This programme represents the first rung on the post qualifying (PQ) education in social work ladder. It comprises two of the core modules that every social worker must take in order to obtain a PQ award in specialist level social work.

For social workers who want to transfer to the Post Qualifying Specialist Social Work programmes and obtain a full PQ specialist social work award, applicants need to have an initial qualification in social work. This can be the social work degree at undergraduate or Masters level or the DipSW or CQSW or a General Social Care Council recognised alternative. For other applicants, a relevant honours degree or equivalent. For both categories, the applicant needs to be working in a social work or other personal services setting.

• Extend and develop your initial competence in the area of your specialist practice beyond the point of your social work qualification
• Learn how to analyse and reflect on your professional practice in the interests of the service user with whom you work and your service setting and to enhance your own professional development
• Develop the knowledge skills and values necessary to offer effective casework supervision to a student social worker, or member of your team.

Knowledge

• Awareness of and evidence for the ways in which you have extended and developed your practice since qualification
• Understanding of how you have extended and developed your practice with reference to the specialist setting in which you are located
• The skill and underpinning theoretical knowledge needed to sustain effective supervision and where relevant the assessment of practice

Thinking skills

• Conceptualising interventions with your clients in the context of your specialist setting
• Linking appropriate theory and research studies to your work with your clients
• Developing a reflective approach to supervision and work based assessment drawing on relevant theories models and practice based research
• Keeping the interests of the service user at the forefront of both your own practice and your work with your supervisee.

Subject-Based Practical skills

• The relevance of reviewing, analysing and reflecting on your own practice within your specialist setting
• The value of participating with others in the process of reflective and analytical practice
• Preparing, enabling and where relevant assessing the work of learners/supervisees in the role of supervisor
• National Occupational Standards (TOPSS, 2002) and their relevance for practice

Skills for life and work (general skills)

• Attending to the values and ethical considerations of working closely with clients in your setting including valuing and promoting diversity
• Considering the inter-professional and interagency dimensions of your work
• Embarking on the first stage of the continuing professional development journey within the PQ education context

The expected duration of this programme is one semester (Semester B). It is possible to move from a full-time mode of study to a part-time mode of study and vice-versa, to accommodate any external factors such as financial constraints or domestic commitments. Many of our students make use of this flexibility and this may impact on the overall duration of the study period.

The teaching year begins in February and ends in June.

This programme is a Graduate Certificate. It will, subject to validation and professional body approval, link to a Graduate Diploma and BA in Post Qualifying Specialist Social Work within the General Social Care Council’s National PQ Framework in Social Work Education and Training (GSCC, 2005). It will also link to the many different Post Graduate/ Higher Specialist and MA/Advanced level UEL/Tavistock programmes. These programmes were validated and approved, in March 2007.

• A minimum of 20 credits at Level 3 for the Associate Certificate
• A minimum of 40 credits at Level 3 for the Graduate Certificate

Knowledge is developed through

• Student focussed seminars in which you present examples of your work in a specialist setting for analysis
• Considering the extension and development of your professional practice with reference to the six key roles for professional practice (Skills for Care, 2002)
• Critical exploration of the key theoretical approaches to social work supervision

Thinking skills are developed through

• Giving careful attention in the seminars to the construction of case examples from your practice with regards to the basis for your interventions with clients in the context of your specialist setting
• Systematically linking theoretical approaches and research studies to the work you are engaged in with your clients and their carers within your organisation
• Placing the service user at the forefront of the work that you do on both modules of this programme. This is in relation to your own reflective practice and in the work you engage in with your supervisee.

Practical skills are developed through

• Developing the ability throughout the semester to review, analyse and reflect on your practice within your specialist setting
• Contributing to the learning, reflection and analytical practice of others in the seminar including participants from a range of professional backgrounds who may include service users and/or carers.
• Establishing an effective approach to preparing, enabling and where appropriate assessing the practice of a supervisee/learner through learning how to take the role of a supervisor
• Recognising the significance of national occupational standards (Skills for Care, 2002) for professional practice

Skills for life and work (general skills) are developed through

• Consistent attention in the work of the seminar and in your own practice to the ethical considerations involved in working closely with clients in your setting including working in a way that values and promotes diversity
• Considering the inter-professional and interagency dimensions if your work
• The experience of recognising and applying theories and research to contemporary social work practice

Knowledge is assessed by

• Your analysis of a detailed Case-Study which you locate in the context of your specialist work setting
• A Reflective Review of your professional learning since the point of your initial qualification, showing how you have extended and developed your professional competence
• Your Supervision Accounts and your Contextualising essay about your supervisory experience will show your effectiveness in taking up the supervisory role as well as your application of key theoretical approaches

Thinking skills are assessed by

• The Case-Study and the Reflective Review of your professional practice
• The way that you are able to integrate theory and references to research into your written work about your practice in a specialist setting
• Your ability to keep the interests of service users and their carers at the forefront of your work in both your practitioner and supervisory roles as shown throughout your assignments including in your Reflections on Service User’s Feedback

Practical skills are assessed by

• Your capacity to review, analyse and reflect on your work in a specialist practice setting
• The accounts of your practice offered through the Direct Observation reports completed by your line manager and other colleagues
• Your capacity to manage the boundaries of the supervisory role as shown in your Supervision Account and your application of theory in your contextualising Supervision essay
• The familiarity you evidence with the national occupational standards (Skills for Care, 2002) for social workers through the Reflective Review in your portfolio

Skills for life and work (general skills) are assessed by

• The awareness evidenced throughout your work, and especially in your Reflections on your Service User’s Feedback, of the ethical dimensions of social work practice and the sensitivity you show to valuing and promoting diversity
• Attention evidenced in your Portfolio and Supervision Essay to the inter-professional and inter-agency context of your work
• Your capacity, especially in your Reflective Review and Supervision Essay, to explicitly trace the points of development since achieving your initial professional qualification