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REFORM OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION: PROPOSALS FOR CONSULTATION ON THE CURRICULUM FOR THE NEW HONOURS DEGREE

2. Introduction to Standards in Social Work Education (SiSWE)

2.1 The increasing complexity of the social work task, the demands made of social workers and their ability to respond appropriately to these demands and apply critical thinking to their practice are key factors in the move to establish a graduate profession at honours level.

2.2 The SiSWE document provides a single, comprehensive set of learning requirements for each programme of social work education in Scotland. In future SiSWE will be the only point of reference setting out the requirements to be met in respect of knowledge and understanding, core and subject skills and practice outcomes.

2.3 The SiSWE address the professional education and development of social workers. They prepare them for work in the social services workforce in Scotland and elsewhere. They are written as outcome statements which set out what a student social worker must know, understand and be able to do to be awarded the honours degree in social work.

2.4 They incorporate the QAA Benchmark Statement: Academic Standards - Social Work. This takes account of the professional nature of the programmes for social work education, including both academic and practical elements. The Benchmark Statement reflects the fact that practice learning is central to the new degree and that 'practice learning' covers a broad spectrum of connected learning experiences.

2.5 The standards also draw on the National Occupational Standards for Social Work (the NOS). These set out the practice focus of social work and the role of the social worker as an accountable and professionally competent practitioner.

2.6 The format is similar to the framework used for the Standards in Initial Teacher Education (SITE) and other documents being drafted for nursing, midwifery and health visiting. This will allow us at a later date to identify common elements in the training of these different professional groups and offer future opportunities to develop integrated training initiatives.

2.7 The way in which social services are delivered is changing and will continue to change. The majority of social workers currently work in the statutory, voluntary or private sector. They may work across a broad range of interests or primarily with one set of people who use services. In future they will work increasingly in multi-functional departments, integrated agency settings or health settings.

2.8 The SiSWE prepare the new social worker to work in any of these situations and to respond and contribute to change in the professional context. It will be for the social worker, his or her employer and the SSSC to ensure the outcomes acquired on qualification are maintained and enhanced for the benefit of the social worker and the public.

2.9 The standards are underpinned by defining principles which are designed to assist the student to achieve them. These principles are drawn from the QAA Benchmark Statement: Academic Standards - Social Work. Taken together, they reinforce the scope and complexity of programmes which by necessity are offered at honours degree level. They are:

• social work is characterised by a distinctive focus on practice in complex social situations to promote and protect individual and collective well being. Honours degree programmes should be designed to help foster this integration of contextual, analytic, explanatory and practical understanding;
• social workers should be equipped to understand and work within this context of contested debate about the nature, scope and purpose of social work. They should be equipped to analyse, adapt to, manage and eventually to lead the processes of change;
• practice is an essential and core element of learning, and practice activity is a source of transferable learning in its own right;
• social work is a moral activity that requires practitioners to make and implement difficult decisions about human situations that involve the potential for benefit or harm; and
• in order to be able to act effectively in complex circumstances, students must learn to become accountable, reflective and self-critical.

2.10 Programmes of social work education must promote three main aspects of professional development:

• practice knowledge and understanding;
• professional skills and abilities; and
• ethical practice and personal commitment.

2.11 The significance of placing these aspects in a triangle is to emphasise that they are not simply lists of competencies or outcomes. They are inherently linked to each other in the development of the social worker and one aspect does not exist independently of the other two. It is this inter-relationship among all three which develops the professionalism of the social worker. The inter-relationship is illustrated in the model below.

2.12 The standards offer a distinctive balance and emphasis but will develop all three. They incorporate competencies and other nationally specified qualitative requirements in social work education as well as the requirements of academic study. In doing so, they supersede the six core competencies of the Diploma in Social Work required by the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work.

2.13 Programmes of social work education help students to develop skills which are transferable to other areas of study and professional employment. These transferable skills are not additional to the standards but are the outcomes for successful students who have completed a programme which addresses all the standards.

2.14 The Regulation of Care Act (Scotland) 2001 established the SSSC and laid down the requirement for the registration of the social services workforce by the SSSC. The register will allow the public to verify that a social worker has met the requirements for entry to the register and has formally agreed to abide by the standards set in the SSSC's Code of Practice for Social Service Workers. The SSSC is currently determining the requirements for registering social workers but it is likely that one of the requirements for registration as a social worker will be attainment of the honours degree and with it the standards set out in the SiSWE. A diagram below is an illustration of the format of SiSWE:

3. Invitation to comment

3.1 You are invited to comment on the following aspects of the SiSWE. Please refer to the Guidance on the preferred format for responding to SiSWE at section 15 at the end of this consultation or make use of the website address, which is: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/swsi/siswe_responses.asp

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