Enhancing practitioner-led education in social work: developing a secondment project

ABSTRACT

This paper illustrates the development of a secondment project designed to enhance practitioner-led social work education in a Higher Education Institution. The project was developed as part of a Teaching Partnership initiative to establish joint working and standardized approaches to social work education between Higher Education Institutes and Local Authorities across a UK region. Highlighted is how the project utilized a six-stage strategy designed to gather information to produce an evidence-base to support the implementation of a pilot practitioner secondment arrangement. The paper discusses strategies used to gather information from a range of stakeholders to inform the project, the project outcome and some considerations for future secondment arrangements. Contributing to a limited source of literature, challenges and limitations of developing formal secondment arrangements and delivering practitioner-led education in Higher Education Institutes are highlighted. This paper will assist Higher Education Institutes and Local Authorities in the design and implementation of formal secondment arrangements where these are identified as in need of development.

KEYWORDS:

• Practitioner-led education
• seconded practitioner-lecturer
• teaching partnerships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Cavener

Dr. John Cavener is a senior lecturer in social work at Northumbria University at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Carrie Phillips

Carrie Phillips is a senior social worker and seconded practitioner with Northumbria University at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Felicity Shenton

Dr. Felicity Shenton is Project Manager for the North East Social Work Alliance.