed Case Study will provide the recorded mark for the unit, and the portfolio will be assessed on a pass / fail basis. All elements of assessment must be passed for the award of unit credits.

It will be a requirement, in accordance with the DoH (2002) Requirements for Social Work Training, that students MUST PASS PART ONE, without which progression to Part Two, or to the unit Practice Learning 2, will not be allowed.

Extensive guidance on assessment of the placement, based on the National Occupational Standards for social work, is provided via a Practice Learning Handbook, which is updated annually in the light of issues arising from monitoring and quality assurance procedures. The unit learning outcomes (above) are consistent with the more detailed Occupational Standards.

Reading and References

• Davies M. (2008), The Blackwell Companion to Social Work. Oxford: Blackwell, 3rd ed.

• Milner, J. and O’Bryne, P. (2002) Assessment in Social Work, 2nd edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

• O’Hagan K. (ed.) (2007), Competence in Social Work Practice: A practical guide for students and professionals. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2nd ed.

• Thompson N. (2003), Communication and Language: A handbook of theory and practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

• Thompson S. and Thompson N. (2008), The Critically Reflective Practitioner. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Trevithick, P. (2005) Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2nd ed.