Newly-Qualified Social Workers

A Practice Guide to the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment

Steven Keen, Jonathan Parker, Keith Brown, Di Galpin, Steven Keen, Jonathan Parker, Keith Brown, Di Galpin

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781473977976, 9781473977969
• eBook ISBN: 9781473988279
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

The first year of practice can be a particularly daunting and challenging time for newly-qualified social workers (NQSWs). This fully revised and updated book directly addresses the crucial transition period between finishing off the social work degree and managing the first years of practice.  It offers down to earth, practical guidance on applying for your first post and managing your work load in the first few years. From useful sections on the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE), supervision, dealing with conflict, court skills, report writing, and team work to what professionalism actually looks like in practice, this book will throw a life belt to not only NQSWs entering the workplace but for students on qualifying programmes who wish to develop their skills beyond graduation.  

Chapter 1

Please mind the gap

Steven Keen and Jonathan Parker

Welcome to this practice guide for aspiring or newly qualified social workers. If you have just successfully completed your social work qualifying programme, very well done and many congratulations; we know this is hard work! If you are at the beginning or in the middle of a qualifying programme, keep on reading – this book is also for you. We hope it will inspire you to aim for excellence in your practice, even though the world of social work, in England especially, appears complex and its future uncertain, if the recent closure of The College of Social Work is anything to go by. Aside from death and taxes, one thing is certain . . . ‘change’ is here to stay – so, you might as well get used to it. The change from qualifying to qualified social worker is an important one. That is why we have written this book. Employers should not expect you to be fully formed social workers on qualifying, instead recognising that you are on a journey of development, one that needs to ‘mind the gap’.

How many times have you heard these familiar words? In the late 1960s it became impractical for London Underground staff continually to warn passengers about the gap between train and platform. The equivalent phrase in France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and the United States highlights the same problem – trains do not quite fit their stations. Likewise, newly qualified social workers often find they do not fit comfortably into their new organisations. Whether you have qualified as a social worker in England (Bates et al., 2010; Novell, 2014), Ireland (National Social Work Qualifications Board (NSWQB, 2004)) or Australia (McDonald, 2007) appears to make no difference – the breach between qualification and first post is likely to be significant. Newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) often describe their first year in practice using very graphic terms (see also Skills for Care, 2011).

• The ASYE is an excellent idea, but unfortunately it has become an onerous task in itself on top of a complex caseload. I worked well into the early hours to get pieces finished, not due to poor time management but the realities of surviving the job (Schraer, 2016).

• Frankly, peer support from other NQSWs has been the life saver (Carpenter et al., 2011, p37).

• It was a baptism of fire (Bates et al., 2010, p21).

• I constantly felt I was just keeping my head above water (Revans, 2008, p15).

• I have been repeatedly told I have a protected caseload, but no one is clear what an average caseload is, so it’s impossible to work out what 80% of that should be (Schraer, 2016).

• There’s plenty of nights when I’m lying in bed and I’m worrying and I’ve got that knot in my stomach (Jack and Donnellan, 2010, p310).

Whether you are a newly qualified social worker or someone who is about to qualify, this book will help you to ‘mind that gap’ and make the transition towards your Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE).

Most social work textbooks focus on social work practice, social work skills or on how to study for your social work degree (see Parker and Bradley, 2014; Trevithick, 2012; Walker, 2011). Few texts directly address the gap or crucial transition period between finishing off the social work degree and managing the first years of practice. As such, this book offers down to earth, practical guidance on applying for your first post and managing your first few years. It includes useful sections on topics such as ASYE, induction, supervision, dealing with conflict, court skills, report writing and team working – and is written by a group of over 25 authors with extensive qualifying and post-qualifying social work education, and social work practice experience – be they people who use services, carers, managers, academics or newly qualified social workers.

Our interest in this transition period was fired initially by a research project tracking the learning and development needs of 22 newly qualified social workers in the South West (UK) region (Bates et al., 2010). It is to this research project that we turn briefly.

The first social workers to graduate with the new degree did so in the summer of 2006. Later that year, Skills for Care commissioned Bournemouth University to track newly qualified social workers in the South West region through their first year of employment. They asked us to do three things:

• to evaluate their perceptions of the effectiveness of the new social work degree;

• to evaluate their perceptions of the effectiveness of their induction and/or probation periods;

• to track their progress towards post-qualifying social work education.

We also sought the perspective of people who use services, carers and line managers on the learning and development needs of these newly qualified social workers. What we found out through the use of multiple questionnaires, interviews and focus groups surprised us.

Blewitt and Tunstall (2008) raise the question whether generic qualifying programmes enable social workers to work equally well in children’s and adult services. Some research suggests the answer is ‘no’; just one-third of newly qualified children’s workers believe their degree course prepared them for their jobs (Sellick, 2008). Incidentally, this ‘readiness to enter practice’ debate still rages (see Narey, 2014 and Croisdale-Appleby, 2014, e.g. p69). However, in our sample (all from local authority children’s or adult services) about three-quarters of newly qualified social workers and their line managers agreed that the social work degree provided workers with the right knowledge, understanding and skills for their current post – a finding that remained almost constant over the nine months of the evaluation (Bates et al., 2010). The evaluation of England’s social work degree reports a similarly positive experience of teaching and learning (Evaluation of Social Work Degree Qualifications in England Team (ESWDQET), 2008; Orme et al., 2009; also see Grant et al., 2014). Yet, this study and Bates et al. (2010) also report negative findings. About a quarter of our sample did not feel prepared by their qualifying programme in areas such as report writing and dealing with conflict; the issue that stood out though was the development of court skills (Brown et al., 2007; Bates et al., 2010).

About three-quarters of our sample underwent a workplace-based induction. Yet, during interviews it became clear that few had been given a structured induction – that is, one that helped them move into their new role in a clear, planned and organised fashion (also see Moriarty et al., 2011 and Grant and Kinman, 2014). Finally, three newly qualified social workers claimed to know nothing about continuing professional development opportunities – this, of course, was not confirmed by their line managers.

You will notice from the contents page that this practice guide is a result of and a response to these research findings, and we have used your colleagues’ experiences to structure it. These findings even fuelled debates in the House of Lords (Hansard, 2007). Subsequent to these debates, the government asked the then Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to develop a three-year pilot programme for newly qualified social workers working in children’s services to help them strengthen their knowledge, skills and confidence (DfES/DH, 2006; CWDC, 2008, 2008a). This programme started in 2008 alongside Skills for Care’s programme for social workers working in adult services. In 2012 these programmes were replaced by an Assessed and Supported Year in Employment, or ASYE for all newly qualified social workers in England. Importantly ASYE was and is open to the statutory, voluntary and private sectors and involved assessment against ASYE capabilities as part of the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) (BASW, 2015). The PCF provides social workers and employers alike with an understanding of the appropriate capabilities to be developed as part of continuing professional development. For social workers in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, these are still underpinned by the National Occupational Standards for Social Work (e.g. see www.ccwales.org.uk/national-occupational-standards/ and www.niscc.info/files/AYE/201405_AYEGuidanceForRegistrantsAndEmployers_Publication_MAY2014V1_JH.pdf).

Since 1 April 2015 a revised ASYE framework has been introduced following the introductions of the recent Knowledge and Skills Statements for Social Workers (DfE, 2014; DH, 2015). So, the third edition of this practice guide is also a response to the revised ASYE framework and these Statements in that all of them are covered to a lesser or greater extent throughout.

These welcome interventions come at a time of continued change in the world of social work practice resulting from radical reform of the public sector (Jordan and Jordan, 2006; Jordan and Drakeford, 2012). Since the New Labour government was first elected in 1997, the social and health care sector was subject to a ‘modernising’ agenda heralded by the Department of Health (DH) White Paper Modernising Social Services (DH, 1998). This agenda focused on public service improvement through increased regulation, inspection and monitoring (Parker, 2007; Parker and Doel, 2013). The fiscal crisis which started in 2007 caused shockwaves throughout the world of social welfare and social work and, since the coalition government came to power in 2010, services have been rationalised, some prioritised, and some integrated with others. Children and families’ services have, in many authorities, been separated from adult social care. There is a continuing emphasis on working collaboratively with other disciplines and agencies to improve services rather than being constrained by their professional roles (Barr et al., 2008; Quinney, 2012). The involvement of carers and people who use services in designing and leading services continues to be promoted. The Health and Social Care Act 2012, Children and Families Act 2014, Care Act 2014 and the transfer of social work’s regulatory functions from the General Social Care Council to the Health and Care Professions Council (www.hcpc.org.uk) require commitment and adherence. Employing agencies will require social workers to contribute to performance assessment frameworks and service inspections to promote improvement and development (Sinclair, 2008). Treading a path through such a complex world requires models of social work practice that maintain the value base, yet can also facilitate the development of services and their management and promote personal and professional growth.

This practice guide should help you tread such a path. The flow of the chapters that follow has slightly changed again from the second edition in that there is more of an emphasis on the ASYE at the beginning of the book. Importantly, each chapter starts with a statement about how the text will help you to demonstrate certain ASYE-level professional capabilities and Knowledge and Skills Statements. Chapter 2 starts with the concepts of continuing professional development and critical reflection leading into a discussion of the ASYE whilst Chapter 3 provides welcome ASYE guidance and insight from Skills for Care and the Department for Education. Chapter 4 highlights the transition period between finishing off the social work degree and starting a new job; this chapter will help you to think through issues not only around choosing your first social work post, but also tips on how to apply for it. Chapter 5 will help you to clarify your expectations regarding induction, probation and supervision – and sketches out your role and responsibilities within these processes.

Chapter 6 addresses specific personal issues such as emotions, stress and the management of conflict whilst the final two chapters focus on the workplace. Chapter 7 reiterates the team, partnership and multidisciplinary nature of social work practice working, while Chapter 8 will help you understand your potential contribution to the development of services within the context of business planning, managerialism and learning cultures. The appendices pick up on those findings we mentioned earlier and those ASYE-level capabilities and statements that are not covered in the above chapters – they are designed to be helpful snapshots for newly qualified social workers into issues such as diversity, social justice, safeguarding, court skills, writing skills and chi...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Editors
• Book Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Please Mind the Gap
• 2 CPD, Critical Reflection and the ASYE
• 3 The Social Work Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE)
• 4 Managing Transitions
• 5 Managing Induction, Probation and Supervision
• 6 Managing the Personal: From Surviving to Thriving In Social Work
• 7 Joining and Contributing to a Team
• 8 Contributing to Service Quality and Development
• Appendix 1 Writing Towards ASYE: Advice from an Experienced Lecturer
• Appendix 2 Using Written Skills: Translating Your Learning from University to Practice in Developing Case Recording
• Appendix 3 Court Skills
• Appendix 4 Rights, Justice and Economic Well-Being
• Appendix 5 Diversity
• Appendix 6 Child Protection for Newly Qualified Social Workers
• Appendix 7 Safeguarding Adults
• References
• Index