SW6000 - Developing Skills for Complex Social Work Practice

To prepare for the final practice placement, you will concentrate on developing core skills to enable you to implement professional social work practice. Specialist seminars will enable a detailed consideration of safeguarding practice in contemporary social work. This module incorporates both preparation for practice learning and 100 days practice learning. You will reflect on your learning, your professional identity and develop an increasing ability to collaborate effectively with people who use care and support services and other stakeholders. The emphasis is on moving from understanding to application, collaboration, and action. You will be supported to become an effective and self-confident practitioner delivering high standards of practice with service users and a wide range of stakeholders.
Development of your practice-based skills will form part of the teaching and learning strategy: this learning will then be applied and demonstrated in the practice learning opportunity. The focus is not only on your placement, but on your personal development for the social work profession as it is now and how it might look in the future.
You will be able to learn in a wide variety of ways on this module. You will have a structured programme of lectures delivered by academic staff, social work practitioners and Educators by Experience. Within these, you will experience a range of teaching strategies, including seminar work, online sessions with colleagues in other countries to explore the international context of social work practice and some directed learning and experiential learning activities.
The 100 placement days attached to this module will offer you the opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills as a qualifying social work practitioner with people who use care and support services and other professionals in practice settings. Teaching and learning provided by your Practice Educator will include practical experience, individual supervision, discussion, written work, reading and reflection.
The skills development Recall Days will look at the role of social workers and the skills required to work in the context of ecological social work, working with communities, and our role in times of crisis and disaster.
You will be offered formative feedback from your peers and seminar leaders during workshop sessions. In the practice learning opportunity, you will receive feedback from your Practice Educator, people who use care and support services and other social work practitioners.
The module will be assessed by a summative assignment which will focus on professional judgment and decision making and a Practice Educator Pass/Fail recommendation of your ability to work to the Professional Capabilities Framework (BASW, 2018) at the end of last placement level.

Support will include feedback from tutors during small-group seminars and tutorials. In addition tutors will respond to questions via the module’s discussion board on the Blackboard Ultra e-Learning (eLP) site so that the whole group can benefit.

During the practice learning opportunity, you will be supported in your learning by a Practice Educator (PE) and have different opportunities to develop your skills and knowledge in order to practise as a qualifying social work practitioner in a variety of settings. Your PE will provide you with practice learning support and will be responsible for assessing your practice-based learning. Throughout the duration of your practice learning opportunity, you will have regular supervision with your PE in relation to your development in meeting the requirements of the Professional Capabilities Framework (BASW, 2018). Supervision with your Practice Educator will support you in discussing professional issues and focus on encouraging your critical reflection on your learning experience. During the period of practice-based learning you will also be supported by your Personal Tutor, who will monitor your professional development and provide academic support. You will meet with your tutor and Practice Educator (your practice learning team) early in in the placement to complete a practice learning agreement, to ensure that the expectations about placement are clear to all parties and that you have a range of learning opportunities to meet your developmental needs. You will also attend an interim review meeting with your practice learning team about halfway through the placement to discuss your progress.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

At the end of the module you will be able to:
Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Critically appraise the complex nature of social work assessment and decision making within relevant legal and policy frameworks, applying the best available evidence to practice.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
2. Demonstrate the ability to form and sustain effective transformational relationships with service users and other key stakeholders.
3.Demonstrate the critical ability to make evidence-based judgements to inform decision making in situations of complexity and uncertainty.
.4. Understand the role of reflective supervision and how to maximise its benefit for your practice.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. Demonstrate a reflexive understanding of your personal contribution to social work intervention and the process of managing change.

Formative assessment:
You will complete a series of structured formative tasks during your practice placement. Using examples from your own practice, you will make links to the professional evidence base for practice and consider with your Practice Educator how your knowledge, skills and values have developed. Verbal feedback on placement formative tasks will be provided by your Practice Educator.

(MLO 1,2,3,4,5)

The summative assessment for the module is in two parts:

1. A 2,500-word written assignment in which you need to demonstrate an understanding and application of professional judgement and decision making in relation to a case study from your own practice. The assignment is an electronic submission via Turnitin and is marked out of 100%. Written feedback on the Part 1 summative assessment will be provided by the module team via Turnitin.
(MLO 1,2,3,4,5)

2. A complete and well-presented Practice Learning Document (PLD) which will include a signed recommendation from your Practice Educator that you have met the full range of the Professional Capability Framework required at the End of last placement level. Your PLD will be marked by your Practice Educator as a Grade Pass or Grade Fail. The PLD will be submitted via Turnitin.
Both parts must be passed to successfully complete the module.
(MLO1.2.3.4.5)

SW4000, SW4001, SW4002, SW4003, SW4004, SW4005 SW5000, SW5001, SW5002, SW5003, SW5004.

SW6001, SW6002, SW6003

The learning opportunities this module provides will equip you to demonstrate capability in practicing within Social Work England (SWE) Professional Standards (2019). The knowledge you develop will enable you to achieve best outcomes as a social worker across a range of organisational contexts. This module will build on the intervention modules you have completed at Levels 4 and 5. It will focus on the social work process of assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation in complex social work contexts prepare you to undertake direct work with people who use care and support services. Once you have successfully completed the BSc (Hons) Social Work programme you will be eligible to apply for registration as a qualified social worker with Social Work England.
To prepare for the final practice placement and working life, the teaching will concentrate on developing core skills to implement professional social work practice within a statutory framework. Specialist workshops will facilitate a detailed consideration of safeguarding practice in contemporary social work. Skills development will form part of the teaching and learning strategy: this learning will then be applied and demonstrated in the practice learning opportunity
The 100 placement days attached to this module will offer you the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills as qualifying social work practitioners with service users, carers and other professionals in practice settings. To provide a broader and more holistic perspective, skills days will also look at social work practice on a broader scale, such as international social work, ecological social work, and crisis and disaster work and community work.