Social Work BA Honours

Course content

What will you study on the BA Social Work?

Your studies will be focused towards enabling people at risk to live fulfilled and independent lives. In the first year you will build the professional acumen and communication skills required for effective social work and lay the foundations for the second and third years' academic study and practice-based learning.

All modules, and the programme as a whole, are clearly structured to meet the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). You will undertake two professional placements within relevant agencies and will be assessed against the HCPC Standards of Proficiency (social work) and British Association of Social Work (BASW) Professional Capability Framework. The placements usually run concurrently with academic study. You will complete 170 days of assessed practice learning within two approved and contrasting settings. In at least one of your placements, you will gain experience of statutory roles and tasks.

You will be allocated a tutor at the beginning of your course who you will meet regularly in tutor groups and who will also act as a link to your professional placements.

Please visit The British Association of Social Workers for further information about the social work profession.

What you will gain?

Upon graduation, you will be able to communicate effectively with a range of service users and professionals in a variety of contexts and confidently present arguments based on available academic and practice evidence in specialist areas of social work practice. You will be able to confidently use advanced IT skills to carry out professional social work practice and demonstrate an advanced ability to solve problems and to apply this skill to professional practice. You will also critically analyse the latest research findings and apply them to practice.

Modules

We recommend the following useful preparatory texts and resources for both incoming students and interested applicants.

This module introduce the broad theories of human growth and development across the life course. It facilitate your understanding of the application and relevance of theories of human growth and development to social work practice and explore the influences of early life experiences in later life. It supports you to critically review and appraise the impact of diversity, differences and structural inequalities on people over the life course, focusing particularly on key transitional processes from birth to late adulthood.

This module equips you with an understanding of the social problems you may encounter in your practice placements in years two and three of the programme. It offers the opportunity to develop a range of direct skills through active enquiry, synthesis and evaluation of information about the socio-economic and political realities in your chosen community. You will be encouraged to be creative by using innovative approaches to enhance your understanding of issues important to contemporary social work practice.

This module gives an overview of the purpose, complexity and breadth of social work knowledge and practice from three perspectives: service users/carers, professional colleagues and the requirements of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as the statutory regulator. It provides a foundation level of knowledge and skills, enabling you to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to demonstrate readiness for practice. This includes an introduction to safeguarding, legislation, social work theory, assessment and intervention models and organisational contexts. It supports you in developing an understanding of diversity and equality in social work practice and the integration of social work values in working with disadvantage, poverty and sustainability. You will explore the interface between one's own values and those of the profession.

This module develops communication skills relevant for professional practice and promotes your potential for lifelong learning at the beginning of your career as a social worker by introducing the Professional Capabilities Framework and the concept of personal development planning.

This module provides you with an understanding of the structure, organisation and processes of the English legal system including comprehensive knowledge and understanding of all four major areas of law for social work practice (children and families, mental health, community care and youth justice). You will begin to learn how to differentiate and to work with absolute, qualified and competing rights, and the differing needs and perspectives that arise during social work assessment and interventions alongside their first practice learning placement. You will also gain skills in understanding how to use the law positively and effectively and in selecting relevant aspects of the legislation to practice situations whilst promoting people's rights and begin to identify some of the ethical dilemmas that inevitably arise with legal interventions

This module enables you to explore the nature of social work knowledge, critically analysing contemporary practice theories and their interrelationships to social work assessment and intervention. It supports you in further developing your practice skills and intervention techniques, and assists you in developing insightful, exploratory and creative practice approaches. It also supports you to enhance and develop your direct communication skills and begin to apply professional ethical standards and values, incorporating service user/carer perspectives.

You will complete 70 days direct experience of practice in an agency setting under the supervision of a Practice Educator. By the end of the first placement, you will be able to evidence effective use of knowledge, skills and commitment to core values in social work in predominantly less complex situations, with supervision and support. You will have demonstrated your ability to work with people and situations where there may not be simple clear-cut solutions.

This interprofessional module introduces those from health and social care related subjects to the process of health and social care research. It is a professional requirement for those working in health and social care related disciplines to underpin your knowledge with research and evidence-based practice. Professionals need to be able to access research findings, and through an understanding of the research process and methodology, be able to critique research and apply this knowledge to practice.

This module enables you to meet the PCF final placement level domains and the HCPC standards of proficiency through completing 100 days direct experience of practice in an agency setting under the supervision of a Practice Educator. By the end of the last placement and at the completion of qualifying programmes, you will have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and values to work with a range of user groups, and demonstrate the ability to undertake a range of tasks at a foundation level, demonstrating the capacity to work with more complex situations and in working with resistant service users within a statutory framework.

This module enables you to explore the nature of social work knowledge, critically analysing contemporary practice theories and their interrelationships to social work assessment and intervention. It supports you in further developing your practice skills and intervention techniques. It assists you in developing insightful, exploratory and creative practice approaches. It also facilitates your exploration of ethical models of decision making and relate these ideas to the enhancement of your own ethical social work practice.

This module enables you to develop advanced in-depth knowledge and practice skill through a variety of different theoretical and practice perspectives underpinned by casework examples and research findings. You will develop holistic approaches to working with adults through examining a wide range of service delivery contexts and addressing transitions that need to be considered when service users and their families/carers receive support from more than one agency, or move from one service to another. You will examine interdisciplinary approaches across a diverse range of models of service delivery and legislative frameworks, and scrutinise key policy and specialist practice issues with a strong focus on statutory roles, duties and responsibilities around safeguarding. You will develop expertise in a practice theme as a subject for systematic review, research and evaluation via the research dissertation.

This module enables you to develop advanced in-depth knowledge and practice skill through a variety of different theoretical and practice perspectives underpinned by casework examples and research findings. You will develop holistic approaches to working with children and families through examining a wide range of service delivery contexts and addressing transitions that need to be considered when service users and their families/carers receive support from more than one agency, or move from one service to another. You will examine interdisciplinary approaches, scrutinise key policy and specialist practice issues with a strong focus on statutory roles, duties and responsibilities regarding child safeguarding and parenting capacity. You will develop expertise in a child and family practice theme selected by yourself as a subject for systematic review, research and evaluation via the research dissertation.

You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.