BSc (Hons) Social Work

You will develop your understanding of academic conventions in UK higher education aligned to your level of study, including expectations around critical analysis, structure, argumentation, evidencing, and referencing. The module focuses on developing communication strategies that will help you express your ideas clearly and coherently in written assignments and spoken activities. You will also reflect on your current academic and language skills and develop strategies for development ahead of your assessments.

This module builds upon teaching themes and your learning at Level 4. In line with the requirements of the Practice Capabilities Framework (PCF), the module aims to support you to demonstrate your Professional Capability at end of First Placement level (British Association of Social Work, 2018). The module teaching will provide you with the foundation for your practice, with teaching focused on; completing the Level 5 Practice Learning Documentation (including a practice learning agreement), identification of learning to date and placement learning needs, supervision, direct observations, linking theory to practice and the opportunity to develop your self-awareness and critical reflection in practice.
As well as preparing you for practice, 70 placement days are attached to this module. Within the placement element, you will work with social work practitioners, people with care and support needs as well as other professionals and will be provided with learning opportunities to develop knowledge, skills and values enabling you to demonstrate the End of First Placement Professional Capabilities as well as an ability to work within Social Work England’s Professional Standards for Social Work.
Within a designated placement setting, you will take responsibility for your conduct, practice and learning as well as demonstrating your professional development by developing your skills of relationship building and undertaking interventions in collaboration with people with care and support needs.
The module will assist you in developing your appreciation of critical reflection on your own professional journey and viewing this as a key skill for becoming an effective practitioner, able to respond to changing service contexts.

This module has been designed to support you to recognise key concepts and underpinning knowledge about social work assessment and intervention to promote change with people who use care and support services. You will examine a range of assessment and intervention methods and approaches within the social work process, and you will be encouraged to explain and distinguish between the various intervention approaches and models of assessment through a range of teaching and learning strategies. The module aims to orientate you to the breadth of relevant social work knowledge and skills, as well as the language and key terms used within assessment and intervention processes. This module builds upon learning at Level 4 and aims to support you to extend and develop further practice -based skills which can then be applied within an assessed practice learning opportunity. The 70-day placement offered at Level 5 will afford you the opportunity to apply the knowledge, skills and values developed in this module in practice with people who use care and support services and other professionals in practice settings, whilst demonstrating professional practice informed by the PCF and Social Work England’s Professional Standards. A key standard that underpins this module is the use of assessment and intervention to promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families, and communities.
In accordance with Social Work England’s Professional Standards, the module will assist you in developing knowledge and skills for working in partnership with people who use care and support services to identify their strengths and needs, challenge disadvantage and promote rights. By assisting you to develop skills in recognising and using power and authority in the assessment process and developing knowledge of where interventions are necessary, the module will contribute towards ensuring that social work interventions are proportionate and in the best interests of people who use care and support services.

The purpose of this module is to enable you to understand and explore the detailed application of the law in relation to social work practice in statutory, voluntary and community contexts, and in which it applies to children, young people and adults when your role is concerned with safeguarding and promoting the well- being of individuals, families and carers. You will examine the interface between the law, social work values and social work ethics, in order to consider how legal and policy frameworks are used to promote and sometimes restrict the rights of service users. You will also have an opportunity to consider how the law may be used to promote anti–oppressive and inclusive practice. You will reflect upon the complexity of contemporary universal and national laws, and the social and political contexts within service delivery settings. You will also develop your learning in relation to values, diversity, law and social justice within the Professional Capabilities Framework

This module aims to support you to move from an ability to draw on an understanding of social and psychological factors in interpreting situations to apply critically such knowledge in interpreting risk and promoting resilience. You will explore ways of using evidence to inform decision-making and interventions and draw on techniques for appraising the usefulness of evidence. This will inform your consideration of resilience and risk as key themes for understanding human development and be contextualised by an understanding of theories for interpreting human development, such as attachment theory. This module will further equip you with the underpinning knowledge needed to work effectively with individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences.

This module aims to build on your learning from the Year 1 “Academic Information Skills and Critical Reflection” module (SW4005). It aims to support you to move from being able to locate and make an initial critical appraisal of knowledge towards a deeper understanding of different forms of research evidence and their value for social work practice. The curriculum will therefore focus on developing your skills in evaluating the quality and relevance of research. This is with a view to supporting your ability to inform your future practice with high quality and up to date evidence and engage in effective lifelong learning. The assignment will invite you to explore and critically appraise research-based knowledge in an area of your interest relevant to social work practice.

You will develop your understanding of academic conventions in UK higher education aligned to your level of study, including expectations around critical analysis, structure, argumentation, evidencing, and referencing. The module focuses on developing communication strategies that will help you express your ideas clearly and coherently in written assignments and spoken activities. You will also reflect on your current academic and language skills and develop strategies for development ahead of your assessments.

This module builds on your learning from previous years, deepening your self-awareness, providing further opportunity for reflection, and strengthening your ability to practise as a social worker by working collaboratively with people who use care and support services and other professionals. It will explore the process of assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation in complex situations within the legal and policy framework, informed by the best available evidence for practice. The learning outcomes set out below reflect the broad range of knowledge, skills, and values that you will need to practise as a beginning social worker. In order to prepare for your final placement and thereafter your professional career, the teaching will concentrate on developing core skills for professional social work practice within a range of settings.
To support student’s further development and critical reflection, we will consider aspects of international social work, ecological social work, community work and development and the social work role in crisis and disaster management. These themes will/can be part of skills development practice Recall Days.

You will consolidate and extend learning on rights and values and diversity gained at Levels 4 and 5 and this will further prepare you for your final practice placement which commences following completion of teaching. You will consider the application of rights, values and diversity in relation to professional judgement and decision making in complex and changing statutory social work policy and practice contexts. Consideration of the perspectives of people who use care and support services is embedded in the curriculum. Furthermore, you will develop your understanding of the challenges to providing good quality service delivery and professional practice focussing on organisational, policy, individual and family issues.

This module aims to support your preparation for your final practice placement experience by further developing your knowledge and understanding of safeguarding across the life span and with reference to different individuals and groups who access social work support services. The module will assist you to develop your understanding of the interplay between relevant legislative frameworks and will encourage critical reflection on lessons learned from practice. Development of your knowledge of judgement and decision-making frameworks and inter-agency working practices are also areas of learning within the module. You will consider questions of participation, autonomy, and capacity in relation to children, young people and vulnerable adults making links to knowledge of human growth, development and associated safeguarding practices. You will consider questions of professional power, individual choice, methods of engagement and communication and the use of frameworks for social control as aspects of safeguarding practice.

The module aims to help you move from being able to identify, understand and describe knowledge to being able to critically analyse, synthesise and generate knowledge in the area of your chosen topic. By the end of this module, you will improve your ability to inform your future practice with high quality and up to date evidence and engage in effective lifelong learning.
This module focuses on the production of an evidence- based research project on a topic of your choice which is relevant to current social work practice and aligned to Social Work England Professional Standards.