Unit information: Social Work Studies in 2012/13

Unit name	Social Work Studies
Unit code	SPOLM5102
Credit points	40
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Dr. Teater
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School for Policy Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is intended to provide an introductory overview of social work in the UK. It familiarises students with practice in the contexts of social work with adults, with children and young people, with homeless people, and with those who misuse legal and illegal substances. It introduces students to contemporary services, familiarises them with relevant policy frameworks, and provides a critical analysis of relevant theoretical perspectives. The overview also provides students with the opportunity to examine ethics and values in social work, to develop a critical appreciation of conceptual frameworks for understanding oppression, inequality and diversity, and to examine the impact of theses factors on people who use social work Services. Finally, it introduces key theoretical perspectives concerning effective ways of helping people that are used in social work practice. This unit promotes integration of learning, and awareness of service user and carers' perspectives(reflected in the contact hours)

The aims of the unit are:

• To promote critical understanding of the reasons why children and young people, and adults, may come to the attention of social care agencies, and how the particular problems of homelessness and substance misuse may also be relevant to both groups.

• To develop a critical understanding of contemporary policy frameworks and service structures for social care and social work services affecting these groups, and how they have evolved.

• To examine critically the key theoretical and conceptual models relevant to social work practice in these areas.

• To enable students to develop a critical appreciation of oppression, inequality and diversity, and their relevance to social work and social care.

• To promote the integration of theoretical understanding and personal awareness of oppression, and to use this to inform practice.

• To explore and evaluate key theories of helping used in social work practice.

• To develop a critical awareness and ability to apply core social work values.

• To promote skills in integrating theory, research and practice.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to demonstrate:

• Critical understanding of the structure and organisation of social work services.

• Critical appreciation of relevant policy frameworks in England and Wales.

• Understanding of the key features, rationale and skills associated with the main methods of social work intervention.

• Critical understanding of ethics and values in a social work context, of various forms of oppression and inequality, and how these impact upon themselves (as students), service users, and organisations.

• Ability to use theory and research critically to analyse situations and plan interventions, with regard to inequality, oppression, and the need to provide services within the framework of human rights legislation.

Teaching Information

Methods of teaching will involve a combination of lectures, panel sessions, experiential groupwork, and seminars involving case discussion. This unit will have a higher than average contact time because it provides a significant opportunity to involve users of social work services, carers and others who may have experienced discrimination or oppression. It also provides the key significant opportunity in year one for experiential groupwork and seminars, much of which is intended to enable students to integrate knowledge across the various units of the programme, rather than to restrict them to this particular unit.

Assessment Information

This unit will provide the opportunity for a formative, diagnostic assignment to be set early in the Programme, enabling students to address their study-related skills in the context of the course they have just embarked on, and to receive feedback. As such it will be the only unit in the Programme providing a diagnostic function as part of the assessment. The formative assignment will normally involve a 2000 word essay requiring students to begin to address the unit outcomes by linking their past experience to their knowledge of social work practice.

Summative assessment will be a single 3000 word assignment with a choice of questions relevant to current issues in social work, and consistent with the unit outcomes.

Reading and References

• Dalrymple J. and Burke B. (2006), Anti-Oppressive Practice, Social Care and the Law. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2nd ed.

• Healy, K (2005), Social work theories in context: creating frameworks for practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

• O’Loughlin M. and O’Loughlin S. (eds) (2008), Social Work with Children and Families. Exeter: Learning Matters, 2nd ed.

• Wilson K., Ruch G., Lymbery M. and Cooper A. (2008), Social Work: An introduction to contemporary practice. Harlow: Pearson Education.