Transitional safeguarding refers to the safeguarding response required to address the specific developmental, social and contextual needs of adolescents and young adults aged between 15-25 (Holmes and Smale Citation2018). Currently young people entering adulthood can experience difficulties in accessing service support, because of the different service thresholds which govern children and adult safeguarding responses, and affect eligibility. Different legislative frameworks also affect this.
The aims of the themed issue of the Practice: Social Work in Action Journal are to:
Provide a critique of the current binary safeguarding system and explain why a more fluid and transitional safeguarding approach is needed for adolescents and young people;
Provide examples of where organisations are introducing innovative practice to safeguard adolescents and young people through transition to adulthood;
Discuss how leadership is being developed jointly across adult social care, children’s services, and the multiagency sector to support a different safeguarding approach for adolescents and young adults.
Explore the different ways in which current safeguarding systems respond to risk and rights-based paradigms in safeguarding, and challenge these. What might a service designed from scratch look like? How would it use research evidence? How would it engage with young people as key stakeholders?
Discuss the role that current research about adolescent development might have in challenging current thinking about safeguarding and future service design.
The guest editor welcomes proposals for contributions on topics, which fall within the scope of the special issue.
Submission Details
The guest editor invites you to submit abstracts (not exceeding 300 words) for consideration by e-mail to the guest editor: [email protected]
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 June 2020
Decisions on the commissioning of full papers will be made by 31st July 2020. Full papers should be submitted by 31st January 2021. The papers will be subject to full peer review prior to decision on publication and accepted papers will be published in either the special issue or a regular issue of the journal.
Social Work Teaching Partnerships (SWTPs) were developed by central government (Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care) to transform the quality of education and experience received by social work students and practitioners in England. The principal aim of the programme was to ‘…formalise collaborative working to raise the quality of social work, by attracting high quality students into the profession and ensuring students and existing social workers have the necessary knowledge, skills and values to practice effectively – and to improve workforce planning and development to address retention and recruitment issues’ (Interface Associates, Citation2019, 4).
The programme, which began in 2015, now includes 113 local authorities, 54 higher education institutes (HEIs), and 32 private, voluntary and independent partners, which affects 70% of all HEIs offering social work education. Early findings report positive stakeholder engagement with SWTPs, which has brought about new levels of collaboration. It is envisaged that this Special Issue will enable further discussions about the impact of SWTPs on social work education in England and provide an opportunity for educators and practitioners from other countries across the world to discuss their own partnership innovations in social work education.
The aims of the themed issue of the Practice: Social Work in Action Journal are to:
Discuss the contribution and impact that the SWTP initiative has had for social work education and the profession generally;
Provide examples of Teaching Partnership activities which have enhanced the provision of social work education, whether by service user involvement, practitioner involvement or placement/curriculum innovation or other means;
Identify how novel stakeholder partnership activities have enhanced relationships within the regions;
Comment on the sustainability and legacy of the SWTPs for key stakeholders and the profession.
Consider other international partnership innovations within social work education and discuss the effect of these on social work education within individual nation states and for the social work profession globally
The guest editor welcomes proposals for contributions on topics, which fall within the scope of the special issue. The guest editor invites you to submit abstracts (not exceeding 300 words) for consideration by e-mail to the guest editor: [email protected]
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 June 2020
Decisions on the commissioning of full papers will be made by 31st July 2020. Full papers should be submitted by 31st March 2021. The papers will be subject to full peer review prior to decision on publication and accepted papers will be published in either the special issue or a regular issue of the journal.
Reference
- Interface Associates. 2019. “Social Work Teaching Partnerships: An Evaluation Interim Research Report - Early Findings.” London, Department for Education. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/809219/TP_Evaluation_Interim_Report_Final_13_June.pdf