BA(Hons) Social Work
Faculty of Health

The modules for Certificate level are:
(links point to information on this page)

1. Social Work Values, Theories and Process – 2 semesters
2. Communication Skills for Social Work – 2 semesters
3. The Social Context of Social Work – 1 semester
4. Social Policy for Social Work – 1 semester
5. Law for Social Work – 2 semesters
6. Study Skills

Certificate Level students should expect to attend the university for 14 hours each week. This may vary slightly depending on learning strategies and module length. Study skills is taught in the initial six weeks.

1. Social Work Values, Theory and Process

Provides opportunities to develop knowledge and skills in:

• the impact of social inequality and oppressive social relations;
• valuing diversity;
• the Social Work role and responsibilities;
• the nature of relationships between justice, care and control in social welfare;
• the role of theory in Social Work interventions;
• the different dimensions of professional values and their implications;
• models and methods of assessment.

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2. Communication Skills for Social Work

Provides opportunities to develop communication skills in order to assess suitability to progress to Level 2 of the award. Students will be expected to achieve a sound knowledge of this area of work with an ability to communicate appropriately and to exercise personal responsibility for their present and future professional learning and development, (FHEQ Certificate Level).

Service users will be involved in the role play and the 20 days preparation for practice. Specific topics to be addressed on the module include:

• active listening, interviewing and communication skills;
• skills to recognise and celebrate diversity;
• working with families;
• court room skills;
• developing reflective practitioner skills;
• strategies for coping with stress and handling violence and aggression;
• simulated practice skills; introduction to group work skills.
• essential computer applications;

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3. The Social Context of Social Work

Provides an introduction to the social construction of social problems:

• Poverty, housing, crime, deviance, drug and substance use, inequalities in health, educational disadvantage, urban and rural degeneration and difficulties faced by families and kinship networks including elders.
• Social problems as they impact upon the lives of users of Social Work services.
• How structural inequality and social differentiation influence ‘life chances’ and individual experience, biography and history.
• The nature of sociological enquiry

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4. Social Policy for Social Work

Provides an introduction to social welfare and current policy debates in the UK:

• current debates in social policy;
• theoretical perspectives/modes of welfare;
• poverty, inequality and social exclusion;
• community regeneration;
• family policy;
• new Labour and New Public Management;
• best value;
• housing and homelessness;

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5. Law for Social Work

Provides an introduction to all the major areas of law:

• the relationship between the law and Social Work practice;
• the role of law in promoting Social Work values;
• the legal mandates for Social Work practice with children and families, and with adults, arising from ill health, mental distress, disability, old age or involvement with the criminal justice system;
• an outline of housing rights, welfare rights, the rights of asylum seekers and refugees and the legal framework for the management of debt;
• human rights legislation.

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6. Study skills

This is a study skills course available in ‘Blackboard’ – the virtual learning environment accessible electronically. This module supports the ‘face-to-face’ sessions delivered in semester one, and is designed to help students develop confidence in a range of study skills including planning; essay writing; library skills; academic referencing and much more. It is available for students to access and re-visit whenever they wish. It is not formally assessed.

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