The Standards in Social Work Education

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The Standards in Social Work Education

• SSSC Conference
• October 2003

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What the SiSWE standards are for

• Set standards for the new honours degree
  programmes and benchmark the professional
  registration level within the qualifications
  continuum
• Define expected competence of honours graduates
  in social work
• Assist higher education providers to design
  suitable educational programmes
• Serve as guidance to employers, service users and
  others on what can be expected of newly
  registered practitioners
• Provide basis for SSSC programme approval
  monitoring processes

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Aims of SiSWE

• Provide clear guidance to all stakeholders as to
  the standards expected of the new honours
  graduates
• Set criteria against which academic and practice
  performance can be measured
• Define the starting point for continuing
  professional development for newly qualified
  social workers

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What the SiSWE are NOT

• A straightjacket for social work education - they
  are about learning outcomes rather than teaching
  requirements
• A blueprint programme specification - they deal
  with the what not the how
• An exhaustive statement of graduates competence
  - graduates likely to have additional skills
• Programmes will continue to have different
  emphases and orientations and this diversity is
  to be valued

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Opportunities and challenges

• Focus on learning for effective and ethical
  practice
• Integration of university and workplace learning
• Stakeholder involvement in all learning and
  assessment processes
• Planning of focused, phased and progressive
  programmes of learning for practice
• Further development of CPD and life-long learning
  approaches

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The new opportunities

• Clearer links between academic and professional
  perspectives
• Single focus for all aspects of learning
• Fresh look at curriculum and teaching methods
• New technologies at the heart
• Collaborative developments

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The new challenges

• Meeting higher standards
• Involvement of service users and carers
• Breadth and depth coverage
• Equipping students for demanding roles and to
  contribute positively to change
• Focus on research awareness and evidence-based
  practice
• Learning- (rather than teaching-) led

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Ten key issues

• Critical reflection and analysis
• Active service user and carer involvement
• Focus on evidence-led practice
• Assessment and management of risk
• Cross-agency and inter-professional working
  (integration of services)
• Responsiveness and adaptation to change
• Use of new technologies
• Ownership and management of continuing learning
• Learning for particular settings and functions
• Integration of academic and practice learning

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The agenda for change

• Develop and reinforce confidence in social work
  identity and role
• Closer HEI and agency links across all sectors
• Mould-breaking experimentation and evaluation
• Collaborative work with other professional
  educators

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The Scottish Institute forExcellence in Social
WorkEducation

• A brief introduction

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Membership

• University of Dundee (also lead institution)
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Glasgow
• Glasgow Caledonian University
• The Open University
• The Robert Gordon University
• University of Paisley
• University of Stirling
• University of Strathclyde

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Work programme

• Two-year funded programme of work
• Three principle project areas
• Learning for Effective and Ethical Practice
• Knowledge Transfer (E-learning)
• Integrated Assessment
• Strategic dialogue and planning
• Other (eg fast-track scheme)

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LEEP Projects (3)

• To improve radically the quality, quantity,
  range, relevance, inter-professionality and
  management of practice learning opportunities for
  the new social work honours degree
• To enhance the integration of learning for
  practice within the university and in the
  workplace
• To develop innovative opportunities for
  inter-professional learning within new service
  settings to serve as models of good practice
• Work in partnership with social work agencies to
  identify possible solutions to problems
  associated with or arising from the supply of
  agency based practice learning opportunities

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Knowledge Transfer Projects (3)

• To promote knowledge transfer between HEIs
  through the collaborative development of a
  repository of digital learning resources for
  social work education.
• Establish a repository (library), structured by
  an agreed taxonomy (catalogue) of the new social
  work curriculum, for the storage and use of new
  and existing digital learning resources.
• Develop high-quality, multi-media conceptual and
  case-based digital learning resources for the new
  social work curriculum.
• Enhance the skill and understanding of social
  work educators and trainers in effectively
  embedding use of digital learning resources into
  the social work curriculum

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Integrated Assessment Projects (5)

• To develop innovative, flexible and aligned
  assessment methods to promote deep-learning for
  effective and ethical practice
• Evaluate current assessment practice and to
  introduce and test new assessment methods for use
  in the social work honours degree
• Explore and further develop a shared approach,
  with other professionals, to the performance
  assessment of social work students
• Explore a range of ways in which employers,
  people who use services and their carers can be
  involved in and contribute to the assessment
  process
• Align assessment against the SISWE standards with
  the levels of the Scottish Credit
  Qualifications Framework
• Develop a consistent record of assessment that
  can be used as a learning profile and contribute
  to the planning of CPD

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Institute website

• www.sieswe.org