Developing social work students’ professional identity: the role of England’s Professional Capabilities Framework

ABSTRACT

Developing professional identity is a key aim of social work education. This paper argues that the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) – a holistic, capability approach to student assessment used in England’s social work education programmes – is ideally placed to promote the development of students’ professional identities. The paper discusses two research studies, each of which was stimulated by significant policy changes in England’s social work profession. The author draws out the implications of both studies for supporting social work students to develop their professional identities. It is concluded that the PCF is valued by practice educators as an assessment and teaching tool, while acknowledging that its future is uncertain due to the lack of continuity impacting on England’s social work profession. This paper is equally of relevance for social work educators outside the UK who may be developing and evaluating their assessment approaches and also for those experiencing the impact of rapid policy changes in their own countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional identity
• holistic assessment
• capability approach
• social work education

Acknowledgements

The paper emerged from collaborative work with Hilary Lawson, jointly presented at the EASSW conference in Milan, June 2015. Sharing a dialogue about our separate research projects led to new insights that are presented here. I take sole responsibility for any errors, but am indebted to Hilary for her ideas and support with this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Fran Wiles is a senior lecturer on the BA Social Work Programme at The Open University. As a qualified and registered social worker, she has worked in a variety of practice settings as well as management and teaching posts. Her particular research interests include professional identity and professional regulation, discourse analysis and narrative methodologies.