Training of Children and Families Social Workers - Children, Schools and Families Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by John Barraclough, Senior Lecturer in Social Work

1.  INTRODUCTION

  This submission will comment upon:

    — Social work training.— Recruitment of students for training.

    — Practice placements.

    — Post-qualifying training in practice teaching and assessment.

2.  BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE WRITER

  I was involved in the implementation of the practice learning requirements for the Diploma in Social Work at Middlesex University between 1989 and 1992. I was responsible for the post-qualifying Practice Teaching Award Programme for London Metropolitan University from 1994 to 2002, and have been a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at London Metropolitan University since 2002. I was responsible for devising and implementing the practice learning requirements for the BSc and MSc in social work programmes in 2002. I am responsible for practice learning on the social work degree programmes. A major part of this responsibility is the preparation of students for their periods of assessed practice (placements), and I teach Child Development and Theoretical Perspectives in Social Work. I have published articles in The Journal of Practice Teaching and in Community Care magazine, and have undertaken research into the assessment of practice learning. I have been a qualified social worker for 28 years. I spent 10 years in generic fieldwork practice since qualifying.

3.  EVALUATION OF QUALIFYING PROGRAMMES

  The General Social Care Council has taken a "hands-off" approach to the monitoring and evaluation of social work degree programmes. The quality assurance process for programmes consists of a paper exercise every five years. This is in contrast to the process under the previous qualifications, which involved regular inspections of the programmes. These inspections involved visits to universities. Discussions were held with teaching staff, partner agencies and students. It was a more rigorous process; it enabled problems to be identified and forced universities to address problem areas.

Organisation and Delivery of Training Programmes

3.1  It is widely accepted within the social work profession that generic training is essential if social workers are to have a sufficiently broad and balanced view of the range of problems faced by vulnerable people, of the range of professional responsibilities across all specialist services, and of available resources to various client groups. It is also essential for social workers to have a balanced view of society in order to make appropriately informed decisions, particularly in relation to the assessment and management of personal risk. Generic programmes enable students to study academic modules which relate to all client groups, and to experience assessed practice with adults and with children and families. (See Barraclough, J. Community Care, May, 2000)

3.2  This compliments the specialist nature of social work, as students who have studied a generic programme are more able informed choices as to the area of specialism they wish to pursue once qualified. Specialist programmes would involve students making uninformed choices about the area of practice they wish to pursue. This would be likely to lead to a larger numbers of social work students dropping out of education, as they will not have had the opportunity to properly think through their choice of specialism, and many, therefore, would inevitably make what they perceive to be the wrong choice. Also, forcing students to make a premature choice of such significance would not be conducive to fostering a sense of commitment to the service chosen.

Preparation for Practice Learning

  3.3  The structure of the current three-year undergraduate degree requires programmes to deem students "safe for practice" before they start their first placement. We achieve this by having students in college for one academic year before they go out to placement, and by requiring students to pass a module designed specifically to test their readiness and safety for practice. Within the module students are introduced to professional practice in a variety of ways. Students work with practitioners and service users in college, and visit a social work agency to shadow a qualified social worker. The teaching is experimental, which enables students to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and to work through their fears and anxieties about practice. The teaching is designed to test students' communication skills, their ability to deal with conflict, to reflect on their actions and on how to make the best use of supervision. The other element to this module is that it allows teachers to assess students' behaviour and attitudes. These are aspects of professional practice that are not easily assessed through the competency model of assessment currently applied to practice learning. We can address issues of student behaviour which may have a negative impact on their practice. This includes issues of timekeeping, the ability to cooperate and work with others, attitudes to service users etc. This can be described as "soft" evidence, rather than the "hard" evidence of being able to meet competencies, in other words it is not only about what they do, but about how they do it.

3.4  Graduates are only admitted on to the two-year MSc programme if they have previous social care or social work experience. These students are deemed safe for practice by virtue of their applications, and through the provision of references. This process is less thorough than the process for undergraduates as described above, and the nature of a two-year programme means that students undertake their first placements after just 12 weeks in college. This means that we take risks with MSc students when they go into their assessed placements, and I suggest that all students, regardless of status, be required to properly prepare for placement in college before commencing placement. This may involve an extension to the two-year graduate programme.

Location of Social Work Education and Training

  3.5  Universities operate on a business model and there is a constant tension between financial considerations and considerations about the quality of recruitment processes, teaching and assessment. It may be beneficial to consider if social work education should be provided outside of the university sector.

3.6  London Metropolitan University is currently seeking to make 25% of staff redundant in an attempt to reduce running costs. Although the social work programme has been assured that it will not suffer from direct cuts in staffing, we face, along with all other University departments, an increase in staff student ratios from 1 to 22, to 1 to 28. Such an increase would have extremely negative affects on the quality of the teaching provided at London Metropolitan. I and colleagues believe that existing staff/student ratios are already too high to ensure quality, and we therefore believe that an increase in the ratio would lead to inadequate admissions processes, to ineffective teaching and to unreliable student assessments. In addition, we face indirect threats to the quality of the social work programmes through the cutting back on media and IT services, and from the loss of library facilities.

  3.7  It would appear therefore that an examination of how universities deliver social work education is necessary in order to ensure that universities are delivering education that is of a high standard, and fit for purpose. I would suggest that the current way universities are funded jeopardises the quality of professional training, and consideration should be given to providing protection for professional courses from the vacillations of the economic realities in higher education.

  3.8  There is a related issue regarding regulations within universities that provide students with protection against unfair assessment. Such regulations are complex, and students have a high level of protection against decisions that negatively affect them. This often seems inappropriate for social work students, and because of the requirement on the University to provide proof of inappropriate student behaviour, we are frequently unable to appropriately address issues of student behaviour when it raises questions about the student's suitability for social work because of the level of proof required. This results in students being given the benefit of the doubt, which may be appropriate in non-professional degrees, but in social work appears inappropriate because of the nature of professional qualifications.

4.  SELECTION OF STUDENTS FOR TRAINING

  The selection of students for social work training is also compromised by the resource issues referred to above. Social work degree courses are massively over-subscribed. On the face of it this appears to be a positive thing, but it also means that university admissions processes are overwhelmed by the task of selection. This means that students are admitted who, in retrospect, are considered to be unsuitable. When the unsuitability is on academic grounds it is relatively straightforward to terminate their studies. As described above, it is far more complex to do this in relation to student behaviour, or in relation to the quality of their practice in placement. (See Barraclough, J & Schumann, C "Research into the Role of the Practice Assessor" The Journal of Practice Teaching, Vol 3, Number Two, 2000)

4.1  It is therefore very difficult to terminate the studies of students where there are concerns about their suitability. The module I refer to in section 3.3 above provides a thorough assessment of the suitability of each student undertaking the module. If this module was part of an extended admissions process, or a pre-course requirement, universities would be more certain that the student is appropriate for, and capable of completing the course, and of being an asset to the profession.

  4.2  It would be beneficial if universities had more rigorous and extended admissions processes, which may involve students in passing an extended piece of assessment.

5.  PRACTICE PLACEMENTS

  The practical aspect of social work training has always been in an anomalous situation with regard to other professions. Statutory social work agencies are not required to, and therefore do not have a culture of providing training to students on qualifying courses. This is in stark contrast to the teaching and nursing professions, where student teachers and nurses are integrated into the regular activity of teachers and nurses. As long as there is no compulsion on statutory social work agencies to provide practice placements, universities will be in the invidious position of continually having to persuade, cajole and occasionally beg agencies to provide student placements. This means that universities cannot effectively plan practice learning, as students often do not know where they will be placed up until the point of obtaining a placement. This is extremely unprofessional and detracts from the quality of the experience for students. Each year a proportion of students cannot be placed at the right time, and their studies are then delayed. The increased emphasis on practice learning in the new degree programmes was welcomed, but without the commitment or ability of statutory agencies to provide placements, the new requirements have not been as effective as they should have been.

5.1  At London Metropolitan we insist that all students must have one adults and one children & families placement. We are committed to this as we feel that it increases the quality of the training considerably. By implementing this structure we make things increasingly difficult for ourselves, and we come under constant pressure from students who are not placed on time to compromise our requirements and place students in less than ideal settings.

  5.2  I note with some concern therefore Ed Balls' statement on 7 May regarding to allocation of 200 more university places for social work students. In itself this can only be applauded, but given the already acute shortage of placements in London local authorities, it means that London authorities, which are suffering some of the highest vacancies rates in the UK, will not be able to properly take advantage of this scheme, and, if the additional student places on courses involve London universities, the scheme could aggravate an already serious problem.

  5.3  For the last three years I have written to all 32 London authorities asking about placement opportunities in general, and, in particular, trying to get them interested offering placements to our final year students, who often go on to work for the agency in which they do their final placement. Such a scheme would help universities meet their placement requirements, and help local authorities to fill vacant posts with newly qualified workers who would have had an extended learning and assessment experience in that agency, and, who could therefore take up a position having been assessed in the work they will go on to do in the position of qualified worker. Despite the obvious benefits of such a scheme, in three years I have received positive replies from only two London authorities.

  5.4  We will not be able to increase the supply of high quality qualified social workers unless there are requirements on all local authorities to commit themselves to professional training through the provision of practice placements as a regular aspect of their activities.

6.  POST-QUALIFYING TRAINING IN PRACTICE TEACHING

  Along with the introduction of the Diploma in Social Work in 1992 came the Practice Teaching Award. It was envisaged that this award would lead to all qualified social workers having a post-qualifying award in practice teaching. It was hoped that this would then lead to the embedding of practice learning within social work agencies. Unfortunately this has not happened for reasons that are too complex to be examined here. The introduction of the PQ framework for social work superseded the Practice Teaching Award, and, in eyes of many, this constituted a downgrading of practice teaching.

6.1  The philosophy of every qualified social worker having a qualification, and an active role in the practice teaching of students has been abandoned. Under the new PQ framework qualified workers have to choose between several post-qualifying qualifying options, practice teaching being one of them. This will result in only a small section of the workforce being qualified and actively involved in the teaching and assessing of student practice. This seriously undermines the government's intentions under the social work degree of placing a higher emphasis on practice learning.

7.  RECOMMENDATIONS

    — Require the GSCC to inspect qualifying programmes at more frequent intervals, to visit programmes and canvas opinion from a range of interested groups.— Maintain generic social work degree programmes.

    — Require all students, regardless of status, to undertake college teaching and assessment that tests their readiness for practice before commencing the first placement.

    — Consider if universities are the best place for the provision of social work education, or introducing protective measures that would enable university social work programmes to provide a stable high quality social work education.

    — Consideration be given to enabling universities to have more rigorous and extended admissions processes.

May 2009







 
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