Post-Qualifying Social Work Practice

Patricia Higham

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781412946445, 9781412946438
• eBook ISBN: 9781446244395
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

"A valuable resource for all those engaged in post-qualifying social work practice, … It is impressive in its coverage of contemporary social work practice across the four countries of the UK"

Professor Jackie Powell, University of Southampton

"The PQ landscape is complex and changing fast, so the reader will be grateful to Pat Higham and her colleagues for this clear and comprehensive analysis of PQ"

Professor Mark Doel, Sheffield Hallam University.

" a comprehensive introduction to social work education at post-qualifying level. It identifies the key issues qualified social workers need to consider in contemporary practice and enables them to engage in critical reflection through the development of their post-qualifying expertise."

Professor John Harris, University of Warwick

This core textbook provides an authoritative overview of the post-qualifying awards in social work. Written in response to recent policy and training guidelines, the book will enhance social workers? post-qualifying knowledge, skills and values within specialist areas of practice.

The book will:

- Use critical self-appraisal to construct different ways of thinking about and doing social work

- Encourage reflection on their practice

- Enable social workers to build confidence in their professional identity

- Move from competence to increased capability and to expertise

- Help social workers to explore values dilemmas

- Increase social workers? knowledge for practice

- Promote learning and career development.

This book examines core assumptions about post qualifying practice - that values and relationships (including partnerships with service users) are essential to good practice, that social workers will work in diverse organisational structures and that social workers in the United Kingdom should become aware of European models of social work.

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Part One

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Essential elements for PQ practice

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Patricia Higham

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The starting point of social workers’ continuing professional development is to understand PQ education and training’s structures (Chapter 1), then to consolidate qualifying level practice by emphasising values and ethics (Chapter 2), and forming partnerships with people who use services and their carers (Chapter 3). All three chapters in Part One convey messages that apply across all the specialisms.

Chapter 1 Continuing professional development and post-qualifying social work frameworks: flagships for social work reform or sinking ships? by Patricia Higham, compares the four country-specific PQ frameworks and argues that PQ practice must differ from that at qualifying level – instead of being preoccupied with ‘competence’, it should promote critical reflective practice and innovative thinking that move social workers towards capability and expertise.

Chapter 2 Consolidating values in PQ practice by Kish Bhatti-Sinclair discusses values as a continuous thread running through practice, beginning with the qualifying degree, registration on the social care register, and the start of PQ practice. Consolidation of practice, as a first PQ step, helps social workers consider the values dilemmas they will confront in practice.

Chapter 3 Partnerships with people who use services and carers, by Patricia Higham and Claire Torkington, explores critical views of user involvement, and argues that social workers must relinquish some of their power (echoing Chapter 2) and form different kinds of relationships with users and carers.

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Chapter 1

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Continuing professional development and PQ social work frameworks: flagships for social work reform or sinking ships?

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Patricia Higham

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Introduction

Chapter 1 draws on the international definition of social work (Topss UK Partnership, 2002) to consider the impact of social work reviews on social work roles (and by implication, on how social workers’ opportunities for CPD are determined). The chapter compares the four country-specific social work PQ frameworks for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales that replaced a UKwide framework, and discusses possible impediments to establishing PQ frameworks as flagships. The last part of the chapter considers whether PQ frameworks can be fit for purpose, citing a lack of agreement on the purpose of PQ, preoccupation with ‘competence’, and insufficient understanding of why teaching, learning and assessment for PQ must differ from that at qualifying level. To avoid the ‘sinking ship’ scenario, the chapter suggests that the PQ frameworks should ensure that the practice of a social worker in possession of a PQ award – at any level – will be different from a social worker without PQ.

A workshop (Blinston et al., 2006) for the Cambridge 2006 UK Joint Social Work Education Conference introduced some of these ideas. Opinions expressed are the author’s own and do not represent organisational strategies.

Definition of social work

An agreed definition of ‘social work’ – specifying the skills and knowledge that should inform contemporary practice – might help social workers establish their identities in multi-professional teams (now the preferred model for delivering services). The international definition of social work (agreed at the July 2000 Annual Meeting in Montreal of the International Association of Schools of Social Work and later adopted by the European Association of Schools of Social Work) typifies social work’s ‘new look’. Despite the Quality Assurance Agency Social Work Benchmark Group arguing in 2000 that ‘the precise nature and scope of [social work] is itself a matter for legitimate study and critical debate’ (QAA, 2000: 2.2), in 2002 the Topss UK Partnership adopted the international definition of social work as the Key Purpose of Social Work within the Social Work National Occupational Standards. This contemporary international definition has achieved wide acceptance in the United Kingdom:

Social work is a profession that promotes social change, problem-solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. (Topss UK Partnership, 2002)

The definition suggests that social workers may practise a range of theoretical approaches with different people in different contexts, adopting social work roles characterised by partnerships with people who use services, carers and other professionals, assessing individual need within social contexts, and empowering and emancipating rather than institutionalising individuals. By implication, the definition suggests that experienced social workers must move beyond ‘competence’ towards capability and expertise that require partnerships and power-sharing.

What kinds of knowledge, skills and values support this definition?

Lymbery (2001) argues that to achieve the aims of social work, the profession draws on knowledge of structural oppression, power, service user rights, and inclusion; codes of ethics and practice that promote service users’ citizenship, rights, and responsibilities; and practice expertise that embraces strategies for social inclusion and inter-agency, multi-professional structures. A scrutiny of the country-specific PQ frameworks’ regulatory standards suggests that the frameworks provide opportunities for building these areas of knowledge, skills, values, and practice expertise.

Social work reviews’ impact on roles

Reviews of social workers’ roles and tasks in Scotland and England argue that social workers should carry out particular roles, whilst other roles might be shared with other professionals. Governmental reviews of social work roles have affirmed the importance of social work, but identify changed emphases for practice.

• In Scotland, the Twenty-first Century Review of Social Work (Scottish Executive, 2006c; see also Asquith, Clark and Waterhouse, 2005) recommended changed social work roles (to include social control, assisting with ‘navigation across boundaries’, and safeguarding well-being) within a proposed four-tier approach to practice. The Scottish Executive Report Changing Lives (2006c) led to training for performance improvement, service redesign, practice governance, leadership and workforce development.
• In Wales, the Garthwaite Report (2005) considered workforce issues and recommended relaunching social work as a profession, improving pay and career structures, and improving supervision policies. Garthwaite was followed by Fulfilled Lives: Supportive Communities, the Welsh Assembly Government’s ten-year strategy for social services (WAG, 2007).
• Northern Ireland conducted a review of public administration that resulted in changed organisational structures, with the PSS Development and Training Strategy 2006–2016, a key document for PQ. A social work review will take place in 2008.
• In England, the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills published Options for Excellence in October 2006, which led to a GSCC review (2007c) of social workers’ roles and tasks. Options for Excellence considered ‘social care’ (including social work) as a single entity rather than within wider contexts of health care, education, young people, and supported social housing – therefore its recommendations were less likely to resolve service fragmentation (Preston-Shoot, 2006). The subsequent literature review (Beresford, 2007; Blewett et al., 2007) on social workers’ roles and tasks emphasised social work’s ability, at its best, to work with ambiguous, complex, and uncertain situations, with Beresford (2007) offering an analysis of social work from users’ perspectives.

From a UK-wide framework to country-specific PQ frameworks

A consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the predecessor UK-wide PQ framework helps to explain why different PQ frameworks were considered necessary. The previous framework, established in 1991 and regulated by the General Social Care Council (GSCC), offered two award levels, each built around six requirements. Regional Post-Qualifying Consortia managed the framework by accrediting programmes of learning for ‘professional credits’. Although PQ Consortia were successful in setting up collaborative partnerships between universities and employers and establishing PQ education and training’s importance, attention was diverted from the key task of strategic workforce planning by having to function like a mini-university – accrediting programmes, assessing portfolios, and organising assessment boards (GSCC website, 2006b). ‘Professional credit’ lacked credibility outside the world of social work and never gained wide acceptance, in contrast to nursing, whose professional development framework led to relevant academic awards.

Over time, the numbers of enrolled PQ candidates decreased (GSCC, 2006a: 40). The most successful PQ programme was PQ1 (consolidation of qualifying level competences) – a single requirement usually delivered as a separately certificated module within an award (GSCC website, 2006b). Most social workers did not progress beyond PQ1 to complete a full award. The success of PQ Consortia was more evident in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where a singleton Consortium in each country was able to exert influence and arguably establish more consistent practice standards. In England, standardisation was more difficult to achieve (Higham, 2001) because the 17 regionally based Consortia worked independent of each other. Phasing out ‘professional credit’ (except in Northern Ireland) and replacing it with academic credits and quality assurance in the new frameworks addresses one of the 1991 framework’s flaws. However, separate frameworks will create future difficulties for social workers wishing to transfer PQ achievements across the four UK country-specific frameworks.

Overview of the country-specific PQ frameworks

PQ Consortia announced their closure dates and the UK-wide PQ social work awards began to be phased out from 2007, a process to be completed in 2009. England’s new framework began in autumn 2007, and other countries’ frameworks from 2008. Unlike the 1991 framework, the country-specific PQ frameworks are designed to promote strategic workforce planning and human resources strategies (new roles, recruitment, retention, and career progression) by developing the social work workforce.

PQ frameworks’ choices of curricula are influenced by employers’ human resources strategies, which seek to sustain the workforce’s motivation and commitment and develop new roles and skills. Each framework potentially will provide social workers with opportunities to develop the appropriate knowledge, skills and confidence for practice within multi-professional teams that are characteristic of contemporary organisational structures, and for acquiring new roles that assist career progression. Almost as soon as they were introduced, it became evident that the four country-specific PQ frameworks (GSCC, 2007a) might have to be revised because of governmental reviews of social work.

England

The General Social Care Council, which regulates English social work education, designed a PQ framework with awards at three levels: Post-Qualifying Award in Specialist Social Work, Post-Qualifying Award in Higher Specialist Social Work, and Post-Qualifying Award in Advanced Social Work. Five specialisms are offered, most at each award level: mental health; adult social services; practice education; leadership and management; and children and young people, their families and carers. Skills for Care England, in collaboration with the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC, 2007), assumed responsibility for organising employers’ planning networks to commission awards from GSCC-accredited provider universities (GSCC, 2005a). Standards and content for awards are based, inter alia, on GSCC requirements (including Codes of Practice), National Occupational Standards, and Skills for Care/GSCC guidance on assessment of practice in the workplace (GSCC, 2002b).

Wales

Unlike England’s award-based system, the Wales Modular Framework for Post-Qualifying Learning and Development in Social Work (CCW, 2005) is based on credit-rated academic modules rather than on awards (although awards will be developed). The Care Council for Wales approved a revised PQ framework in March 2005, whose purpose (CCW, 2005; PQ Consortium for Wales, 2005) is to provide flexible life-long learning in continuing professional development as well as increase social workers’ expertise, address their learning needs in a range of settings, link the learning of workers in related professions and other social care workers, and allow social care organisations to develop as learning organisations.

The Care Council for Wales collaborates with employers to develop an all-Wales CPD portfolio, which enables employers to link attainment of particular modules to specified posts or career progression. The framework encourages learners to accumulate modules to achieve a higher education award. Awards and credits for the awards are cumulative, with social workers being able to progress through different levels. Three priorities for awards cover induction of new social workers, mental health, and children (childcare) (CCW, 2006).

Like the social work degree in Wales, the framework requires learning and assessment to recognise the Welsh context of the awards; reflect and promote research-minded and evidence-based practice, anti-discriminatory practice and the Code of Practice for social workers; and be relevant to social work practice. Employers in Wales can be commended for extending the principle of cultural identity by developing successfully the PQ skills and qualifications of social workers employed in Wales who originate from countri...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface (Stuart Brook)
• List of contributors
• Introduction: What is post-qualifying social work practice?
• Part One: Essential elements for PQ practice
• Part Two: Specialist practice
• Part Three: PQ functions
• Part Four Learning organisations and criticality
• Glossary
• References
• Index