The Standards in Social Work Education

1. The Standards in Social Work Education SSSC Conference October 2003

2. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. The Scottish Institute forExcellence in Social WorkEducation A brief introduction

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Institute website www.sieswe.org