BA(Hons) Social Work
Faculty of Health

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

1. Practice learning
2. Using research for Social Work practice
3. Social Work: working in organisations
4. Dissertation (Social Work)

At Honours Level students should expect to attend for practice and university learning for 5 days each week. Practice learning is 112 days x 7 hours i.e. a standard working day, for four days each week. The fifth day of each week will be used for a variety of learning activities in the university:

1. research methods and research support;
2. working in organisations and inter-disciplinary working; and
3. critical evaluation of theory for Social Work and the practice of Social Work.

At Honours Level students should expect to attend the university for 18 hours each week in semester 1. In semester 2 students will be in a practice learning setting for 88 days x 7 hours, i.e. a standard working day for four days each week. The fifth day will be used for a variety for learning activities in the university:

1. Practice Learning Honours Level

Practice learning for Social Work in a Social Work, social care, health, offenders and/or education agency in the statutory and/or independent sectors of Social Work provision.
This period of practice learning will enable students to demonstrate a systematic understanding of key aspects of Social Work knowledge and practice. This will include acquisition of knowledge, at least some of which is at or informed by, the forefront of practice interventions and research in Social Work practice. Practice learning and assessment will focus on the National Occupational Standards for Social Work (2002).

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2. Using Research for Social Work Practice

This module provides an introduction to research in the Social Work context, enabling students to develop awareness of research skills and methods, and the ability to understand, analyse, interpret and make practice-linked applications of research findings, as a means of developing evidence based and critical practice. The module focuses on:

• the role of research in the Social Work context
• research and Social Work values, research ethics
• research design – methods and their uses in the Social Work context;
• reviewing the literature on topics and practice related issues;
• identifying and understanding the different types of data, research evidence and literature sources, and their purposes;
• conducting a critical analysis and weighing up competing perspectives and research evidence on an issue;
• developing a sustained argument, synthesising data, research evidence and different perspectives on an issue;
• developing skills of using research and theory in evidence-based practice;
• understanding quantitative and qualitative methods and their applications to research with people, texts and records;
• understanding quantitative and qualitative analysis;
• dissertation and report writing skills.

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3. Social Work: Working in Organisations

This module provides subject knowledge and understanding in the following key areas :-

• the organisational location of Social Work and social care services including geographical, functional (fieldwork services, residential services, day care services) and organisational forms;
• relationships with other health and care sector agencies in statutory, private and voluntary sectors (including mechanisms for dealing with multi-disciplinary and multi-agency services - pooled budgets, joint finance, lead bodies, commissioning);
• the roles of professional practitioners and managerial staff within organisational and agency contexts;
• organisational and team structures and processes within organisations;
• health and safety issues;
• mechanisms for organisational accountability for service delivery (Care Standards and Inspection, SSI and Audit Commission, supervision, workload and caseload management). Forms of accountability – to professional codes, personal conviction, accountability to service users and to agency);
• communication and information technologies in organisations, including the Data Protection Act, 1998.

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4. Social Work Dissertation

This module involves the application of the skills and knowledge gained through the ‘Using Research for Social Work Practice’ module to an independent piece of work on a topic chosen by the student, undertaken through a survey of literature and/or secondary data.

The content includes:

• the application of social welfare and research ethics;
• defining a research problem;
• designing and organising a research strategy to address a specified research problem;
• the application of techniques for surveying existing literature, knowledge and research evidence on a topic of interest - using literature, Internet and secondary sources;
• analysis of secondary data, both qualitative and quantitative;
• evaluating previous research in the light of central theoretical and methodological issues in Social Work;
• the application of ensuing knowledge to policy and practice in Social Work;
• dissertation and report writing.

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