BA(Hons) Social Work
Faculty of Health

The overarching principle for all learning, teaching and assessment on this Award is the fulfilment of the requirements laid down by the GSCC for newly qualified Social Workers.

These requirements are principally:

1. the assessment of the underpinning knowledge and,
2. the assessment of the skills needed to demonstrate competence in the six key roles of the National Occupational Standards for Social Work.

The framework for learning, teaching and assessment is the Staffordshire University ‘8 + 2’ typology which sets down eight generic learning outcomes for all awards, with up to two award specific outcomes. For the BA (Hons) in Social Work the award specific outcome is the successful achievement of competence in the GSCC six key roles for qualifying Social Workers including the achievement of the European Computer Driving Licence 1. The teaching learning and assessment strategy of the Award will pay due attention therefore to all these learning outcomes to ensure that appropriateness and fitness for purpose is achieved throughout.

A further facet of the strategy is the inclusion of service users in the teaching learning and assessment of Social Work students, as required by the GSCC, both to enrich student’s learning and to ensure that learning teaching and assessment is ‘grounded’ in service user experience.

One fundamental pedagogic principle underlying the learning and teaching strategy for the Award is the recognition that students on the Award are adult learners who will expect, and will be expected, to take responsibility for their own learning and professional development. It is the responsibility of academic and practice-based staff to create an active learning environment and to whet students’ appetites for learning and enquiry with encouragement and enthusiasm, but ultimately it is the student’s task to take responsibility for their learning, and for developing the best use of their study time.

That being said, there is a particular responsibility laid upon academic and practice-based staff to ensure that every effort is made to remove barriers to student’s learning. This includes a commitment to producing SENDA-friendly materials and learning opportunities, and to maintaining a level of meaningful constructive personal tutoring and supervision support to all students to help them achieve their full potential academically and professionally.

The dual nature of the learning on the Award – i.e. the academic and professional practice dimensions – means that assessment strategy must reflect both dimensions. There will be equal emphasis therefore upon academic and practice-based assessment in this Award, as required by the GSCC in stipulating that there must be 200 academic learning and 200 practice-based learning days on the Award.

E-Learning

The Award’s learning and teaching strategy has an E-learning component which is designed to maximise the student’s ability to access and evaluate electronic resources relevant to Social Work practice, and to utilise electronic information skills at ECDL 1 standard.

The range of learning and teaching approaches adopted on this Award include:

• Whole group sessions where key themes and topics will be introduced to the student group as a whole;
• Small group sessions where students will be encouraged to explore issues at greater depth;
• An experiential approach is adopted in some modules, particularly where there is a focus on skills needing to be developed;
• Peer group working designed to help students learn to work together and present material collaboratively;
• Service user involvement to enrich and deepen the student’s awareness and appreciation of the issues being discussed;
• Guest lecturers to bring specific expertise into student’s learning opportunities;
• Workshops to develop and consolidate I.T. skills up to ECDL 1 standard;
• Practice-based learning
  This involves a 20 day ‘Preparation for Practice’ period at Level One – an 88 day practice-learning opportunity in an appropriate agency at Intermediate and a 112 day practice-learning opportunity in an appropriate agency at Honours Level.
• The development of a Professional Development Profile throughout all three levels of the Award to help students develop their reflective practice abilities in preparation for their professional career.
• Independent Learning and Guided Study – where students manage their own learning, with guidance from academic tutors.

The range of approaches to summative assessment on the Award is intended to reflect the range of learning outcomes and the professional requirements laid down by the GSCC. It is also designed to ensure that students have a range of appropriate assessment opportunities to demonstrate their academic and practice-based competence. The assessment methods include;

• a Social Work dissertation at Level Three to demonstrate the student’s ability to reflect critically and comprehensively on their practice and how it is informed by critical underpinning knowledge and relevant research.
• a written assignments where students are expected to demonstrate their ability critically to analyse and discuss key Social Work concepts and underpinning knowledge.
• Case studies where students can apply knowledge and learning to given scenarios to demonstrate their ability to develop ‘informed practice’.
• Individual presentations where students can demonstrate their ability to communicate effectively to others.
• I.T projects where students can demonstrate a developing competence in I.T. skills up to ECDL 1 standard;
• Simulated role plays where students can practise in a safe environment the skills needed for professional Social Work.
• Practice learning opportunities where students can work in agency settings to develop the skills needed for competence in the six key roles for professional Social Work.
• Analysis of Practice – at Intermediate and Honours levels – to enable students to demonstrate the links between underpinning knowledge and Social Work practice.
• Direct Observation of Practice x 3 by an experienced practitioner where a student must demonstrate good quality communication skills with service users in an agency setting at Intermediate and Honours Level.
• A Record of Competence assessed by an experienced and qualified practice assessor where a student must demonstrate competence in all six key roles in the GSCC National Occupational Standards for Social Work.

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