Social Work MA

The module will critically explore and outline: 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); Relevant legislative and welfare policy frameworks and assessing the impact of social disadvantage and its effect on parenting and family functioning; 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; 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; 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; 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; 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.

Module content will include: Induction programme at the agency in which the student is placed; Individual supervision sessions in the agency to support the student's learning and university placement support sessions; 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; The opportunity to engage in direct work enabling the student to demonstrate Qualifying Social Worker Level Capabilities (Professional Capabilities Framework 2012) and HCPC Standards of Proficiency; Multi-agency working, including planning interventions with other agencies, and analysing and managing tensions.

This module covers the following topics: 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: writing a proposal, research process and outcomes; defining research topics; understanding methodology and the use of theory; gathering and critically analysing data; appreciating context and knowledge transfer alongside its application within praxis; 3. Research methods and designs: interviews; focus groups; case studies; narrative; participative approaches, mixed methods. Literature review and literature based research: searching, locating, reading and summarising, reviewing and critical appraisal; synthesis, context, critique and application to social work practice; 4. Gathering and analysing data: Observation, questionnaires, interviews. Data analysis and drawing conclusions.

The module will include: 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; 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; Safeguarding vulnerable adults: MAPPA; evidence-based risk assessment and analysis, working with risk and hostility, decision making, professional judgement, reaching conclusions; 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.; 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; Skills development in direct work with adults. Models of engagement. Person-centred practice. Interviewing and recording skills. Critical reflection; Contemporary and international research and evidence base for effective interventions.

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

Module content will include: The role of the social worker and the importance of professional behaviour; Ethical principles, professional values, personal values and relevance to practice; Reflective skills and critical thinking. Models of reflection. The role of reflective practice in social work; Interpersonal and communication skills - use of language, non-verbal communication, observation, listening and recording skills, IT skills; Principles of assessment and planning intervention. An introduction to risk and safeguarding; Theories and models of social work intervention; The role of supervision in social work practice; The service user and carer perspective of social work involvement; The organisational context of social work practice and the role of professional leadership in social work.

Module content will include: 1. Social policy: The history of social work and its relationship to the welfare state, key ideologies, role of the state, needs and rights, participation and choice, care versus control in the context of a neo-liberalist and managerialist welfare state; 2. Contemporary social policy initiatives covering children and families (e.g. Think Families), adults (e.g. Valuing People), interdisciplinary/inter-agency agenda, substance misuse, evidence-based practice; 3. Sociological concepts of social divisions: Class, power, inequality and disadvantage, poverty, racism, gender, sexuality, disability, asylum seekers; 4. Sociological concepts: Primary and secondary socialisation, values, culture, identity, anti-discriminatory practice and anti-oppressive practice; 5. Sociological paradigms (interpretivism and positivism): Functionalism, radicalism, Marxism, symbolic interactionism, modernism/post-modernism, structuralism/post-structuralism.

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.

Module content will include: Law and ethics: Introduction to law, body of law, law/practice relationship, the social worker role and accountability in law; Distinction between different laws: Process for creating statute law, secondary legislation, policy guidance, duties and powers, different roles of courts; Human rights and ethics in the context of social work law, conflicting imperatives, advocacy, confidentiality and social work values; 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); Skills and practice: Court room skills, gathering evidence, preparing reports, writing court reports, anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice (case scenarios role play, developing manifestos in the context of two opposing views).

This module covers the following topics: Induction programme at the agency in which the student is placed; Individual supervision sessions in the agency to support the student's learning and university placement support sessions; 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; The opportunity to engage in direct work enabling the student to demonstrate End of First Placement Level Capabilities (Professional Capabilities Framework 2012); Opportunities for inter-professional working.