Social work teaching partnerships: a discussion paper

ABSTRACT

In 2016 the Government invited English local authority employers of social workers and university providers of social work qualifying programmes to apply jointly for funding to become social work teaching partnerships. This was in response to its concerns about the limited engagement of local authorities with qualifying training programmes. It was also part of the Government’s strategy to ensure that students qualified as social workers with what it considered to be the right knowledge and skills and to improve their recruitment, retention and development and overall quality of practice. Following an evaluation of one partnership, this discussion paper addresses the evolution of these arrangements as found in consultations with representatives of 10 social work teaching partnerships (held 2017–18), the four original pilots and the six others that were subsequently funded. Drawing on a synthesis of the partnerships’ reported experiences, this paper reports the variations in their approaches and sets out the challenges they faced and addressed, contextualising this in the policy landscape in which they were introduced and operated.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education
• employer engagement
• policy
• training
• qualification

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all those who discussed Teaching Partnerships with us whose identities need to remain anonymous. The views in this paper are those of the authors alone and should not be interpreted as being those of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS or its arm’s length bodies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See https://www.willispalmer.com/news/archive/five-key-questions-jswec-debate-social-works-future/.

2. All candidates for BA and MA courses should complete a written test, regardless of their previous qualifications; have performed well in individual interviews and group exercises; thresholds for entry should meet certain standards, such as a minimum of 240 UCAS points or equivalents for applicants for undergraduate courses; candidates should have achieved GCSE grade C or above in English and Maths or certified equivalents, be competent in written and spoken English and be able to demonstrate basic IT skills and employers, service users, and carers should be involved in the selection process.

3. https://lynromeo.blog.gov.uk/2016/04/14/teaching-partnerships-are-forging-the-future-of-social-work (accessed 25 March 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Baginsky

Dr Mary Baginsky is Senior Research Fellow at the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at the Policy Institute at King's. She has held positions in government, voluntary sector and service providing agencies in the UK and internationally. She is currently leading a programme of research on the interfaces of education and children's safeguarding.

Jill Manthorpe

Prof Jill Manthorpe is Director of the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit, she has long-standing interests in social work education at pre- and post-qualifying levels. Her social work education research covers mental health, recruitment and retention, and effectiveness. She is academic lead for Making Research Count London.

Ben Hickman

Ben Hickman is Honorary Research Fellow at the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit. He is Director of Myriad Research, specialising in workforce data analysis including pay and turnover among the local government workforce and other parts of the public sector.