'My Expectations Remain the Same. The Student Has to Be Competent to Practise': Practice Assessor Perspectives on the New Social Work Degree Qualification in England

Abstract

This version is available at https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/9812/ Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to the SummaryResearch has emphasized the importance of practice learning to social work qualifying education but has tended to feature social work educator and student perspectives more strongly than the views of those responsible for assessing students' practice in the field. This article draws on 195 responses to a postal questionnaire sent at two points in time to practice assessors working with students from nine social work qualifying programmes run in six higher education institutions collected as part of the evaluation of the new social work degree qualification in England. While practice assessors described changes in their role and in the opportunities available to students, they also emphasized continuities, particularly in the skills that they expected students to possess. The key difficulty they identified was the heavy workload resulting from combining their role as practice assessors with their other responsibilities at work. Increases in the number of social work students and changes to the organization of services are likely to create further pressures on practice assessors. Given that these issues are faced by a number of different professions, the article concludes that there is potential for future studies to look at the experiences of practice educators across different professional qualifying programmes.

Social Work Practice Learning in Schools: Lessons for Practice

“…To support these placements two experienced practice assessors were identified to work with the students as 'off-site' practice assessors, a practice common in English social work education (Moriarty et al 2009a). Pre-placement meetings enabled the school staff and students to meet before their placements began, and this gave students an opportunity to visit the schools and meet their on-site supervisors.…”

Improving outcomes for ‘failing’ students through the use of presentations

“…There is a body of evidence to suggest that when a student is potentially failing a high commitment is required from all involved. This was summarised in a comment from a respondent to the research undertaken by Moriarty et al (2010) who said by the mid point the student was failing and I arranged a 'four way' meeting (with student, self, tutor and manager)…..This plan demanded a high level of commitment from all parties in addition to increased time allocation ... (p.596) The impact on both the practice educators and the students can be devastating, and there can be impacts and ripple effects on service users, agency staff and others from the student group. Parker (2010) has undertaken a study regarding the issues of power and student perspectives when placements are disrupted and the experience of our students mirrors his work with respect to the impact of failure and the need for a student voice.…”

Getting to Know the Context: The Complexities of Providing Off-Site Supervision in Social Work Practice Learning

“…As organisations drive for efficiencies rather than effectiveness, social workers may have little support and high case loads, leading to stress, and low staff retention and pressure on social workers (Chiller et al, 2012;Chinnery et al, 2011). Organisations and supervisors may focus on constraints and efficiencies, limiting the placement opportunities they in turn offer to students (Barton et al, 2005).Those social workers supporting field education face heavy workloads as they combine their responsibilities as practice educators and as employees (Moriarty et al, 2009). Providing placement opportunities for social work students with social work qualified supervisors on site is therefore becoming more difficult (Abram et al, 2000;Barton et al, 2005).…”

“…In the English context an increasing number of field education supervisors, also known as practice assessors, are non-social work qualified (Moriarty et al, 2009). Standards requiring practice educators to be social work qualified and accredited practice teachers were introduced in 2012 and in the future will require all practice educators to be qualified social workers and registered in England (The College of Social Work, 2014).…”

“…I remember having long conversations with the on-site supervisor … about a very shy young man, who she felt wasn't engaging with the team very well, and he wasn't talking, ...when I …got there... the agency was in an old house and they had him in a separate room all by himself. (Iona) Increasingly placements in England are supported by non-social work qualified professional with external social work practice assessors (Moriarty et al, 2009). Student observation of practice is prescribed in England but was then often conducted by non-social work staff (Humphrey, 2007).…”