Curtain Down on Act One: Practice Learning in the First Year of the New Social Work Award

Abstract

The curtain has come down on the first year of the new social work degree in England. This paper presents the findings of a survey of social work educators in academic and practice settings to find out how practice learning in this year has been experienced and the shape of plans for the rest of the new degree. The paper reflects on the enormous diversity of arrangements for practice learning, in terms of patterns of delivery, assessment, funding, and service user and carer involvement. One pattern that is emerging strongly is a more experimental flavour to this first year, with new practice learning sites being developed, and the use of group arrangements to supervise and support students. However, there is also the potential for inconsistency in standards, especially in the ways that students are judged as ‘fit for practice learning’. There are concerns that the new partnerships are increasingly driven by universities and colleges, with some agency partners unclear about what is happening and why. There are also indications that the postgraduate programmes will have less room for experimentation than the three‐year undergraduate courses and this may become a source of divergence between the two routes.

Keywords:

• Social Work
• Education
• Practice Learning
• Training
• User Involvement
• Assessment

Acknowledgements

The article is dedicated to the memory of Dave Evans, whose bursary helped fund the research on which the findings are based. We would like to thank all those who participated in the research study and the members of the Practice Learning Taskforce and the National Organisation for Practice Teaching who provided such valuable assistance and expertise, in particular Cheryl Wall, Liz Glynn, Nicky Horn and Fiona Waddington. Details of the research report can be found at: www.practicelearning.org.uk.

Notes

1. GSCC approved 87 social work degree courses to be delivered at 46 institutions starting in September 2003. Of these, six courses were at postgraduate level and the rest (81) were undergraduate degree courses. All providers are offering full‐time courses. Thirteen part‐time courses and 23 employment‐based courses (10 on a full‐time basis and 13 on a part‐time basis) are being offered. One distance learning course and one joint award (learning disability nursing and social work) were approved. Some 97 additional courses have been approved at 37 universities and five related teaching institutions for a September 2004 start. Fifty courses are at postgraduate level (eight universities offer an MA only), 10 are employment‐based and two are part‐time. Forty‐two courses are at undergraduate level, of which 13 are employment‐based and 10 are part‐time. All other courses are full time and university‐based. One graduate diploma course has been approved. There are three joint social work and learning disability nursing courses, and one social work and mental health nursing course. All these courses are full time.

2. Percentages throughout are rounded up or down to full percentage points.