10th UK Joint Social Work Education Conference with the 2nd UK Social Work Research Conference
Programme for Wednesday 9th July
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07:30 - 08:45
Great Hall
Breakfast for Tuesday arrivals
10:00 - 11:00
Mary Allen Building
Arrival, registration and coffee (served in exhibitors marquee)
12:30 - 13:30
Great Hall
Lunch
13:30 - 14:45
Mary Allen Building
Parallel session 1
Informed by the work of Holden et al (1999, 2002) and Unrau and Grinnel (2005) research has been undertaken at ........University as part of the Evaluating the Outcomes of Social Work Education project funded by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and the Higher Education Academy Social Policy and Social Work subject Centre (SWAP) to look at how undergraduates develop self efficacy in research skills. This 3 year project using undergraduate participants following a second year Using Research for Practice unit of study on a qualifying social work programme in England has explored the development of confidence in research skills. Data was collected from 3 consecutive cohorts of students, at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of the unit of study and a comparison group was recruited from another university. The data was analysed using SPSS software.
The project also provides a case study of research capacity building in academic staff with the project researchers being mentored by an experienced researcher experienced in this research methodology.
This paper will explore the methodology and findings of the research project and will consider some implications and challenges for the teaching of research skills to qualifying students in order to develop research minded practitioners.
References
Holden G. Barker K. Meenaghan T. and Rosenberg G. 1999. Research self efficacy: a new possibility for educational outcome assessment. Journal of Social Work Education. Vol 35.
Holden G,, Meenaghan T, Anastas J and Mtry G. 2002. Outcomes of social work education: the case for social work self efficacy. Journal of Social Work Education. Vol 38.
Unrau Y.A. and Grinnell R.M. 2005. The impact of social work research courses on research self-efficacy for social work students. Social Work Education. Vol 24, no.6.
Theme 1: Impact of the social work degree
JSWEC
Mary Allen 104
JSWEC
Symposium:
Facilitating the Student-Teacher Relationship.
Dean Craddock, Melissa Elliott
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As final year social work students within the UK and having attended the JSWEC conference last year, we feel that we are ideally placed to deliver a symposium to address the current conference theme; Impact of the Social Work Degree: Evaluating the Student Experience.
The symposium will be delivered in three presentations, highlighting what we believe to be a significant lack of student-centred focus with the existing evaluations. Firstly, we offer a research-based consideration of the current situation. We follow with a theory-led discussion on how to proceed in an effective manner before proposing a practice-based solution that addresses our concerns in a meaningful way. Each presentation provides an equal amount of time devoted to facilitated discussions.
Presentation One: Highlighting our research and literature review, we reveal a lack of student perspective offered when evaluating the student experience. To begin meeting this identified need, we also put forward a brief ‘snapshot’ survey of current thinking from the student’s point of view.
Presentation Two: Noting the lack of optimism and attempting to encourage a positive future, we develop a person-centred stage model that facilitates an effective teacher-student relationship. By utilising the National Occupational Standards for Social Work and drawing upon its strong value base, we emphasise the necessary conditions to realise the full potential of individual students.
Presentation Three: Acknowledging the implications from a practice point of view, we provide a needs-led assessment tool that emphasises the importance of the student perspective. Our hope is that the use of this tool will assist in promoting a practical aspect to the development of a person-centred educational relationship.
The symposium will be delivered in three presentations, highlighting what we believe to be a significant lack of student-centred focus with the existing evaluations. Firstly, we offer a research-based consideration of the current situation. We follow with a theory-led discussion on how to proceed in an effective manner before proposing a practice-based solution that addresses our concerns in a meaningful way. Each presentation provides an equal amount of time devoted to facilitated discussions.
Presentation One: Highlighting our research and literature review, we reveal a lack of student perspective offered when evaluating the student experience. To begin meeting this identified need, we also put forward a brief ‘snapshot’ survey of current thinking from the student’s point of view.
Presentation Two: Noting the lack of optimism and attempting to encourage a positive future, we develop a person-centred stage model that facilitates an effective teacher-student relationship. By utilising the National Occupational Standards for Social Work and drawing upon its strong value base, we emphasise the necessary conditions to realise the full potential of individual students.
Presentation Three: Acknowledging the implications from a practice point of view, we provide a needs-led assessment tool that emphasises the importance of the student perspective. Our hope is that the use of this tool will assist in promoting a practical aspect to the development of a person-centred educational relationship.
Theme 6: Politics and place of social work education
JSWEC
Mary Allen 106
JSWEC
Paper:
Fit for Purpose? Fitness standards in social work education and practice
Nicky Stanley, Jess Harris, Julie Ridley, Jill Manthorpe
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Following the Disability Rights Commission's (DRC) Formal Investigation into fitness standards in the professions, the General Social Care Council recommended to government that the health standards for social work education be abolished. This paper reports on research commissioned in 2006-07 to inform the DRC Investigation. Social work students and practitioners in England, Wales and Scotland reported their experiences of disclosing unseen disabilities and the responses they encountered following disclosure. Professionals and students in nursing and teaching were also interviewed with 60 interviews completed in total.
The findings revealed that students found the process of disclosure lacked transparency and the regulatory body was considered to be remote and uncommunicative. Disclosure was experienced as a process of negotiations rather than an event. While higher education institutions (HEIs) were considered generally accommodating, placements required multiple disclosures and adjustments were not always forthcoming. Confidentiality could be problematic in the placement setting. In the workplace, fitness standards acted to restrict employment mobility; mental health problems were considered to be particularly stigmatized.
Research participants wanted improved information concerning the consequences of disclosure and argued that disability friendly environments fostered disclosure. They advocated the retention of disabled people within the workforce and suggested that promoting positive examples would have the effect of encouraging disclosure.
The Formal Investigation found the requirement to disclose health conditions discriminatory and argued that health standards do not protect the public. The Investigation proposed that professional regulation should be concerned with assessing conduct and competence and that competency for a profession should not be judged at the outset of professional training. This represents a substantial challenge to current conceptualisations of professional regulation within social work.
The findings revealed that students found the process of disclosure lacked transparency and the regulatory body was considered to be remote and uncommunicative. Disclosure was experienced as a process of negotiations rather than an event. While higher education institutions (HEIs) were considered generally accommodating, placements required multiple disclosures and adjustments were not always forthcoming. Confidentiality could be problematic in the placement setting. In the workplace, fitness standards acted to restrict employment mobility; mental health problems were considered to be particularly stigmatized.
Research participants wanted improved information concerning the consequences of disclosure and argued that disability friendly environments fostered disclosure. They advocated the retention of disabled people within the workforce and suggested that promoting positive examples would have the effect of encouraging disclosure.
The Formal Investigation found the requirement to disclose health conditions discriminatory and argued that health standards do not protect the public. The Investigation proposed that professional regulation should be concerned with assessing conduct and competence and that competency for a profession should not be judged at the outset of professional training. This represents a substantial challenge to current conceptualisations of professional regulation within social work.
Theme 1: Impact of the social work degree
JSWEC
Mary Allen 106
JSWEC
Paper:
‘You have to be a saint to be a social worker’: Implementing Fitness to Practice Procedures
Hugh McLaughlin
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As part of the approval process for the ‘new’ social work degree education providers had to establish ‘Fitness to Practice’ processes. This paper is an exploratory debate on the impact of this process across four social work programmes, involving undergraduate and postgraduate study, single social work and joint social work degree programmes.
The paper focuses on real issues that have occurred since 2003 splitting these concerned with education e.g. plagiarism, those concerned with practice learning e.g.’ inappropriate relationship with a service user’, those affecting a student’s ability to attend practice e.g. arrangements for childcare, those concerning a student’s employment status e.g. when a student has been expelled from their work for gross misconduct, students choice of partner e.g. if he is on the sex offender’s register, criminal offences whilst a student and mental health issues.
These real issues will be discussed with the intention of clarifying the expectations on social work students. This will include reference to the code of conduct, the notion of thresholds and the levels of expectation that would be considered acceptable for a social work student as opposed to a qualified social worker and whether this should vary between the different years of their programme. Links will be made to GSSC case examples, Nursing and Midwifery Council procedures and the Disability Rights Commission’s recent report. In considering the outcomes of these cases information will be provided as to the university’s procedures and their recent amendment. In particular issues about the neutrality of the investigator, the impact of non-social work academics on the panel, the growing legalization of this process and the potential of involving service users will be highlighted. It is intended that this paper will invite discussion and debate to challenge and help us identify and clarify the key issues.
The paper focuses on real issues that have occurred since 2003 splitting these concerned with education e.g. plagiarism, those concerned with practice learning e.g.’ inappropriate relationship with a service user’, those affecting a student’s ability to attend practice e.g. arrangements for childcare, those concerning a student’s employment status e.g. when a student has been expelled from their work for gross misconduct, students choice of partner e.g. if he is on the sex offender’s register, criminal offences whilst a student and mental health issues.
These real issues will be discussed with the intention of clarifying the expectations on social work students. This will include reference to the code of conduct, the notion of thresholds and the levels of expectation that would be considered acceptable for a social work student as opposed to a qualified social worker and whether this should vary between the different years of their programme. Links will be made to GSSC case examples, Nursing and Midwifery Council procedures and the Disability Rights Commission’s recent report. In considering the outcomes of these cases information will be provided as to the university’s procedures and their recent amendment. In particular issues about the neutrality of the investigator, the impact of non-social work academics on the panel, the growing legalization of this process and the potential of involving service users will be highlighted. It is intended that this paper will invite discussion and debate to challenge and help us identify and clarify the key issues.
Theme 1: Impact of the social work degree
JSWEC
Mary Allen 106
JSWEC
Paper:
Not desperate, but disparate – developing New Partnerships with Service Users and Carers in Social Work Education and making involvement sustainable.
Joy Fillingham, Rosemary Littlechild
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The General Social Care Council (GSCC) requires all social work qualifying and post qualifying programmes to involve service users and carers in all aspects of the design and delivery of training. However, even before it became obligatory, at the University of Birmingham we had been working for some years on involving service users and carers in various aspects of our social work programmes. In 2003 we worked with a small group of people on the validation of the new qualifying programme and by December 2007 there were around 50 people working regularly with us. In October 2007 we were able to appoint a permanent part-time Service User and Carer Co-ordinator, who is herself a Service User.
The presentation will set the context for the way that Service Users and Carers and Practitioners are currently involved in the programmes, give a number of examples of effective partnership working, including student selection, assessment for fitness to practice and assessment of written assignments. It will identify how the process of involvement has developed, what factors have helped and hindered it and explore how the relationship between Service Users, Carers and the Social Work Programme are being developed to build a transparent, inclusive and empowering range of opportunities.
The presentation will give an account of the challenges that we still face which we expect other programmes are also encountering. The paper will conclude by speculating on what lessons we have learnt for the future in attempting to forge new approaches to partnerships with service users and carers in other aspects of the programme.
The presentation will set the context for the way that Service Users and Carers and Practitioners are currently involved in the programmes, give a number of examples of effective partnership working, including student selection, assessment for fitness to practice and assessment of written assignments. It will identify how the process of involvement has developed, what factors have helped and hindered it and explore how the relationship between Service Users, Carers and the Social Work Programme are being developed to build a transparent, inclusive and empowering range of opportunities.
The presentation will give an account of the challenges that we still face which we expect other programmes are also encountering. The paper will conclude by speculating on what lessons we have learnt for the future in attempting to forge new approaches to partnerships with service users and carers in other aspects of the programme.
Theme 4: Managing transitions: identity and place
JSWEC
Mary Allen 117
JSWEC
Workshop:
Who counts as a service user? To what extent can all of social work’s user groups be meaningfully involved in social work education?
Peter Scourfield
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The agenda for service user involvement in social work education is ‘ambitious’ in that the ultimate goal is to ensure service user involvement at all levels; in student selection, the design of the degree, teaching and learning provision, preparation for practice placements, provision of placements, learning agreements, assessment and quality assurance. This degree of involvement merits a more thorough discussion. To date, discussion has mainly focused on questions of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ and not the ‘who’ of service user involvement. Given that who we involve in social work education both reflects and defines what social work is, as much consideration needs to be given to the ‘who’ of involvement as to the ‘why’ and ‘how’. It is proposed that the question of ‘who’ constitutes a rather more complex problem than might appear at first sight and that this has important ramifications for the legitimacy of the service user involvement project as a whole.
One could justifiably question the logic of adopting uncritically the approach articulated in SCIE guidance, which is that ‘involvement should be based on work with organisations that are controlled and run by service users’. Here ‘service user’ is used as a term of agency and self-identification. In this view, a ‘service-user’ is not someone who ‘has things done to them’ but has ‘active engagement in services’.
However, for the ‘ambitious agenda’ to be both legitimate and properly instructive to social work students, arguably it requires that all of social work’s key constituencies are somehow represented appropriately in social work education.
Adopting this definition raises difficult questions because it highlights that important groups of people are currently unrepresented in the process. It might turn out that whole groups of people who social workers deal with either cannot or will not be involved.
Social work educators and specific service user groups have embarked on a hugely ambitious project without being exactly clear about what the final outcome should actually look like. There is also no discernible strategy for ensuring legitimacy through the systematic and comprehensive representation of all social work’s user groups.
It is therefore proposed that a workshop on this and related questions is both timely and essential for moving the involvement agenda forward.
One could justifiably question the logic of adopting uncritically the approach articulated in SCIE guidance, which is that ‘involvement should be based on work with organisations that are controlled and run by service users’. Here ‘service user’ is used as a term of agency and self-identification. In this view, a ‘service-user’ is not someone who ‘has things done to them’ but has ‘active engagement in services’.
However, for the ‘ambitious agenda’ to be both legitimate and properly instructive to social work students, arguably it requires that all of social work’s key constituencies are somehow represented appropriately in social work education.
Adopting this definition raises difficult questions because it highlights that important groups of people are currently unrepresented in the process. It might turn out that whole groups of people who social workers deal with either cannot or will not be involved.
Social work educators and specific service user groups have embarked on a hugely ambitious project without being exactly clear about what the final outcome should actually look like. There is also no discernible strategy for ensuring legitimacy through the systematic and comprehensive representation of all social work’s user groups.
It is therefore proposed that a workshop on this and related questions is both timely and essential for moving the involvement agenda forward.
Theme 2: Interprofessional education and employer engagement
JSWEC
Mary Allen 118
JSWEC
Paper:
Compromise and Creativity: Employers, Service Users, Carers and a University Developing the PQ Higher Specialist Level Mental Health Programme
Helen Cosis Brown, Christine Cocker
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The new General Social Care Council (GSCC) Post Qualifying (PQ) framework and the resulting developments with employers to validate new awards have presented the opportunity for collaboration to develop programmes that are fit for purpose. However recent changes resulting from the passing of the Mental Health Act 2007, as well as the new GSCC framework and associated guidance, meant that the new mental health PQ programme was validated in 2006 and validated again in 2007 (GSCC, 2005; 2007). This presented major challenges for relationships between stakeholders with one local authority partner describing HEI bureaucracy as ‘worse than the NHS!’ This paper will explore both the opportunities and tensions that this presented for us in validating the new Higher Specialist Mental Health Award, including: the new Approved Mental Health Practitioner role; multi disciplinary working and the role of social work; the level of the award; employer concerns about their workforces’ capacity to study at level 4 and the inclusion or not of the new Deprivation of Liberty and Best Interest Assessor Training. This has involved working with: the East London Mental Health Training Partnership (ELMHTP), made up of three local authorities and the associated PCTs; the Work Based Learning Unit of the University and service user and carer stakeholders.
General Social Care Council (2005) Post-qualifying Framework for Social Work Education and Training, London: GSCC
General Social Care Council (2007) Post-qualifying Framework for Social Work Education and Training: Social Work in Mental Health, London: GSCC
General Social Care Council (2005) Post-qualifying Framework for Social Work Education and Training, London: GSCC
General Social Care Council (2007) Post-qualifying Framework for Social Work Education and Training: Social Work in Mental Health, London: GSCC
Theme 2: Interprofessional education and employer engagement
JSWEC
Mary Allen 118
JSWEC
Paper:
How does interprofessional education stimulate or develop professional identities and capabilities?
Hilary Pengelly, Ros Johnson
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Whilst government policy urges health and social care professionals to work together collaboratively, professional identities and boundaries may militate against effective practice. The development of interprofessional education is a response to this problem. But traditional notions of ‘professions’ and the ‘capable professional’ are rooted in esoteric notions of knowledge and expertise that have clear lines of demarcation. The challenge for interprofessional educators is to find ways of delivering teaching that mirror or embody effective interprofessional practice. This paper presents indicative findings from a pilot study conducted with a small multi-professional group of academics in the areas of health, social work and social care (the caring professions) involved in delivering interprofessional education. The pilot group identified three key areas for developing effective interprofessional education: (a) personal satisfaction and enjoyment for the teacher; (b) student-centered delivery; and (crucially) (c) the organisation and delivery of the teaching. Interprofessional education aims to stimulate students into thinking beyond their narrow professional perspectives. Students are encouraged and inspired by seeing interprofessional teaching teams working together to achieve a shared task. But because academic staff come from a wide range of disciplines, collaborative working is not always easy, and organisation of the delivery of the module is of key importance; an ill organised module does not model good interprofessional practice. Academics need encouragement not to feel threatened by the ‘absence’ of their professional identity in interprofessional education, and to work collaboratively. Developing effective interprofessional teaching teams across the health and social care subject areas may offer a paradigm for promoting effective interprofessional practice. This requires both time and leadership, and an awareness of groupwork theory (for example forming, storming, norming and performing). The paper concludes by highlighting the positive potential for interprofessional education within the academy, and urging further (interprofessional) research into effectiveness of teaching delivery.
Theme 2: Interprofessional education and employer engagement
JSWEC
Mary Allen 118
JSWEC
Paper:
Creating Interprofessional Learning Capacity within Children's Centres - the CILCCC Project
Sue Taplin, Deborah Develin
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As outlined in the NHS Plan 2000 (DoH 2001), the promotion of interprofessional working is a key government strategy to improve collaboration and enhance the provision of good quality care for all service users. However, its absence has often been highlighted, particularly in relation to children's services, notably in the Victoria Climbie Inquiry (Laming 2003). Subsequently, the Every Child Matters: Change for Children Programme (DoH 2003)and the Children Act (2004) have resulted in a radical transformation in the way that services are delivered to children and families, with their requirement that professional work together to improve outcomes for children.
Despite this, however, and with some notable exceptions, interprofessional learning is an often neglected aspect of health and social care training in higher education institutions in the UK and, even where it is a core aspect of the academic curriculum, students are seldom required to see it as an essential element of assessed practice (Barr, 2005).
In light of this, a pilot project was developed in Nottinghamshire to give students from different professions the opportunity to undertake assessed placements in Children's Centres, with a specific emphasis on interprofessional learning.
This paper will analyse the development of the project from the initial feasibility study, to mapping learning within the Centres, identifying and supporting students undertaking placements, the evaluation and dissemination of the results of the pilot and providing guidance for its continuation and expansion.
Now in its second year, the CILCCC project has been successful in promoting partnership working between key stakeholders in health, social care and higher education institutions within the Nottinghamshire community.
This paper will provide an honest reflection on the first eighteen months of the project and, it is hoped, will encourage debate around the challenges of working collaboratively to establish practice-based interprofessional learning.
Despite this, however, and with some notable exceptions, interprofessional learning is an often neglected aspect of health and social care training in higher education institutions in the UK and, even where it is a core aspect of the academic curriculum, students are seldom required to see it as an essential element of assessed practice (Barr, 2005).
In light of this, a pilot project was developed in Nottinghamshire to give students from different professions the opportunity to undertake assessed placements in Children's Centres, with a specific emphasis on interprofessional learning.
This paper will analyse the development of the project from the initial feasibility study, to mapping learning within the Centres, identifying and supporting students undertaking placements, the evaluation and dissemination of the results of the pilot and providing guidance for its continuation and expansion.
Now in its second year, the CILCCC project has been successful in promoting partnership working between key stakeholders in health, social care and higher education institutions within the Nottinghamshire community.
This paper will provide an honest reflection on the first eighteen months of the project and, it is hoped, will encourage debate around the challenges of working collaboratively to establish practice-based interprofessional learning.
Theme 3: Innovation and creativity in social work learning
JSWEC
Mary Allen 119
JSWEC
Workshop:
Heterosexuality in Practice & Education: Innovation and creativity in social work learning
Joy Trotter
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This workshop provides a reflective model (Ruch, 2008) to help participants explore their approaches to heterosexuality in their practice and/or education and aims to provide a range of new approaches and strategies for the future.
In the first part of the workshop participants will be asked to read a short ‘case study’ and then invited to reflect on one person’s responses to the ‘case study’ (Hockey et al, 2008).
In the second part of the workshop, inspired by the material generated earlier, participants will consider their own practice &/or teaching in relation to GSCC’s ‘core values’ (individuality, rights, choice, privacy, independence, dignity, respect & partnership).
introduction 5 mins
read case material 5 mins
reflective model 45 mins
group work 15 mins
close 5 mins
Hockey, J., Meah, A. and Robinson, V. (2008) Mundane Heterosexualities: From Theory to Practices, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Ruch, G. (2008) ‘Developing sustainable inter-professional working structures and cultures: the role of reflective case discussion forums’, paper given at the Practical Learning: achieving excellence in the human services [PEPE] conference, Edinburgh 23-25 January 2008.
In the first part of the workshop participants will be asked to read a short ‘case study’ and then invited to reflect on one person’s responses to the ‘case study’ (Hockey et al, 2008).
In the second part of the workshop, inspired by the material generated earlier, participants will consider their own practice &/or teaching in relation to GSCC’s ‘core values’ (individuality, rights, choice, privacy, independence, dignity, respect & partnership).
introduction 5 mins
read case material 5 mins
reflective model 45 mins
group work 15 mins
close 5 mins
Hockey, J., Meah, A. and Robinson, V. (2008) Mundane Heterosexualities: From Theory to Practices, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Ruch, G. (2008) ‘Developing sustainable inter-professional working structures and cultures: the role of reflective case discussion forums’, paper given at the Practical Learning: achieving excellence in the human services [PEPE] conference, Edinburgh 23-25 January 2008.
Theme 4: Managing transitions: identity and place
JSWEC
Mary Allen 205
JSWEC
Paper:
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM: Law literacy in practice
Suzy Braye, Amanda Thorpe, Michael Preston-Shoot
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BEYOND THE CLASSROOM: Law literacy in practice
Although legal rules, and the ability to work within them, are an established component of the social work knowledge base, much of the focus on how social workers learn about law has to date been upon learning in the academic context. In qualifying education, law learning has a low profile beyond the classroom, despite the potentially rich opportunities offered in the practice environment. At post-qualifying level, law literacy is even less prominent within the practice standards that underpin continuing professional development. By law literacy we mean the constellation of knowledge, understanding, skill and values that enables practitioner to connect relevant legal rules with the professional priorities and objectives of ethical practice.
This paper draws on the findings of a SWAP-funded pedagogic research study conducted by the authors using a ‘user review’ approach (Bassey 2000), which brought together a range of participants to explore the question: what happens to law in practice? What happens to legal knowledge and skills at these points of transition from classroom to practice, from learner to qualified practitioner, from student to employee, when practitioners confront the reality of complex ethical challenges in the practice world? Building from evidence of poor alignment between classroom learning and practice, the paper essentially explores particular features of the practice environment which further distance professional practice from the legal rules within which it takes place. We argue that moving beyond those barriers, and placing an appropriate and continued focus on legal literacy at these key points of transition, assists practitioners to connect their technical legal knowledge with the complex challenges of the practice environment and acts as a strong platform for improved practitioner confidence.
Bassey, M. (2000) ‘Reviews of educational research’, Research Intelligence, 71, 22-9.
Although legal rules, and the ability to work within them, are an established component of the social work knowledge base, much of the focus on how social workers learn about law has to date been upon learning in the academic context. In qualifying education, law learning has a low profile beyond the classroom, despite the potentially rich opportunities offered in the practice environment. At post-qualifying level, law literacy is even less prominent within the practice standards that underpin continuing professional development. By law literacy we mean the constellation of knowledge, understanding, skill and values that enables practitioner to connect relevant legal rules with the professional priorities and objectives of ethical practice.
This paper draws on the findings of a SWAP-funded pedagogic research study conducted by the authors using a ‘user review’ approach (Bassey 2000), which brought together a range of participants to explore the question: what happens to law in practice? What happens to legal knowledge and skills at these points of transition from classroom to practice, from learner to qualified practitioner, from student to employee, when practitioners confront the reality of complex ethical challenges in the practice world? Building from evidence of poor alignment between classroom learning and practice, the paper essentially explores particular features of the practice environment which further distance professional practice from the legal rules within which it takes place. We argue that moving beyond those barriers, and placing an appropriate and continued focus on legal literacy at these key points of transition, assists practitioners to connect their technical legal knowledge with the complex challenges of the practice environment and acts as a strong platform for improved practitioner confidence.
Bassey, M. (2000) ‘Reviews of educational research’, Research Intelligence, 71, 22-9.
Theme 4: Managing transitions: identity and place
JSWEC
Mary Allen 205
JSWEC
Paper:
The candidate speaks-overcoming barriers to post-qualifying training
Kenneth Bayley
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I am a 4th year doctoral student writing-up my recent research with post-qualifying social workers and would like to share my findings so far and receive comments from both a peer group of practitioners and other interested parties.
Historically, qualified social workers have lagged behind their professional colleagues in nursing and teaching in achieving nationally recognised post-qualifying awards. My locally based research study across Surrey and Sussex focused on actual PQ candidates who have either completed further study or at present are undertaking a PQ Award programme. Data was gathered using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.
My paper/presentation will cover:
Methodology
Profile of candidate respondents
Barriers to PQ training
Motivations for PQ study
What helped sustain study
What hindered study
Future post-qualifying plans
Advice for would be candidates
PQ the Pro's and Con's
What would make a difference?
I am keen to share my data and findings with a wider audience and would be interested in receiving questions and comments on strategies to improve candidate uptake of the new GSCC PQ Framework.
To make my paper accessible to all, I would establish the audiences' prior knowledge of PQ and offer a short introductory glossary of terms for those less familiar with this area of practice.
If time allows I would ask permission to circulate a short survey of PQ involvement/participation.
Historically, qualified social workers have lagged behind their professional colleagues in nursing and teaching in achieving nationally recognised post-qualifying awards. My locally based research study across Surrey and Sussex focused on actual PQ candidates who have either completed further study or at present are undertaking a PQ Award programme. Data was gathered using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.
My paper/presentation will cover:
Methodology
Profile of candidate respondents
Barriers to PQ training
Motivations for PQ study
What helped sustain study
What hindered study
Future post-qualifying plans
Advice for would be candidates
PQ the Pro's and Con's
What would make a difference?
I am keen to share my data and findings with a wider audience and would be interested in receiving questions and comments on strategies to improve candidate uptake of the new GSCC PQ Framework.
To make my paper accessible to all, I would establish the audiences' prior knowledge of PQ and offer a short introductory glossary of terms for those less familiar with this area of practice.
If time allows I would ask permission to circulate a short survey of PQ involvement/participation.
Theme 10: User involvement and user-led social work research and evaluation
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen G05
Social Work Research Conference
Workshop:
Children’s Health and Wellbeing – What Do Young People Think?
Christine Smart
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We will discuss the outcomes from research initiated by a Children & Young People’s Board of an agency that provides statutory social work services. The Board was concerned about alcohol/drug use and potentially unhealthy lifestyles of other young people, particularly those in the care of the local authority. A consultation exercise was undertaken with children and young people across England to ascertain their views and make recommendations to inform policy and service development. The data gathered from the day was then analysed by the Board with the assistance of academic researchers.
This project is an example of service user led research and the ‘children’s rights’ agenda that has been developing under the Human Rights Act. This is moving research forward from a model of participation (John 1996) where research questions are formulated by adults and debates within the research world focus on how best adults can communicate with children for adult purposes (i.e. doing research ‘on’ children) to one where children are involved with formulating the questions they want researched for their own purposes as citizens.
The House of Commons itself has recognised that: “If children in general are a vulnerable group, children looked after by local authorities are acutely vulnerable. It is all the more important that their voice should be heard by people in positions of authority” (House of Commons 1998, p. xlviii). This research project provided young people with opportunities to inform central and local government bodies about issues they believe important.
A brief presentation will be made about how the project was developed and the outcomes of the research. This will be followed by facilitated discussion about how to develop service user led research projects and the ways service user led initiatives can inform service development.
House of Commons (1998), Second Report of the Health Select Committee: Children Looked After by Local Authorities (HC 319-1), London: the Stationery Office
John, M (1996) Voicing: Research and Practice with the ‘Silenced’, in Mary John (ed), Children in Charge: The Child’s Right to a Fair Hearing, London: Jessica Kingsley
This project is an example of service user led research and the ‘children’s rights’ agenda that has been developing under the Human Rights Act. This is moving research forward from a model of participation (John 1996) where research questions are formulated by adults and debates within the research world focus on how best adults can communicate with children for adult purposes (i.e. doing research ‘on’ children) to one where children are involved with formulating the questions they want researched for their own purposes as citizens.
The House of Commons itself has recognised that: “If children in general are a vulnerable group, children looked after by local authorities are acutely vulnerable. It is all the more important that their voice should be heard by people in positions of authority” (House of Commons 1998, p. xlviii). This research project provided young people with opportunities to inform central and local government bodies about issues they believe important.
A brief presentation will be made about how the project was developed and the outcomes of the research. This will be followed by facilitated discussion about how to develop service user led research projects and the ways service user led initiatives can inform service development.
House of Commons (1998), Second Report of the Health Select Committee: Children Looked After by Local Authorities (HC 319-1), London: the Stationery Office
John, M (1996) Voicing: Research and Practice with the ‘Silenced’, in Mary John (ed), Children in Charge: The Child’s Right to a Fair Hearing, London: Jessica Kingsley
Theme 9: The politics of social work research - capacity, culture and context
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen 207
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
Teaching research in qualifying social work: capacity and challenge
Elaine Sharland, Gillian MacIntyre, Sally Paul
Click here to show/hide the abstract
This paper presents a preliminary report of an audit of the current state of research methods teaching in UK qualifying social work education. The audit is part of a wider ESRC funded study to provide baseline data for setting progress objectives towards building research capacity in the discipline and profession.
The place and purpose of research teaching in social work education is strongly contested. Less contestable, however, is the lack of attention to research in qualifying social work curricula in all four UK countries, despite their differing prescribed curricula but common adherence to the QAA Benchmark Statement and the National Occupational Standards. The marginalisation of research teaching is underlined by the paucity of UK literature on the topic, compared with American and other writing. Reasons for this range from lack of time, staff skill and resource, to more fundamental reservations and resistance on the part of educators, students and practitioners towards engaging with research. At the heart of such ambivalence lies fundamental debate about the nature of the social work discipline, and the relationship between research and practice. Before we may tackle the task of building research capacity, we must better understand existing education practices and the challenges for research teaching faced.
This paper offers preliminary observations from the audit, based on a survey of undergraduate and masters qualifying social work programmes across all four countries, with in-depth enquiry into a smaller sample from each. The survey examines what research methods are taught, how, where, when and by whom. Most importantly, it considers why these choices are made, and the challenges and possibilities presented for building research capacity and research mindedness at qualifying level.
The place and purpose of research teaching in social work education is strongly contested. Less contestable, however, is the lack of attention to research in qualifying social work curricula in all four UK countries, despite their differing prescribed curricula but common adherence to the QAA Benchmark Statement and the National Occupational Standards. The marginalisation of research teaching is underlined by the paucity of UK literature on the topic, compared with American and other writing. Reasons for this range from lack of time, staff skill and resource, to more fundamental reservations and resistance on the part of educators, students and practitioners towards engaging with research. At the heart of such ambivalence lies fundamental debate about the nature of the social work discipline, and the relationship between research and practice. Before we may tackle the task of building research capacity, we must better understand existing education practices and the challenges for research teaching faced.
This paper offers preliminary observations from the audit, based on a survey of undergraduate and masters qualifying social work programmes across all four countries, with in-depth enquiry into a smaller sample from each. The survey examines what research methods are taught, how, where, when and by whom. Most importantly, it considers why these choices are made, and the challenges and possibilities presented for building research capacity and research mindedness at qualifying level.
Theme 9: The politics of social work research - capacity, culture and context
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen 207
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
Self Efficacy in Research Skills- becoming research minded.
Anne Quinney, Jonathan Parker
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Informed by the work of Holden et al (1999, 2002) and Unrau and Grinnel (2005) research has been undertaken at ........University as part of the Evaluating the Outcomes of Social Work Education project funded by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and the Higher Education Academy Social Policy and Social Work subject Centre (SWAP) to look at how undergraduates develop self efficacy in research skills. This 3 year project using undergraduate participants following a second year Using Research for Practice unit of study on a qualifying social work programme in England has explored the development of confidence in research skills. Data was collected from 3 consecutive cohorts of students, at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of the unit of study and a comparison group was recruited from another university. The data was analysed using SPSS software.
The project also provides a case study of research capacity building in academic staff with the project researchers being mentored by an experienced researcher experienced in this research methodology.
This paper will explore the methodology and findings of the research project and will consider some implications and challenges for the teaching of research skills to qualifying students in order to develop research minded practitioners.
References
Holden G. Barker K. Meenaghan T. and Rosenberg G. 1999. Research self efficacy: a new possibility for educational outcome assessment. Journal of Social Work Education. Vol 35.
Holden G,, Meenaghan T, Anastas J and Mtry G. 2002. Outcomes of social work education: the case for social work self efficacy. Journal of Social Work Education. Vol 38.
Unrau Y.A. and Grinnell R.M. 2005. The impact of social work research courses on research self-efficacy for social work students. Social Work Education. Vol 24, no.6.
Theme 8: Innovations in social work research methods
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen 207
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
Co-operative inquiry and participatory action research - towards a collaborative social work agenda
Reima Ana Maglajlic Holicek
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The past twenty years saw the increasing challenges to the ‘social relations of research production’ (Oliver, 1992: 102). In social work education, this re-thinking needs to address the relationship between social work scholars (educators and/or researchers) and ‘social work education service users’, such as workforce employers, practitioners, students, service users and carers. Presentation includes results of a study which investigated what type of knowledge about social work education the social work students, practitioners and service users will produce through joint action research, acting as co-researchers. These groups were traditionally excluded from an active role in the social work knowledge production. The methodology was based on a type of a co-operative inquiry (a counterpartal role inquiry) and participatory action research approaches. It was initiated in two very diverse contexts – Cambridge, England and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both contexts are related to authors education experiences.
Despite cultural, social, economic, political and historical differences, the co-researchers had similar findings. In Cambridge, the group identified a few ‘ingredients’ or skills that they have found lacking from and yet relevant to social work learning and practice. Both groups developed proposals that reaffirmed relevance of (in England) or initiated (in Bosnia) structured and on-going involvement of practitioners and service users on the social work courses and of social work teachers in social work practice. The findings in both groups also indicate the enduring relevance of the radical social work tradition or contribute to the knowledge base for the emerging ‘collaborative social work’, highlighting the need for social work education to prepare future social workers to become community-oriented change agents, implementing the rights-based practices. Presentation is also to highlight relevant methodological lessons from the study.
Despite cultural, social, economic, political and historical differences, the co-researchers had similar findings. In Cambridge, the group identified a few ‘ingredients’ or skills that they have found lacking from and yet relevant to social work learning and practice. Both groups developed proposals that reaffirmed relevance of (in England) or initiated (in Bosnia) structured and on-going involvement of practitioners and service users on the social work courses and of social work teachers in social work practice. The findings in both groups also indicate the enduring relevance of the radical social work tradition or contribute to the knowledge base for the emerging ‘collaborative social work’, highlighting the need for social work education to prepare future social workers to become community-oriented change agents, implementing the rights-based practices. Presentation is also to highlight relevant methodological lessons from the study.
Theme 7: Generating knowledge for practice; the place of research in practice
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen G03
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
The case of open access to social work publications
Jan Steyaert, Jackie Rafferty
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Internationally there is a strong and growing call for social work to be evidence-based and led by research into the effectiveness (or otherwise) of social interventions. This calls for close proximity of practice and research results.
There is however a long tradition of research into the lack of social work practitioner access to the existing research literature, beginning with the work of Wilson and Streatfield in the mid seventies. Additionally, the academic publishing culture focusing on blind peer reviewed journals has not been very helpful to establish this proximity.
Can the internet, google and open access bring research and practice closer together?
The wide availability of computers and the internet in conjunction with increasing practitioner familiarity with using technology has drastically transformed the information landscape. Does this have implications for the availability and usage of research literature? In terms of use, yes, people/practitioners use ‘Google’ as an important if not their first gateway to information. In terms of the availability of the research literature the answer is no. Research results are often ‘locked and guarded’ by commercial publishers, and not available to practitioners.
There are numerous often repeated arguments to support Open Access to research publications (Berlin declaration, if you don’t exist on google, you don’t exist, …), but awareness of these arguments and access to relevant literature within the social work discipline is marginal. There is some engagement with open access through personal webpages of scholars or instituational repositories at universities, and the occasional open access scholarly journal.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of open access? What models exist that could be adapted to the social work world of practice, policy makers, researchers, service users and publishers. Can open access bridge the divide between practice and research? This paper will address these questions and make recommendations for the future.
There is however a long tradition of research into the lack of social work practitioner access to the existing research literature, beginning with the work of Wilson and Streatfield in the mid seventies. Additionally, the academic publishing culture focusing on blind peer reviewed journals has not been very helpful to establish this proximity.
Can the internet, google and open access bring research and practice closer together?
The wide availability of computers and the internet in conjunction with increasing practitioner familiarity with using technology has drastically transformed the information landscape. Does this have implications for the availability and usage of research literature? In terms of use, yes, people/practitioners use ‘Google’ as an important if not their first gateway to information. In terms of the availability of the research literature the answer is no. Research results are often ‘locked and guarded’ by commercial publishers, and not available to practitioners.
There are numerous often repeated arguments to support Open Access to research publications (Berlin declaration, if you don’t exist on google, you don’t exist, …), but awareness of these arguments and access to relevant literature within the social work discipline is marginal. There is some engagement with open access through personal webpages of scholars or instituational repositories at universities, and the occasional open access scholarly journal.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of open access? What models exist that could be adapted to the social work world of practice, policy makers, researchers, service users and publishers. Can open access bridge the divide between practice and research? This paper will address these questions and make recommendations for the future.
Theme 7: Generating knowledge for practice; the place of research in practice
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen G03
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
Researching documents as active texts in social work
Jo Warner
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Given the wide array of documents that are central to the everyday activities of social workers and the increasing use of technology, social work can be regarded as ‘documented practice’. Despite this fact, relatively little attention has been given to researching documents in this context. Still less attention has been given to how documents might function in the context of social work practice. Documents in general tend to be regarded as inert or static records of events which are of interest only because of what they contain. However, interest among social scientists has increasingly shifted towards considering other factors relating to documents, including their production and consumption. In the work of the sociologist Dorothy Smith, this extends to viewing documents as ‘active texts’ in terms of the role they play in structuring social relations and expressing social power. Seeing documents as active involves placing greater emphasis on the role of the reader and the notion that the act of reading constructs the meaning of a document. One task for social researchers is therefore to understand how readers ‘use’ documents in everyday life, including in the context of their professional activities in organisational settings such as social work. This paper explores the notion of the active text in social work through the use of examples from empirical work and argues for a more critical and analytical understanding of the use of documents in social work practice.
Theme 7: Generating knowledge for practice; the place of research in practice
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen G03
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
Building bridges through research: Making connections between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, ‘the academy’ and ‘the field’
Heather D`Cruz
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Many social workers are familiar with the apparent conceptual and practical boundaries between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. Furthermore, there are implicit distinctions that associate ‘theory’ with ‘the academy’, and ‘practice’ with ‘the field’. There is ongoing scholarly work that aims to investigate the ways in which these boundaries may be crossed to achieve ‘more effective practice’ and ‘more relevant theory’, and constructive relationships between social workers in different spaces constituted as ‘the academy’ and ‘the field’. This presentation discusses a collaborative research project involving ‘practitioners’ in child and family welfare and child protection in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, and ‘academics’ from Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the research was to explore an alternative child protection practice repertoire by investigating with practitioners, the appropriateness of engaging with concepts from social constructionism within risk assessment frameworks. This presentation discusses how the collaborative research processes and emphasis on dialogue facilitated building bridges between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, and ‘the academy’ and ‘the field’, and the outcomes that were achieved beyond those directly associated with the research aims. The presentation demonstrates the place of research in practice, the generation of knowledge for practice through relationships between researchers and practitioners, and the ways in which new knowledge and perspectives can become new practices.
14:45 - 15:15
Exhibitors Marquee
Refreshments, exhibitors and poster viewing
15:15 - 16:30
Mary Allen Building
Parallel session 2
The power of experiential learning in education and training of social workers is now well documented (Goldstein 2001). In a project at London South Bank University arts-based approaches to experiential learning were used on a PQ course for social work managers and these were developed by service users with the course team. Traditionally the role of service users in teaching sessions has been a passive one where they are invited in to talk about their experiences of services. Service users who were consulted in the approval process for the new PQ course commented on the remoteness of managers to their concerns and it was decided, on the basis of recent research (Journal of Social Work Practice 2007), that arts-based learning and teaching methods would communicate their feelings more effectively. A group of service users worked with the course team experimenting with creative activities where they could be active with students in the classroom as another means of communicating experiences. One of the teaching sessions on the PQ course for social work managers was booked as a Gamelan drumming session at the London Symphony Orchestra Discovery Centre. Gamelan is a rhythmic form of background music for social occasions in Bali using drums, cymbals, gongs and xylophones and the sessions at the Barbican are designed for groups with no previous knowledge or skills to learn to play together. It was an interesting experience for staff, students and service users to all be beginners in a new activity and to depend on each other to produce the music. In the evaluation participants agreed that activities such as these were ‘a great leveller’. The project has provided new insights into the reality of concepts such as co-production, empowerment and partnership current in social work and education.
(294 words)
References
Goldstein H 2001 Experiential learning; a foundation for social work eduation and practice. Washington DC: Council for Social Work Education.
Journal of Social Work Practice 2007
Theme 1: Impact of the social work degree
JSWEC
Mary Allen 104
JSWEC
Workshop:
Building & Maintaining Bridges: Learning the Lessons on the Journey to Involvement
Jim Sinclair, Richard Ingram, John Dow
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“We think the most important qualities for social service workers are anti-discriminatory values, respectful attitudes and very good personal communication skills. Users and carers should be involved in training workers to make sure people understand why this is important.” (Users and Carers Panel, 21st Century Review).
For a good many years now there have been individuals and groups; both within the caring professions and out with, who have strived to see the involvement of those who use and receive services in the training of professionals. This goal has been realised to an extent within social work education where the involvement of service users and carers in the development and delivery of training programmes has been incorporated into the standards for qualifying programmes. The reality however, is that in practice each of the Universities delivering the programmes do so with varying levels of involvement. At the University of Dundee, service user and carer involvement runs like a thread throughout the programmes.
This paper will explore the development of service user and carer involvement at the University of Dundee and it’s impact upon learning from the perspective of a Service Specialist (Service User expert), an Academic and a Graduate of the programme. A number of issues will be explored including how do we measure the impact of this upon practice; how do we consolidate what we have achieved so far; what does the future hold for Service User and Carer influence and how do we impact upon practitioners who do not have the benefit of this Service User and carer influence?
(259 words)
For a good many years now there have been individuals and groups; both within the caring professions and out with, who have strived to see the involvement of those who use and receive services in the training of professionals. This goal has been realised to an extent within social work education where the involvement of service users and carers in the development and delivery of training programmes has been incorporated into the standards for qualifying programmes. The reality however, is that in practice each of the Universities delivering the programmes do so with varying levels of involvement. At the University of Dundee, service user and carer involvement runs like a thread throughout the programmes.
This paper will explore the development of service user and carer involvement at the University of Dundee and it’s impact upon learning from the perspective of a Service Specialist (Service User expert), an Academic and a Graduate of the programme. A number of issues will be explored including how do we measure the impact of this upon practice; how do we consolidate what we have achieved so far; what does the future hold for Service User and Carer influence and how do we impact upon practitioners who do not have the benefit of this Service User and carer influence?
(259 words)
Theme 4: Managing transitions: identity and place
JSWEC
Mary Allen 117
JSWEC
Workshop:
Personalisation: learning from the experience of education
Maggie Challis
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The mantra of 'choice' which characterised the Blair years has been replaced by that of ‘personalisation’. We are all entitled to have our views and needs ascertained as we seek to make use of both public and private services. Nowhere is this more overt than in social care, where personalisation has been epitomised in individual budgets and direct payments. The question remains, however, as to whether the services which are sought are those which will be delivered.
In the field of education, the personalisation agenda has been around for more than two decades. Starting off as a record of achievement for school leavers, and focusing on vocational skills and ambitions, personalisation has now become embedded across schools, further and higher education. It is a fundamental focus of the brief of Lifelong Learning Networks, designed to widen participation to higher education and promote progression. However, actual practices involved may fall short of the rhetoric which surrounds the concept of personalisation. Personal, or individual learning plans are now a core concept in the lifelong learning environment, but how far can the development of a personal learning plan be said to embody access to a personalised curriculum?
This workshop will explore the reality of personalisation within the field of education, and in particular the social work degree, and seek to establish lessons from this which can inform the application of personalisation within social care. It will look at the key drivers, the ambition and the reality of implementing a personalised approach to meeting need, including the shift from recipient, through customer, to partner in the delivery of services. It will highlight the advantages and potential pitfalls and limitations of a scheme which is full of promise, and constrained by a range of traditions, expectations and resources.
In the field of education, the personalisation agenda has been around for more than two decades. Starting off as a record of achievement for school leavers, and focusing on vocational skills and ambitions, personalisation has now become embedded across schools, further and higher education. It is a fundamental focus of the brief of Lifelong Learning Networks, designed to widen participation to higher education and promote progression. However, actual practices involved may fall short of the rhetoric which surrounds the concept of personalisation. Personal, or individual learning plans are now a core concept in the lifelong learning environment, but how far can the development of a personal learning plan be said to embody access to a personalised curriculum?
This workshop will explore the reality of personalisation within the field of education, and in particular the social work degree, and seek to establish lessons from this which can inform the application of personalisation within social care. It will look at the key drivers, the ambition and the reality of implementing a personalised approach to meeting need, including the shift from recipient, through customer, to partner in the delivery of services. It will highlight the advantages and potential pitfalls and limitations of a scheme which is full of promise, and constrained by a range of traditions, expectations and resources.
Theme 3: Innovation and creativity in social work learning
JSWEC
Mary Allen 118
JSWEC
Paper:
“No we can’t use less words! Or can we?” Reflections on a journey into e-learning.
Sally Richards, Ana Avalon, Dominic King, Pamela Trevithick, Michelle Lefevre
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Academics used to traditional styles of writing and presenting material are likely to find developing e-learning materials an unsettling experience. E-learning experts provide invaluable support throughout the process, but their guidance and feedback sounds uncannily like our advice to students: ‘What you are trying to do is far too ambitious!’; ‘What is the point you are making here?’ ‘Is all this detail necessary?’ The potential of e-learning for creative design is exciting, even seductive, until you are told that the image that links to the carefully crafted text does not work!
This paper draws on our shared experiences, as academics and e-learning designers, of developing a set of e-learning objects on communication skills. Our collaboration has highlighted many challenges in the process of writing for e-learning. For example:
• Determining the scope of a learning object and selecting appropriate content
• Making the content engaging and interactive to hold the user’s attention
• Using activities rather than text as the main vehicle for learning
• Including all the information the user will need to achieve the learning objectives
• Explaining complex points in simple and concise language
• Choosing images and other design features that link effectively to the text
• Adjusting to non-linear approaches to learning.
Tackling these challenges has prompted us to rethink our teaching. We are now conscious of how our teaching materials rely on our presence to enthuse, to explain and to fill in the gaps. We have become more confident in our ability to convey complex ideas in simple language and more willing to experiment with creative and interactive forms of presentation. Most important of all we have been forced to rethink our assumptions about what is meant by a sound learning experience.
This paper draws on our shared experiences, as academics and e-learning designers, of developing a set of e-learning objects on communication skills. Our collaboration has highlighted many challenges in the process of writing for e-learning. For example:
• Determining the scope of a learning object and selecting appropriate content
• Making the content engaging and interactive to hold the user’s attention
• Using activities rather than text as the main vehicle for learning
• Including all the information the user will need to achieve the learning objectives
• Explaining complex points in simple and concise language
• Choosing images and other design features that link effectively to the text
• Adjusting to non-linear approaches to learning.
Tackling these challenges has prompted us to rethink our teaching. We are now conscious of how our teaching materials rely on our presence to enthuse, to explain and to fill in the gaps. We have become more confident in our ability to convey complex ideas in simple language and more willing to experiment with creative and interactive forms of presentation. Most important of all we have been forced to rethink our assumptions about what is meant by a sound learning experience.
Theme 3: Innovation and creativity in social work learning
JSWEC
Mary Allen 118
JSWEC
Paper:
Creative approaches to e-learning: transferable skills for social work and new ways to involve service users.
Alison Higgs
Click here to show/hide the abstract
Alison Higgs
Senior Lecturer, London South Bank University
This paper shares teaching practice and suggests creative possibilities for e-learning. It focuses on a project linked with a BA Level 2 module on social work methods in a London university.
In small group, online discussion forums, students selected a live practice placement scenario to explore. They worked together on a group report hypothesising the application of two social work interventions, supported by academic journal reading and referencing. They collaborated on designs for leaflets aimed at service users, ‘advertising’ their chosen methods. Service users provided powerful written feedback to students.
This was a group of mainly mature students who had not followed the traditional post ‘A’ level route to university. As such many needed additional support with academic writing, classroom debate and discussion (Jones 2006, Rai 2004). The e-learning groups allowed students who had not previously spoken in seminars and lectures to take part in online discussion and to deliver verbal presentations to the whole cohort. Student writing was addressed via peer and service user feedback, highlighting the informal learning possibilities of e-learning.
The paper addresses how the technology available to social work educators links with the requirements of modern practice. Social Workers are expected to be IT literate (GSCC 2002). They need to be able to communicate and collaborate online with a variety of professionals and agencies, in appropriate registers. This paper shows how electronic learning can develop transferable social work skills, and promote innovation in service user involvement (SCIE 2004).
Jones K. (2006) Valuing diversity and widening participation: the experiences of access to social work students in further and higher education. Social Work Education, 25, 485–500.
Rai L. (2004) Exploring literacy in social work education: a social practices approach to student writing .Social Work Education, 24, 149–162.
http://www.gscc.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F889F154-ADD1-4A14-9D3B-4771D5ECC576/0/Accreditation.pdf
http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/resourceguides/rg02/index.asp
Senior Lecturer, London South Bank University
This paper shares teaching practice and suggests creative possibilities for e-learning. It focuses on a project linked with a BA Level 2 module on social work methods in a London university.
In small group, online discussion forums, students selected a live practice placement scenario to explore. They worked together on a group report hypothesising the application of two social work interventions, supported by academic journal reading and referencing. They collaborated on designs for leaflets aimed at service users, ‘advertising’ their chosen methods. Service users provided powerful written feedback to students.
This was a group of mainly mature students who had not followed the traditional post ‘A’ level route to university. As such many needed additional support with academic writing, classroom debate and discussion (Jones 2006, Rai 2004). The e-learning groups allowed students who had not previously spoken in seminars and lectures to take part in online discussion and to deliver verbal presentations to the whole cohort. Student writing was addressed via peer and service user feedback, highlighting the informal learning possibilities of e-learning.
The paper addresses how the technology available to social work educators links with the requirements of modern practice. Social Workers are expected to be IT literate (GSCC 2002). They need to be able to communicate and collaborate online with a variety of professionals and agencies, in appropriate registers. This paper shows how electronic learning can develop transferable social work skills, and promote innovation in service user involvement (SCIE 2004).
Jones K. (2006) Valuing diversity and widening participation: the experiences of access to social work students in further and higher education. Social Work Education, 25, 485–500.
Rai L. (2004) Exploring literacy in social work education: a social practices approach to student writing .Social Work Education, 24, 149–162.
http://www.gscc.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F889F154-ADD1-4A14-9D3B-4771D5ECC576/0/Accreditation.pdf
http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/resourceguides/rg02/index.asp
Theme 3: Innovation and creativity in social work learning
JSWEC
Mary Allen 118
JSWEC
Paper:
Gamelan music for social work managers: arts based learning materials developed by service users
Wendy Couchman, Trish Hafford-Letchfield, Kate Leonard
Click here to show/hide the abstract
The power of experiential learning in education and training of social workers is now well documented (Goldstein 2001). In a project at London South Bank University arts-based approaches to experiential learning were used on a PQ course for social work managers and these were developed by service users with the course team. Traditionally the role of service users in teaching sessions has been a passive one where they are invited in to talk about their experiences of services. Service users who were consulted in the approval process for the new PQ course commented on the remoteness of managers to their concerns and it was decided, on the basis of recent research (Journal of Social Work Practice 2007), that arts-based learning and teaching methods would communicate their feelings more effectively. A group of service users worked with the course team experimenting with creative activities where they could be active with students in the classroom as another means of communicating experiences. One of the teaching sessions on the PQ course for social work managers was booked as a Gamelan drumming session at the London Symphony Orchestra Discovery Centre. Gamelan is a rhythmic form of background music for social occasions in Bali using drums, cymbals, gongs and xylophones and the sessions at the Barbican are designed for groups with no previous knowledge or skills to learn to play together. It was an interesting experience for staff, students and service users to all be beginners in a new activity and to depend on each other to produce the music. In the evaluation participants agreed that activities such as these were ‘a great leveller’. The project has provided new insights into the reality of concepts such as co-production, empowerment and partnership current in social work and education.
(294 words)
References
Goldstein H 2001 Experiential learning; a foundation for social work eduation and practice. Washington DC: Council for Social Work Education.
Journal of Social Work Practice 2007
Theme 2: Interprofessional education and employer engagement
JSWEC
Mary Allen 119
JSWEC
Workshop:
Working Together towards Tranformational Change - the Change Academy for Social Work Scotland Experience
Linda Walker, Gill Tucker, Brenda Gillies
Click here to show/hide the abstract
The Change Academy for Social Work Scotland (CASWS) was launched in April 2007 and has undergone the year long process of strengthening quality enhancement of the Social Work degree and academic leadership. This unique discipline-specific Change Academy, funded by the Scottish Government and supported nationally by Scottish Funding Council, Universities Scotland, Scottish Social Services Council, Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services and QAA, has provided an opportunity for the eight Schools of Social Work in Scotland to work on projects based on themes related to developments in their degree.
The teams of Social Work academics also included variously membership from cross-HEI settings, service users, practice teachers and students. Wider stakeholders, including employers were also able to contribute significantly to the residential element to the process and beyond.
This workshop will, from the perspective of the operational/planning team, explore the process of engagement, delivery and dissemination. It will examine the challenges of the creative process and highlight what we consider to be the key elements for planning and facilitating this potentially tranformational experience.
It will complement the (proposed) Special Interest Group on Change Academy for Social Work Scotland, where participating teams will have the opportunity to present their projects and findings to date and where those as yet unfamiliar with the CASWS process can learn more about its aims and outcomes.
The teams of Social Work academics also included variously membership from cross-HEI settings, service users, practice teachers and students. Wider stakeholders, including employers were also able to contribute significantly to the residential element to the process and beyond.
This workshop will, from the perspective of the operational/planning team, explore the process of engagement, delivery and dissemination. It will examine the challenges of the creative process and highlight what we consider to be the key elements for planning and facilitating this potentially tranformational experience.
It will complement the (proposed) Special Interest Group on Change Academy for Social Work Scotland, where participating teams will have the opportunity to present their projects and findings to date and where those as yet unfamiliar with the CASWS process can learn more about its aims and outcomes.
Theme 5: Growing the academic workforce
JSWEC
Mary Allen 205
JSWEC
Paper:
Breaking our Duck: The Transition From Social Work Practitioner To Academic.
Angela Olsen, Helen Scholar
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Click here to show/hide the abstract
This paper will look at the transition from practice to working in higher education, at the nature of the transformation from practitioner to academic and in particular at the importance in this process of becoming research active.
Newly appointed social work lecturers often feel confident in their professional abilities as practitioners but far less confident as teachers and some may be positively nervous about embarking on a research career.
This paper explores the anxieties, challenges and opportunities encountered by two recently appointed social work lecturers who have taken different routes to becoming research active. It outlines our approaches to developing research profiles and discusses some of the obstacles encountered as we attempt to manage the competing requirements of research and teaching.
We will argue that participating in research activity contributes to the development of a new professional identity. An emerging sense of oneself as an academic is more likely when there has been an active involvement in the creation of new knowledge or a contribution to existing debates.
Students choose to study at specific Universities for a range of reasons. The Student Survey reveals, not unexpectedly, that quality of teaching is an important factor in deciding ultimate satisfaction with a course. Practice wisdom goes a long way in establishing initial credibility with students; however it is argued that lecturers who undertake research in their own and related fields are likely to enjoy enhanced credibility and provide a better learning experience for students.
This paper is our first foray into the world of conference presentation. We hope that other ‘rookie’ researchers will want to join us in our journey from being ‘research awake’ to being ‘research active’.
Newly appointed social work lecturers often feel confident in their professional abilities as practitioners but far less confident as teachers and some may be positively nervous about embarking on a research career.
This paper explores the anxieties, challenges and opportunities encountered by two recently appointed social work lecturers who have taken different routes to becoming research active. It outlines our approaches to developing research profiles and discusses some of the obstacles encountered as we attempt to manage the competing requirements of research and teaching.
We will argue that participating in research activity contributes to the development of a new professional identity. An emerging sense of oneself as an academic is more likely when there has been an active involvement in the creation of new knowledge or a contribution to existing debates.
Students choose to study at specific Universities for a range of reasons. The Student Survey reveals, not unexpectedly, that quality of teaching is an important factor in deciding ultimate satisfaction with a course. Practice wisdom goes a long way in establishing initial credibility with students; however it is argued that lecturers who undertake research in their own and related fields are likely to enjoy enhanced credibility and provide a better learning experience for students.
This paper is our first foray into the world of conference presentation. We hope that other ‘rookie’ researchers will want to join us in our journey from being ‘research awake’ to being ‘research active’.
Theme 5: Growing the academic workforce
JSWEC
Mary Allen 205
JSWEC
Paper:
Social Work Students in Schools: New Jobs, Placements, Evidence Based Practices, Teaching
Lynn McDonald, Dionne Collins, Carole Jones, Simon Langley
Click here to show/hide the abstract
Recent legislation, Every Child Matters, has re-organized local authorities to be supervised by directors of Children’s Services, which also includes schools. Social work traditionally works exclusively with vulnerable children to protect them, while education works with all children, some of whom are vulnerable. Teachers hold stereotypes about social workers’ only role being the removal of children. Bringing these two service sectors together for ‘the sake of the child’ is providing challenges and opportunities. Collaborations are developing new social work jobs, new placements for social work students, and some head teachers are exploring new practices to benefit children, families, schools and communities. Evidence based family group programs can build protective factors for children in transition into schools by inviting all families of a grade level to participate, enhance child well-being and academics, and reduce risk for child abuse and neglect.
Theme 6: Politics and place of social work education
JSWEC
Mary Allen 205
JSWEC
Paper:
Earning and learning: the influence of secondment on retention rates in part-time social work qualifying education
Jo Moriarty, Jill Manthorpe, Shereen Hussein
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Click here to show/hide the abstract
Although there is widespread interest in monitoring patterns of student retention in higher education, very little of this has focused on the position of part-time students. However, a report by the National Audit Office in 2007 estimated that only around half of part time students achieved the qualification for which they were studying. This study reports on retention rates among social work students registering for part-time study between 1995-1998 in England. It shows that almost 90 per cent of social work students achieved an award. The paper questions whether these retention rates reflect the longstanding interest in social work education on developing strategies for adult learning and for supporting a diverse range of students. As increasingly large proportions of students study locally and may choose to study part time for financial reasons, the paper will argue that social work could play an increasingly important role in the higher education sector as a model for developing widening participation strategies, in developing ways of delivering teaching and learning to a diverse group of students and of the development of successful partnerships with employers. These could help establish wider acceptance of social work within the academy.
Theme 10: User involvement and user-led social work research and evaluation
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen G03
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
Striving towards inclusive research– an example of Participatory Action Research with Older Lesbians and Gay Men
Lee-Ann Fenge
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Recent policy in Britain has promoted the recognition of diversity of experience in later life (A Sure Start to Later Life, 2006) and the importance of working with older people as equal partners (Older people – Independence and Well Being, 2004). The notions of working as equal partners and service user involvement in both research and practice development are now firmly established within health and social care practice. This paper reports on the use of participatory action research (PAR), as a method of encouraging older people from minority groups to have a ‘voice’ in defining knowledge, theory and practice development about their lives.
The paper will review a three year funded project, supported by the Big Lottery Fund, which has worked with older lesbians and gay men in Dorset. PAR methodology will be explored with regards to promoting an inclusive research process, and issues for practice development will be discussed.
PAR approaches seek to address issues of power, politics and empowerment (Reason and Bradbury, 2001). This is an important element in any research with a minority group as their experiences can be obliterated by the imposition of mainstream categories and assumptions (Pollner and Rosenfeld, 2000). Discussion of the challenges of this approach will be offered, in particular the importance of remaining vigilant to the ways in which the volunteers themselves exert control over the processes of the research. The nature of the group processes can lead to what Lennie (2005) describes as ‘political disempowerment’, where certain participants take control of particular aspects of the project and agenda, and this could lead to ‘untold truths’ from those silenced in particpatory approaches (Lundy and McGovern, 2006).
This in itself raises important issues about working in partnership, empowering models of partnership working, the nature and ownership of knowledge, and how knowledge is used to inform practice. Tensions exist in this methodology and these will be explored in terms of ‘insider’ versus ‘outsider’ perspectives, and the challenge of recruiting an ‘inclusive’ group of volunteers to such projects.
References
Audit Commission 2004 Older People Independence and Wellbeing: The Challenge for Public Services, Audit Commission Publications
Lennie, J. (2005) An Evaluation Capacity-Building Process for Sustainable Community IT Initiatives, Evaluation, 11 (4): 390-414
Lundy, P. & McGovern, M. (2006) Participation, Truth and Partiality: Participatory Action Research, Community-based Truth-telling and Post-conflict Transition in Northern Ireland, Sociology, 40 (1):71-88
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2006 A Sure Start to Later Life: Ending Inequalities for Older People: A Social Exclusion Unit Final Report, London, HMSO
Pollner, M., and Rosenfeld, D. 2000 The Cross-Culturing Work of Gay and Lesbian Elderly, Advances in Life Course Research, Volume 5, p.99-117
Reason, P., and Bradbury, H.(Eds) 2001 Handbook of action research. Sage London
The paper will review a three year funded project, supported by the Big Lottery Fund, which has worked with older lesbians and gay men in Dorset. PAR methodology will be explored with regards to promoting an inclusive research process, and issues for practice development will be discussed.
PAR approaches seek to address issues of power, politics and empowerment (Reason and Bradbury, 2001). This is an important element in any research with a minority group as their experiences can be obliterated by the imposition of mainstream categories and assumptions (Pollner and Rosenfeld, 2000). Discussion of the challenges of this approach will be offered, in particular the importance of remaining vigilant to the ways in which the volunteers themselves exert control over the processes of the research. The nature of the group processes can lead to what Lennie (2005) describes as ‘political disempowerment’, where certain participants take control of particular aspects of the project and agenda, and this could lead to ‘untold truths’ from those silenced in particpatory approaches (Lundy and McGovern, 2006).
This in itself raises important issues about working in partnership, empowering models of partnership working, the nature and ownership of knowledge, and how knowledge is used to inform practice. Tensions exist in this methodology and these will be explored in terms of ‘insider’ versus ‘outsider’ perspectives, and the challenge of recruiting an ‘inclusive’ group of volunteers to such projects.
References
Audit Commission 2004 Older People Independence and Wellbeing: The Challenge for Public Services, Audit Commission Publications
Lennie, J. (2005) An Evaluation Capacity-Building Process for Sustainable Community IT Initiatives, Evaluation, 11 (4): 390-414
Lundy, P. & McGovern, M. (2006) Participation, Truth and Partiality: Participatory Action Research, Community-based Truth-telling and Post-conflict Transition in Northern Ireland, Sociology, 40 (1):71-88
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2006 A Sure Start to Later Life: Ending Inequalities for Older People: A Social Exclusion Unit Final Report, London, HMSO
Pollner, M., and Rosenfeld, D. 2000 The Cross-Culturing Work of Gay and Lesbian Elderly, Advances in Life Course Research, Volume 5, p.99-117
Reason, P., and Bradbury, H.(Eds) 2001 Handbook of action research. Sage London
Theme 10: User involvement and user-led social work research and evaluation
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen G03
Social Work Research Conference
Paper:
What has neighbourhood cohesion to do with informal care?
Lilian Linders
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Click here to show/hide the abstract
A concern of industrialized countries today is the consequences of ageing populations on health care costs. This has developed into a major topic in government policies. To tackle problems related to this issue a Social Support Act (Wet Maatschappelijke Ondersteuning) has been introduced in 2007, in the Netherlands. This law stipulates that people should claim formal care only when their resources of informal care are exhausted. One focus of Dutch policy is on social cohesion in neighbourhoods in order to stimulate residents to help each other more. One of the questions in my research is: ”is it sensible to have such high expectations of neighbourliness considering the fact, that people tend to invest more in personal social networks than in their neigbourhoods?” This question must be related to all sorts of life stile changes like growing mobility, individualization etc.
To investigate how informal care takes shape we interviewed informal caregivers in a slightly backward neighbourhood in a medium-sized city in the Netherlands. The interviews were semi-structured. Interviewees were asked to talk about their care giving activities, what neighbourhood means to them, if they are giving informal care outside neighbourhood as well, what their motivation is etc. The questions were meant to find out how (and why) the citizen of today is producer of informal care considering the transition of society from locally oriented to based on (personal) social networks. Our answers will be of vital importance to understanding what can be expected of informal care in urban society, locally and non-locally, and in what way professional interventions can influence informal care in a positive way.
In the paper presentation I will present the results of my research related to this theme. Special attention will be given to the arguments of residents why they are giving informal care, and whether in their answers they refer to neighbourhood community.
To investigate how informal care takes shape we interviewed informal caregivers in a slightly backward neighbourhood in a medium-sized city in the Netherlands. The interviews were semi-structured. Interviewees were asked to talk about their care giving activities, what neighbourhood means to them, if they are giving informal care outside neighbourhood as well, what their motivation is etc. The questions were meant to find out how (and why) the citizen of today is producer of informal care considering the transition of society from locally oriented to based on (personal) social networks. Our answers will be of vital importance to understanding what can be expected of informal care in urban society, locally and non-locally, and in what way professional interventions can influence informal care in a positive way.
In the paper presentation I will present the results of my research related to this theme. Special attention will be given to the arguments of residents why they are giving informal care, and whether in their answers they refer to neighbourhood community.
Theme 9: The politics of social work research - capacity, culture and context
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen G05
Social Work Research Conference
Workshop:
Moving Beyond the ‘Happy Faces Form’: Evaluating the Impact of Training on Practice
Lynne Marsden, Naintara Khosla, Carole Lewis
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Social workers are required to undertake continuing professional development to maintain their registration (GSCC 2006). Employers are also expected to provide opportunities for continuing professional development to their staff (GSCC 2002, no 3.3) and many spend considerable resources providing in-service training courses as one way of fulfilling this. Questions remain whether what courses teach is actually used in practice (i.e. what impact does training have on practice). Increasingly inspectors are making recommendations that organisations develop systems to measure the impact of training and ensure that learning about research and evidence-based outcomes is embedded in practice (e.g. Ofsted 2008, p. 13, 29).
This interactive workshop will start with a brief presentation discussing the methodology and preliminary findings from an ongoing research project evaluating the impact of a mandatory internal training programme on practice within a social work service provider. This is an attempt to move beyond ‘on-the-day’ participant feedback forms to research (using both quantitative and qualitative data drawn from approximately 1500 employees) that measures the changes in practice as a result of using skills developed through training. The presentation will be followed by a facilitated discussion about the following key issues:
o What are the inevitable ‘trade-offs’ of doing this kind of ‘real world’ research?
o How can cost effective research about internal courses become part of systematic processes in social work so that it is embedded in the organisation?
o How can internal training become more research minded?
o How can the transfer of knowledge to practice best be measured?
References
GSCC (2002), Code of Practice for Social Care Workers and Code of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers, General Social Care Council, September, http://www.gscc.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/8E693C62-9B17-48E1-A806-3F6F280354FD/0/Codes_of_Practice.doc
GSCC (2006), Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL) Requirements for Registered Social Workers: Advice and Guidance on Good Practice, General Social Care Council, May, http://www.gscc.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A9B67C8C-329C-4EED-97A9-2423BD3B1D91/0/PRTLGUIDANCEFINALMay2006.pdf
Ofsted (2008), Inspection of Cafcass East Midlands: Key Challenges and Opportunities, Ofsted, February, www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports
This interactive workshop will start with a brief presentation discussing the methodology and preliminary findings from an ongoing research project evaluating the impact of a mandatory internal training programme on practice within a social work service provider. This is an attempt to move beyond ‘on-the-day’ participant feedback forms to research (using both quantitative and qualitative data drawn from approximately 1500 employees) that measures the changes in practice as a result of using skills developed through training. The presentation will be followed by a facilitated discussion about the following key issues:
o What are the inevitable ‘trade-offs’ of doing this kind of ‘real world’ research?
o How can cost effective research about internal courses become part of systematic processes in social work so that it is embedded in the organisation?
o How can internal training become more research minded?
o How can the transfer of knowledge to practice best be measured?
References
GSCC (2002), Code of Practice for Social Care Workers and Code of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers, General Social Care Council, September, http://www.gscc.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/8E693C62-9B17-48E1-A806-3F6F280354FD/0/Codes_of_Practice.doc
GSCC (2006), Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL) Requirements for Registered Social Workers: Advice and Guidance on Good Practice, General Social Care Council, May, http://www.gscc.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A9B67C8C-329C-4EED-97A9-2423BD3B1D91/0/PRTLGUIDANCEFINALMay2006.pdf
Ofsted (2008), Inspection of Cafcass East Midlands: Key Challenges and Opportunities, Ofsted, February, www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports
Theme 7: Generating knowledge for practice; the place of research in practice
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen 207
Social Work Research Conference
Workshop:
Challenges, Lessons and Queries in the Realisation of the Research Governance Framework in Social Care
Hugh McLaughlin, Steven Shardlow
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Aims of this interactive workshop are to:
• Develop an understanding of the research governance framework, the contradictions in its application, the challenges for researchers seeking to undertake research in social work services and possibilities for future developments
• Provide an opportunity to present the unique emergent forms and structures for research governance in social care that are emerging across Greater Manchester
• To share experience and expertise from across the United Kingdom
This workshop will comprise three parts
1. The workshop will begin with a short introduction into the Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care, identifying the rationale for such a system, the expectations of the Department of Health, the impact of the demise of social service departments, the uneven implementation of the process and the development of a diversity of approaches. This workshop presents the emergent Research Governance Framework (DH, 2001, 2007 ) within ten local authorities in the North West of England as an exemplar identifying challenges for researchers and practitioners alike (links will be made made to research governance systems in universities and the health service).
2. Participants will be given a self-completion exercise to examine the issues and politics of the operation of research governance from a) researcher perspective and b) local authority research administrator. The results of this will then be shared and a discussion on the potential danger of research governance becoming another form of managerial control stifling research opportunities
3. There will be further discussion to look at service user involvement in the process, multi-sited applications, applications which cover children and adults services and applications which cover both health and social care services. Attendees will be able to understand how the research governance framework can negatively impact the development of social work research, but also how these tendencies maybe reduced.
• Develop an understanding of the research governance framework, the contradictions in its application, the challenges for researchers seeking to undertake research in social work services and possibilities for future developments
• Provide an opportunity to present the unique emergent forms and structures for research governance in social care that are emerging across Greater Manchester
• To share experience and expertise from across the United Kingdom
This workshop will comprise three parts
1. The workshop will begin with a short introduction into the Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care, identifying the rationale for such a system, the expectations of the Department of Health, the impact of the demise of social service departments, the uneven implementation of the process and the development of a diversity of approaches. This workshop presents the emergent Research Governance Framework (DH, 2001, 2007 ) within ten local authorities in the North West of England as an exemplar identifying challenges for researchers and practitioners alike (links will be made made to research governance systems in universities and the health service).
2. Participants will be given a self-completion exercise to examine the issues and politics of the operation of research governance from a) researcher perspective and b) local authority research administrator. The results of this will then be shared and a discussion on the potential danger of research governance becoming another form of managerial control stifling research opportunities
3. There will be further discussion to look at service user involvement in the process, multi-sited applications, applications which cover children and adults services and applications which cover both health and social care services. Attendees will be able to understand how the research governance framework can negatively impact the development of social work research, but also how these tendencies maybe reduced.
Theme 1: Impact of the social work degree
JSWEC
Mary Allen 106
JSWEC
Workshop:
An Evaluation of a Service User/Carer Symposium: What Do I Want from my Social Worker?
Lucille Allain, Helen Hingley-Jones
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This evaluation focuses on responses and feedback from a Service/User Carer Symposium held as part of teaching final year social work students undertaking a module called- 'Contexts and Applications.' The social work programme at Middlesex University is also a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) for Mental Health and Social Work and has as one of its themes the involvement of service users and carers at all stages in our programmes. The symposium event therefore also links to our CETL projects.
Feedback data in the form of self-completion questionnaires, about participants' experiences of the event were collected from fifty pre-qualifying social work students and nine service users from adult disability services and leaving care services.
The feedback from the questionnaires will be analysed and key themes identified in order to consider whether, and in what way this impacted on students' learning about how to work in partnership with service users. The evaluation will also discuss and explore the complexities and challenges of organising and supporting such events with a range of services users with different needs and with students with a broad range of experiences and skills.
The evaluation is at present work in progress, however, one of the central questions will be reviewing how effective the group work discussion approach we used actually was and whether it stimulated discussion about what servcie users really want from their social worker.
Feedback data in the form of self-completion questionnaires, about participants' experiences of the event were collected from fifty pre-qualifying social work students and nine service users from adult disability services and leaving care services.
The feedback from the questionnaires will be analysed and key themes identified in order to consider whether, and in what way this impacted on students' learning about how to work in partnership with service users. The evaluation will also discuss and explore the complexities and challenges of organising and supporting such events with a range of services users with different needs and with students with a broad range of experiences and skills.
The evaluation is at present work in progress, however, one of the central questions will be reviewing how effective the group work discussion approach we used actually was and whether it stimulated discussion about what servcie users really want from their social worker.
16:30 - 17:00
Exhibitors Marquee
Refreshments, exhibitors and poster viewing
17:00 - 18:15
Mary Allen Building
Special Interest Groups
Theme 4: Managing transitions: identity and place
JSWEC
Mary Allen G03
JSWEC
Special Interest Group:
Sexual identity in social work
Joy Trotter
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This established Special Interest Group will offer another opportunity for people to learn about (and join) our 'Symposium' and join in discussions around identity and place in social work from different perspectives.
Group aims and objectives: to extend and strengthen the knowledge base by:
• providing a friendly and safe forum for discussion and dissemination of ideas
• sharing and developing ideas
• supporting and sustaining each others’ interests and endeavours
• contributing to and collaborating on practice innovations and projects
• contributing to and collaborating on research projects and publications.
Group membership: social work and allied academics, researchers, practitioners, students and service users with interests in sexuality issues
Group activities:
• to share the database of contacts
• to share information, news and ideas
• to contribute ‘reading lists’, with recommended favourite(s) and accompanying review
• regular meetings, seminars and conferences
• research projects
• collaborative writing.
Group aims and objectives: to extend and strengthen the knowledge base by:
• providing a friendly and safe forum for discussion and dissemination of ideas
• sharing and developing ideas
• supporting and sustaining each others’ interests and endeavours
• contributing to and collaborating on practice innovations and projects
• contributing to and collaborating on research projects and publications.
Group membership: social work and allied academics, researchers, practitioners, students and service users with interests in sexuality issues
Group activities:
• to share the database of contacts
• to share information, news and ideas
• to contribute ‘reading lists’, with recommended favourite(s) and accompanying review
• regular meetings, seminars and conferences
• research projects
• collaborative writing.
Theme 2: Interprofessional education and employer engagement
JSWEC
Mary Allen G05
JSWEC
Special Interest Group:
The Change Academy for Social Work Scotland
Brenda Gillies
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The Change Academy for Social Work Scotland (CASWS), delivered by the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation, was launched in April 2007 and has undergone the year long process of strengthening quality enhancement of the social work degree and academic leadership.
This unique discipline-specific Change Academy, funded by the Scottish Government and supported nationally by Scottish Funding Council, Universities Scotland, Scottish Social Services Council, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services and the QAA, has provided an opportunity for the eight schools of social work in Scotland to work on projects based on themes related to developments in their degree.
Members of the planning team will provide an overview of the year long CASWS experience, highlighting the challenges and rewards encountered on the journey. This Special Interest Group will invite participation from those who have experienced the CASWS and those who would like to know more about this process and potential outcomes. The projects developed by the eight participating teams and progress to date will be described and discussion encouraged about how these outcomes will contribute to the enhancement of the degree and to wider strategic objectives including workforce development and service-redesign across the social services sector.
This Special Interest Group will be complemented by the workshop ‘Working Together towards Transformational Change - the Change Academy for Social Work Scotland Experience’ which will examine the process of engagement, delivery and dissemination from the perspective of the operational/planning group.
This unique discipline-specific Change Academy, funded by the Scottish Government and supported nationally by Scottish Funding Council, Universities Scotland, Scottish Social Services Council, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services and the QAA, has provided an opportunity for the eight schools of social work in Scotland to work on projects based on themes related to developments in their degree.
Members of the planning team will provide an overview of the year long CASWS experience, highlighting the challenges and rewards encountered on the journey. This Special Interest Group will invite participation from those who have experienced the CASWS and those who would like to know more about this process and potential outcomes. The projects developed by the eight participating teams and progress to date will be described and discussion encouraged about how these outcomes will contribute to the enhancement of the degree and to wider strategic objectives including workforce development and service-redesign across the social services sector.
This Special Interest Group will be complemented by the workshop ‘Working Together towards Transformational Change - the Change Academy for Social Work Scotland Experience’ which will examine the process of engagement, delivery and dissemination from the perspective of the operational/planning group.
Theme 6: Politics and place of social work education
JSWEC
Mary Allen 106
JSWEC
Special Interest Group:
Mutual impacts, regulation and social work
John Brady
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Click here to show/hide the abstract
Regulation and social work are seen either as very different or springing from the same source. Whatever the reaction there is a need to start framing the relationship and synergies between the two areas. Contributors in the past have identified the similarities between the two areas, and presently commentators are drawing on the perspectives of regulation as contributing to social work practice.
Regulation, responding to considerable critical comment, is attempting to use outcomes as the basis for judgement. Social work, as a profession and as an academic area, is faced with the challenge of trying to achieve/promote desired outcomes in a multi-agency, multi-professional, public/private sector.
At the same time the regulation of health and social care is going through further change as social care is merged with the health care regulator. However, more importantly, April 2008 will bring into being LINks, local involvement networks of users and carers of health and social services who will have the potential for a real stake in the regulation of services.
This Special Interest Group aims to create an agenda for the relationship between the two areas and form a community of interest around the mapping of engagement and development of further knowledge.
Regulation, responding to considerable critical comment, is attempting to use outcomes as the basis for judgement. Social work, as a profession and as an academic area, is faced with the challenge of trying to achieve/promote desired outcomes in a multi-agency, multi-professional, public/private sector.
At the same time the regulation of health and social care is going through further change as social care is merged with the health care regulator. However, more importantly, April 2008 will bring into being LINks, local involvement networks of users and carers of health and social services who will have the potential for a real stake in the regulation of services.
This Special Interest Group aims to create an agenda for the relationship between the two areas and form a community of interest around the mapping of engagement and development of further knowledge.
Theme 1: Impact of the social work degree
JSWEC
Mary Allen 117
JSWEC
Special Interest Group:
Recruitment, selection and admission to social work programmes: current themes and issues
Cath Holmstrom
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This Special Interest Group will provide a space for those involved in the recruitment and selection of social work students (all stakeholders including admissions tutors, practitioner interviewers and service user and carer selectors welcome) to share thoughts and responses to current issues in this important aspect of our work. This follows on from several SWAP funded events over recent years, but as there has not been a national gathering of admissions tutors for almost two years, can also serve the role of continuing to develop and support the development of an effective ‘community of practice’ for both new and 'old' admissions tutors and others.
Recent investigations into the validity and appropriateness of conducting health checks for incoming students have implications for our practice as do considerations in relation to other 'suitability' factors. An opportunity to explore these and discuss ways of taking issues further can result in creative outcomes.
With the degrees now being not so new, the need to evaluate selection strategies, processes and the relationships with outcomes remains important for all of us. Equally, the external environment (increasing awareness of social work training at undergraduate level; HEI aspirations to increase student numbers; pressure upon resources; complaint/appeal culture; pre-HE curriculum changes; changes within the context in which social workers operate, etc.) has an impact upon our work.
With changes to the 14-19 curriculum (changes to ‘A’ levels, expansion of the International Baccalaureate provision and the implementation of the new Diplomas) coinciding with actual and proposed changes to the UCAS system, what will the impact be upon recruitment, selection and admission of students to social work programmes?
Recent investigations into the validity and appropriateness of conducting health checks for incoming students have implications for our practice as do considerations in relation to other 'suitability' factors. An opportunity to explore these and discuss ways of taking issues further can result in creative outcomes.
With the degrees now being not so new, the need to evaluate selection strategies, processes and the relationships with outcomes remains important for all of us. Equally, the external environment (increasing awareness of social work training at undergraduate level; HEI aspirations to increase student numbers; pressure upon resources; complaint/appeal culture; pre-HE curriculum changes; changes within the context in which social workers operate, etc.) has an impact upon our work.
With changes to the 14-19 curriculum (changes to ‘A’ levels, expansion of the International Baccalaureate provision and the implementation of the new Diplomas) coinciding with actual and proposed changes to the UCAS system, what will the impact be upon recruitment, selection and admission of students to social work programmes?
Theme 7: Generating knowledge for practice; the place of research in practice
Social Work Research Conference
Mary Allen 104
Social Work Research Conference
Special Interest Group:
Meet the editors
Anne Quinney
Click to view the PowerPoint file
Click here to show/hide the abstract
The editors of a wide range of social work journals, including Practice, Social Work in Action, Social Work Education and the European Journal of Social Work, invite you to join them in a workshop to discover more about the writing for publication process. Participants will have the opportunity to meet the editors, find out about the particular focus of a range of journals, learn more about writing for publication, discuss ideas for potential papers and identify which is the most appropriate journal for dissemination of their ideas and their research.
We would like to warmly welcome people who are new to publication as well as more experienced authors, including practitioners, students, new academics, service users and carers, as we would like to encourage and support them in contributing to the knowledge base.
We would like to warmly welcome people who are new to publication as well as more experienced authors, including practitioners, students, new academics, service users and carers, as we would like to encourage and support them in contributing to the knowledge base.
Theme 6: Politics and place of social work education
JSWEC
Mary Allen 118
JSWEC
Special Interest Group:
Feminist theory and practice in social work
Pamela Trevithick
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In the past, feminist theory has had an important impact on social work education and academic discourse but there has been considerable debate about the extent to which feminist theory has infused practice ‘in the all-encompassing sense conveyed by the literature’. This has called into question what constitutes ‘feminist social work practice’ and the extent to which a distinct feminist approach is possible within a context of neo-liberal policies, enshrined in managerialist structures of control and accountability.
18:15 - 19:15
Mary Allen Building
ATSWE AGM
18:30 - 19:30
Combination Room
Launch - SCIE teaching and learning resources
19:30 - 20:00
Great Hall
Dinner