Preparation for Practice - SPY00066H

Department: Social Policy and Social Work
Credit value: 10 credits
Credit level: H
Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

This module is intended to prepare you for your first placement and allow you to demonstrate your readiness for direct practice.

Professional requirements

Students must pass this module in order to undertake Placement 1

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

This module aims to provide a period of intensive preparation for students before they begin their first statutory placement. The module aims to ensure students understand the practice contexts they are entering, have an understanding of their professional responsbilities and understand how to seek support on placement. The module also provides some key skills which students require for a successful placement, in particular skills in reflective practice. The module includes input from practitioners and service users.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module students will demonstrate

LO1. An understanding of service user knowledge and experience of social work practice, including the emotional dynamics of relationships with professionals

LO2. An understanding of the professional context for social work practice, including professional boundaries, workload, health, safety, wellbeing and emotional resilience

LO3. An understanding of the employment context for social work practice, including roles and responsibilities in supervision, and the significance of professional leadership

LO4. Capability in critical reflective thinking, specifically to describe and analyse their personal and professional development, with a focus on communication skills

LO5. An understanding of key concepts relating to reflective practice and its significance to social work

Module content

Teaching of the module will be in the form of an intensive, 3 week period in Spring term. 3 full days teaching a week will be held in weeks 5, 6 & 7 ( 9 days x 6 hours per day).

Within this framework we will cover the following topic areas:

- Professional registrations

- The PCF in relation to placements

- Placement information

- Professional social work supervision

- Confidentiality and Data Management

- Professional boundaries

- Service User and Carer perspectives

- Learning Styles & developing learning goals

- Health and Safety at Work

- Ethics and ethical dilemmas

- Risks/Risk Management

- Reflective Practice on placement

Teaching will be undertaken by academic staff, service users/carers and professional practitioners. Within the full day format, teaching will be in the form of lectures, presentations, small group work, case studies, taught exercises and role plays. There will also be scope within the timetable to include reading half days, as preparation for specific activities within the module.

Skills Days

The module includes two Skills Days (Safeguarding children/ Safeguarding Adults) which are integrated into the teaching time allocated to the module.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Departmental - aural assessment	100
Essay/coursework	0

Special assessment rules

Pass/fail & Non-compensatable

Additional assessment information

The purpose of the Oral assessment is to allow students to demonstrate their readiness for practice. They will demonstrate this by articulating their reflective capacity and knowledge of the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF). The oral assessment will focus on their understanding of their learning needs (in relation to the PCF,) going into placement 1. Having clear learning goals and a working knowledge of the PCF is a crucial element of beginning of a practice placement.

The online tests are focused on basic fundamental knowledge that our placement providers want students to have some understanding of when they begin placement. The test topics are:

1. Professional Supervision

2. Reflective Practice

3. Health and Safety

4. Placement information (role of PE, report requirements, etc)

5. GDPR/Confidentiality/Data Management

All qualifying social work modules are non-compensatable to meet the requirements of the social work education body (currently Social Work England)).

Reassessment of the oral assessment is required in Spring Week 8 (one week after the first attempt) as students need to pass this module in order to begin their practice placements, scheduled to begin in Spring Week 9. Students who do not pass the oral assessment at the first attempt will receive their grades and feedback two days after the first assessment and will be able to access support from the module convenor and their personal supervisor to prepare for reassessment. If reassessment cannot take place in Spring Week 8, it is possible to delay placement start dates until the reassessment can be completed.

Online tests can be taken multiple times until a passing percentage is achieved. Students must obtain the passing percentage before they begin their placements in Spring Week 8

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Departmental - aural assessment	100
Essay/coursework	0

Module feedback

Students will be informed if they have passed or failed the oral assessment within 2 days - in order for prompt reassessment to take place. The Preparation for Practice module must be passed before students embark on their first placement (in Week 9) as this module directly tests their readiness to enter practice.Written feedback for the oral assessment will be returned to student within 4 weeks.

Students must achieve 100% on their online tests but can take the tests multiple times until they achieve the pass mark. Students must achieve the pass mark on all online tests before they start their placement.