Social Work MA

Module content will include:

1. The role of the social worker and the importance of professional behaviour.
2. Ethical principles, professional values, personal values and relevance to practice.
3. Reflective skills and critical thinking. Models of reflection. The role of reflective practice in social work.
4. Interpersonal and communication skills – use of language, non-verbal communication, observation, listening and recording skills, IT skills.
5. Principles of assessment and planning intervention. An introduction to risk and safeguarding. Interviewing skills.
6. Theories and models of social work intervention.
7. The role of supervision in social work practice.
8. The service user and carer perspective of social work involvement.
9. The organisational context of social work practice and the role of professional leadership in social work.

The module aims to:

1. Enable students to develop an understanding of the professional social work role and its responsibilities, conflicts, boundaries and ethics, and their impact on practice and delivery.
2. Enable students to develop a range of skills in order to function effectively in their communication with service users and colleagues in an organisational setting.
3. Provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their readiness for direct practice outlined in the PCF Readiness for Practice Capabilities.

The aims of this module are to enable students to:

1. Understand the life course perspectives on human growth and development;
2. Develop an understanding of the life stages/transitions in human development and the factors that influence individual pathways, strengths and resilience;
3. Relate patterns of human growth and development to social work practice; develop their observational, communication and assessment skills with children, young people and older people in relation to their development and welfare; and develop their critical analytical and reasoning skills when dealing with service users and carers across all service user domains, and should provide the basis of knowledge for students to apply to their own growth and development experiences; and in all subsequent modules.

Module content will include: 

1. A critical overview of the major established approaches to the study of life course development, e.g. psycho-social; psychodynamic; cognitive, learning and ecological, including cross-cultural and wider critical perspectives on developmental psychology.
2. Typical and atypical infant/child growth and development, e.g. intersex, physical developmental milestones, heredity, environmental and social determinants, cognitive development, attachment and separation, resilience etc.
3. Impacts on infant/child development  e.g. pre-natal issues; ill-health, poverty; disability, and of the challenges to adversity e.g. parental difficulties/substance misuse/mental health issues/domestic violence, neglect and abuse etc.
4. Typical and atypical adolescent growth and development e.g. physical, transitions, cognitive, social, moral and identity development (including ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender) and a critical analysis of the impacts on adolescent development e.g. vulnerability factors; ill-health, anti-social behaviour/youth offending and substance misuse/mental health issues, disability, parental difficulties /e.eg. substance misuse/disability/mental health issues/violence and abuse.
5. Adulthood and older adult development/transitions e.g. physical, psycho-social and cognitive, lifestyles, sexual orientation and identity, social networks and relationships; partnerships and parenting; ‘mid-life crises’ and the impacts upon adulthood and old age e.g. mental health issues, ill-health, disability, attachments and loss/separation/bereavement, relationship stress, poverty, dementia and ageism.
6. A critical overview of the theoretical perspectives relating to the ‘End of Life’, e.g. cultural norms and expectations; theories of loss/bereavement and stages of death and dying. Developing an understanding of one’s own life course development and of anti-oppressive social work interventions.

The aims of this module are to enable learners to identity, analyse and apply the key values underpinning social work practice in the context of anti-discrimination and anti-oppressive practice, and how in future practice this knowledge can be used in the context of responding to individual rights and advocacy. This should provide the basis of knowledge for students to apply in all subsequent modules. The module then aims to outline the wider socio-political context of practice in relation to social policy initiatives, social divisions and the social construction of social work (historical context). Students will learn how ideologies govern society and the platform for social work practice. Contemporary policy initiatives and their associated ideologies will be explored alongside differing political parties and agendas.

Module content will include:  

1. Social policy: The history of social work, its relationship to the British welfare state, key ideologies, role of the state in welafre provision, concepts of  needs and rights, participation and choice, care versus control in a neo-liberalist and managerialist welfare state.
2. Contemporary social policy challenges and initiatives covering adult social work and children and families. factors impacting development of social policy, and challenges and issues in delivering policy within social work practice.
3. Macro and micro sociological theories of social divisions: including  Functionalism, Marxism, symbolic interactionism, feminism and social constructionism.
4. Key sociological concepts, their impact upon self and relevance to social work practice, including socialisation, identity, stigma, othering, intersectionality and anti-discriminatory practice and anti-oppressive practice.
5. Critical theoretical approaches to race, gender, and globalisation, applying to social work practice within a diverse and multicultural context. 

The aims of this module are for learners to understand the legal and policy context of social work practice by beginning with the basics of the development of laws and understanding court structures. The module will then progress to discuss law in specific contexts such as asylum seekers, domestic violence, mental health, community care, and children and families.

Module content will include: 

1. Law and ethics: Introduction to law, body of law, law/practice relationship, the social worker role and accountability in law.
2. Distinction between different laws: Process for creating statute law, secondary legislation, policy guidance, duties and powers, different roles of courts.
3. Human rights and ethics in the context of social work law, conflicting imperatives, advocacy, confidentiality and social work values.
4. Service user groups and relevant legal frameworks: Children and young people, adults, mental health, youth justice, criminal justice, domestic violence, immigration and asylum, welfare rights (serious case reviews and lessons).
5. Skills and practice: Skills in applying the law in social work practice will be developed by use of working through case study examples that offer students an opportunity to read, ask questions, debate and discuss scenarios with each other and the tutor.

Module content will include: 

1. Induction programme at the agency in which the student is placed.
2. Individual supervision sessions in the agency to support the student's learning and university placement support sessions.
3. Learning opportunities to develop social work practice skills through the allocation of work/co-work which is appropriate to the level of development of the student.
4. The opportunity to engage in direct work enabling the student to demonstrate End of First Placement Level Capabilities (Professional Capabilities Framework 2018).
5. Opportunities for inter-professional working.
6. Reflection and analysis in practice.
7. Integration of social work methods, models and theories to practice undertaken in the placement agency.
8. Opportunity to apply social work ethical principles and values to guide professional practice in accordance with Social Work England Professional Standards.
9. Practice skills development sessions within university setting – advancing communication and interviewing skills, specific methods of social work intervention, report writing and case study analysis.

The student is required to undertake 70 days at the placement agency. There is an expectation that the student will undertake a minimum of 35 hours a week on placement or as required by the agency.  Therefore the 450 placement hours are a minimum requirement.  The 10 structured hours incorporates 2 of the 30 skills development days which are a professional requirement of the programme.

The module aims to:  

1. Enable the student to demonstrate capacity to work with people and in situations where there may not be simple clear-cut solutions.
2. Enable the student with support from supervision to apply the theoretical knowledge, skills and values from previous module learning and teaching to their practice.
3. Provide an opportunity for the student to experience the responsibility of meeting service users' and carers' needs, and to demonstrate social work values and anti-oppressive social work practice.
4. Enable students to achieve the PCF End of First Placement Level Capabilities

Social work practice with children and families inevitably involves uncertainty, ambiguity and fallibility. Practitioners have to walk a tightrope, balancing the privacy of the family and the conflicting rights of individuals in order to minimise the harm to children and to maximise their welfare. This module aims to prepare students for direct social practice with children and families. As child and family social work, and specifically child protection social work practice, is intellectually and emotionally challenging, the module aims to help students to develop critical analytical and reasoning skills, formal knowledge and an ethical child-centred approach when working with families.

All sessions delivered within the module will build upon the knowledge, critical reflection, analysis and intervention skills outlined in all previous modules undertaken. The module will critically explore and outline: 

1. The historical and current context for social work practice with children, young people and their families (e.g. children in need; child protection; looked after children; (including kinship care, foster care, residential care), unaccompanied children, adoption, child and adolescent mental health, special needs and ill-health, young offenders and sexual exploitation).
2. Relevant legislative and welfare policy frameworks and assessing the impact of social disadvantage and its effect on parenting and family functioning.
3. Assessment frameworks and processes: Evidence-based methods of assessment, understanding the different development needs of infants, children and young people, and assessing parental capacity to meet the needs of the child.
4. Safeguarding infants, children and young people from harm/abuse/neglect: Evidence-based assessment and analysis, working with risk and hostility, decision making, establishing professional judgement, critically assessing legal and welfare thresholds and reaching evidence-based conclusions.
5. Working inter-professionally with children, young people and their families in a variety of contexts, utilising theoretical approaches and the application of evidence-based theories, methods, frameworks and models to complex practice scenarios.
6. Multi-agency and inter-professional work relating to joint assessment and planning within children and family social work practice, utilising research and providing a robust evidence base for effective interventions.
7. Skills development in direct work with children and young people, developing a child/young person-centred approach to practice, developing skills and techniques of interviewing and recording and of critical reflection.

Social work practice with adults is a complex activity involving a range of competing priorities. Practitioners are required to promote self-determination and autonomy whilst managing risk and protecting service users from harm. The aim of the module is to develop the students’ understanding of the different needs of adult service users, and to consider a range of interventions that can lead to positive outcomes. The focus of the module is on the process of assessment, planning and intervention with service users and carers from a diverse range of backgrounds and communities, and aims to help students to develop their critical analytical and reasoning skills.

The module will include:

1. Relevant legislative and welfare policy frameworks: The context of community care; Fair Access to Care Services eligibility criteria; personalisation and individualised budgets; and their impact on the planning and delivery of services for adult service users and carers.
2. Assessment frameworks and processes: Evidence-based methods of assessment; understanding the different needs of older people, adults with disabilities, who have substance use issues and/or mental health problems, who are refugees/migrants, and adults experiencing domestic violence, physical ill-health or approaching their end of life.
3. Safeguarding vulnerable adults: MAPPA; evidence-based risk assessment and analysis, working with risk and hostility, decision making, professional judgement, reaching conclusions. 
4. Theoretical approaches to practice within adult services. Application of evidence-based theories, methods, frameworks and models to complex practice scenarios e.g. attachment and separation/loss, grief, recovery model of mental health, systems theory, motivational interviewing, etc.
5. Multi-agency and inter-professional work relating to joint assessment and planning within adult social work practice. Working within an organisational context and inter-professionally with service users and carers.
6. Skills development in direct work with adults. Models of engagement. Person-centred practice. Interviewing and recording skills. Critical reflection.
7. Contemporary and international research and evidence base for effective interventions.

The aims of the module include:

1. To offer a complete introduction to social work research with regard to key ideas, models, concepts, theories and techniques.
2. Engage students to appreciate the relevance of research for professional development and practice
3. To facilitate the preparation of a research proposal for the dissertation.
4. Provide students with the skills to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to their research topic.

The module content comprises: 

1. Social work research and professional practice: Critical interpretations and appraisals of research, practice development, ethics.
2. Key concepts and issues in social work research: understanding methodology and the use of theory; gathering and critically analysing data. 
3. Research methods and designs: interviews; focus groups; case studies; narrative; participative approaches, mixed methods.
4. Reviewing and critically appraising; synthesis, context, critique and application to social work practice.
5. Coding, analysing and synthesising data.
6. Ethical frameworks and professional social work codes of research, constraints, data protection, confidentiality, social justice and human rights.

The module aims:

1. To offer an introduction to social work research for a dissertation with regard to key ideas, models, concepts, theories and techniques.
2. Engage students to appreciate the relevance of undertaking and disseminating research for professional development and practice
3. To facilitate the preparation of a professional thesis
4. Provide students with the skills to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to their research topic.

Module content:

1. Critical interpretations and appraisals of social work research and practice development
2. Key social work and research theories, including those amenable to appraising empirical studies as well as policy-centred, law and historical issues for dissertations.
3. Literature review, critical appraisal and literature based dissertations
4. Gathering, analysing and presenting data from primary, secondary and tertiary sources and drawing conclusions.
5. Ethical frameworks and professional social work codes of research
6. Writing up
7. Dissemination and links to social work practice

The student is required to undertake 100 days at the placement agency involved in statutory social work tasks including legal interventions. There is an expectation that the student will undertake a minimum of 35 hours a week on placement or as required by the agency.  Therefore, the 650 placements hours is a minimum requirement.   The 54 structured hours incorporates 12 of the 30 skills development days which are a professional requirement for the programme.

This module aims to: 

1. Enable the student to demonstrate capacity to undertake complex work involving statutory/legal interventions.
2. Enable the student to demonstrate ability to work directly with service users/carers in complex situations.
3. Enable the student with support from supervision to apply the theoretical knowledge, skills and values from previous placement and module learning to their practice.
4. Enable the student to achieve the PCF Qualifying Social Worker Level Capabilities and SWE professional standards. 

Module content will include: 

1. Induction programme at the agency in which the student is placed.
2. Individual supervision sessions in the agency to support the student's learning and university placement support sessions.
3. Learning opportunities to develop social work practice skills through the allocation of work/co-work which involves statutory/legal interventions e.g. formal assessment processes and presentation of outcomes including analysis of risk/recommendations, use of formal agency recording for assessment/risk.
4. The opportunity to engage in direct work enabling the student to demonstrate Qualifying Social Worker Level Capabilities (Professional Capabilities Framework 2018).
5. Multi-agency working, including planning interventions with other agencies, and analysing and managing tensions.
6. Critical reflection and analysis in practice, engagement with organisational policies and decisions and the impact on service delivery to service users, and reflection on the demands of a high-pressure environment.
7. Synthesis of social work theories and methods to practice undertaken in the placement agency.
8. Opportunity to apply social work ethical principles and values to guide professional practice in accordance with Social Work England Professional Standards.
9. Practice skills development sessions within the university setting – advanced communication and interviewing skills, preparation for Assessed and Supported Year in Employment.