|
|
| |||||||||
|
|
|
| ||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
contents STOP PRESS
|
|
| |||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minister's
|
|
| |||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
to receive
further issues |
|
|
|
Social work
students |
|
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
contact us For more
information |
|
|
|
Barnardo's
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Meeting the
needs |
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Co-ordinators
share |
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Events and
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contacting
us |
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
STOP PRESS |
|
Latest
Taskforce developments |
|
|
| |||||
|
|
| |||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||
|
|
|
Full Practice
Learning Taskforce website now available
at www.practicelearning.org.uk Nicola Horn
appointed as
full-time Change Agent for North West, covering Merseyside, Lancashire and
Cumbria. In post 19 December 2003. Midlands Change
Agents continue to
cover Greater Manchester until December 2004. Practice
Learning Taskforce Conference – QEII,
Westminster, London on 25 March 2004 – keynote address by Health Minister
Stephen Ladyman MP plus information sessions on innovations and good
practice. Induction in
work-based learning
and assessment for new organisations. University of Salford are producing
learning materials and workbook - available in February 2004. Training
providers wishing to deliver learning need to submit proposals by 23
December 2003. More information at www.practicelearning.org.uk
Follow link in Practice Learning section to PracticeTraining for
Supervisors and Assessors. |
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||||
|
|
|
| ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Health
Minister |
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
| |||||||||
|
Minister's vote |
|
| ||||||||
|
of
confidence |
| |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Keep up the good
work – that was the message from the new Health Minister Stephen Ladyman
when he met the Taskforce Director recently. Stephen Ladyman
took over the social care brief from Jacqui Smith in the Government
reshuffle in June, at the same time a Children’s Minister at the
Department for Education and Skills was appointed and responsibility for
children’s social services was transferred to her. He was quick to reject
criticism that the move in some way indicated a downgrading in the profile
of social work. In an article in
The Guardian in October he said: "There are always some people who will
look at the Taj Mahal and see a public convenience. Social work and social
care have had a bigger public profile since the last
reshuffle.” Mike said: “I’m
very pleased that the Minister confirmed more money to ensure that there
are full-time Change Agents in the North East and North West. He told me
that he agreed this funding because of the excellent work the Taskforce
had done so far. “ “The extra
resources are a vote of confidence in the work we have been undertaking
and will ensure that the North East and the North West receive the level
of support we have identified they need”. “It’s the best
possible tribute to the hard work of Taskforce Manager Fiona Waddington
and the team, and I thank them all.” It was agreed
that among other targets, the Taskforce’s work in the next year will
develop even closer ties with the independent, private and voluntary
sectors, focus on increasing practice learning opportunities in black and
minority ethnic organisations and concentrate on effective involvement of
service-users.
|
|
| |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
Lindsworth –
providing valuable experience |
| |||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||
|
Social work |
|
|
| |||||||
|
students in a residential
education setting |
|
| ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Six social work
degree students have just started practice learning opportunities at a
special school in Birmingham – and they are promised a useful learning
experience of the highest quality, wherever their careers take them.
For some years
now Lindsworth South School in Kings Norton has provided opportunities in
residential education for social work diploma students. Lindsworth is a
residential and day school with 188 special educational needs pupils whose
ages range from 11 to 16+. These young people have a variety of social,
emotional and behavioural difficulties which present some direct and
challenging experiences for social work students. Teaching is in groups of
no more than eight, so there is a high staff-pupil ratio and social work
students take an active part throughout the day. Lynda Cook,
Deputy Head of Care at the school says: “Lots of social work is crisis
work, but we believe in preventive social work, where early action can
stop the crisis developing in the first place. I hope I’m not sounding
complacent when I say that the kind of learning experience we offer at
Lindsworth South is among the best a social work student can
get.” Lynda attended a
session promoting practice learning in education organised by the
Taskforce’s Cheryl Wall and Pervez Akhtar in the summer. She is the
practice teacher for up to 15 students a year at Lindsworth, from a range
of social work programmes. She says larger groups of students are
effective because she can provide group supervision and students support
each other through the learning process. Lynda accepts
the fact that those who pass through Lindsworth are almost always bound
for a career in the field of social work, but she says there is another
benefit of having them on campus: “They’re always quick to ask questions
and that makes us in turn question our practices. There’s no danger of
taking anything for granted!” |
|
| |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
| |||||||
|
|
Barnardo's
directory helps social workers to help
children Picture:
Barnardo's |
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
Barnardo's
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
practice learning
directory |
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
The Taskforce
was keen to investigate finding more practice learning opportunities in
the field of children’s services, so a development project with Barnardo’s
was of particular interest. The organisation
used funding from the Taskforce to produce a national directory of its
practice learning opportunities. Work included several regional workshops
and conferences and preparing information materials for Barnardo’s
services. The team had a
number of common and national objectives and outputs, but they had to
approach the work on a regional basis to build on their different
traditions of practice learning. The directory
has been distributed to all university social work departments and is a
way of letting higher education institutions know about the range of
practice learning opportunities available within Barnardo’s.
Sally Weeks,
Children’s Services Learning and Development Adviser at Barnardo’s, says:
“The workshops were a successful way of raising awareness of developments
in social work education and the potential for new practice learning
opportunities.” At the same time
as the directory was produced, Barnardo’s adopted a UK wide strategy for
practice learning with annual action plans to meet the specific needs of
regions and nations. This strategy is linked to other organisational
policies, such as safeguarding and protecting children, continuous
professional development and staff recruitment and retention.
Besides the
direct benefits to Barnardo’s, the project found a number of previously
unrecognised practice learning opportunities. Fiona
Waddington, Project Manager for the Taskforce says: “It would be hard to
imagine a development project that fulfilled the brief quite so well. It
really is a case of ‘everybody benefits'.” |
| |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Supporting
disabled students on practice placement |
|
|
|
|
| |||
|
Meeting
the needs |
|
|
| |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
The Professional
Education and Disability Support Project (PEdDS Project) is a two-year
scheme funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. It is
based at the School of Nursing, Social Work and Applied Health
Studies. It aims to
examine how best to support disabled students by undertaking
semi-structured interviews with them, as well as with placement
co-ordinators, practice teachers and disability support
staff. The project is
focusing on students whose needs are ‘unseen’, these include dyslexia (the
most prevalent disability in higher education), mental health problems,
visual or hearing impairments, and medical conditions such as epilepsy,
arthritis, diabetes and asthma. The information gathered by the interviews
will form an evidence base for a best practice guide, as well as providing
information and advice for academic and practice staff on relevant policy
and procedure. The project
focuses in the first instance on developing support for social work
students, but outcomes are relevant to other disciplines accessing
placements – for example - nursing, medicine and teaching.
The
multi-disciplinary team behind the project includes representatives from
the fields of social work, nursing and disability services. The findings
and recommendations will be disseminated nationally through partner
organisations SWAP ltsn (Social Work and Policy Learning and Teaching
Support Network), the National Organisation of Practice Teachers (NOPT),
the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the Practice Learning
Taskforce. The NMC, SWAP ltsn and NOPT are also represented on the project
Advisory Group. Jane Wray, PEdDS
Project Manager, at the University of Hull, says: “We’re quite used to
meeting the needs of disabled students here on the campus, but they
sometimes encounter difficulties when they’re in their placements. The
PEdDS project aims to address the problems and we hope it will have wider
benefits, too.” For further
information, the project website can be found at http://www.hull.ac.uk/pedds or
contact Research Assistant, Benedict Fell (b.fell@hull.ac.uk / 01482
466168). |
|
| |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
Eastern region
co-ordinators enjoy a working lunch |
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
Co-ordinators |
| |||||||||
|
share best
practice |
| |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
The group meets
every two months and provides a unique opportunity for Sharing
information, news, new thinking and ideas about best practice, as well as
considering how to develop projects on a regional basis generates much
debate. This is a regional group, but the issues being discussed and
tackled affect practice learning across the whole country. They
include:
One regular
attender is Lesley McNeill from Luton Housing
& Social Services Department. She says: “This forum brings even
greater strength to the local partnerships that already exist between
Higher Education Institutions, local authorities and other agencies. The
meetings provide an important opportunity to influence strategic
developments in practice learning, and the level of attendance at the
meetings shows the value being given to working together across the
region." Carol says: “The
enthusiasm to move forwards collaboratively in this group is hugely
encouraging. The opportunity for cross-fertilisation of ideas is
invaluable in our endeavours to develop the best possible practice
learning experiences for students. So far meetings
have taken place in Cambridge, Ipswich and Luton. January’s will be in
Southend. |
|
| |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
Events |
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
and publications
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
There are a
number of events coming up that will be of interest to anyone involved
with practice learning and related issues. If you know of others for
inclusion in future newsletters, please let us know. We have also
drawn up a list of some of the useful websites and publications containing
information about practice learning. Events ToppsEngland
Annual Conference – 12 February 2004 at East Midlands Conference Centre in
Nottingham
www.practicelearning.org.uk
www.doh.gov.uk/swqualification/learning.htm www.swap.ac.uk www.scie.org.uk www.topss.org.uk
Practice
Learning – In Focus Practice
Learning – Everybody’s Business Learning for
collaborative practice with other professions and
agencies Building
capacity to support the social work degree A framework for
supporting and assessing practice learning |
|
|
| |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|
|
Contacting |
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
us |
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
| |||||||||
|
|
|
|
If you would
like to contribute to this newsletter please send your ideas to Suzy
Butler - email suzy@clearco.co.uk. We are
particularly keen to hear about initiatives that involve users and carers
in the development and delivery of practice learning. For more
information about the Practice Learning Taskforce, please contact Jane
Dracup, Taskforce Administrator on 0113 241 1238 or jd.pltaskforce@topssengland.org.uk
or your regional change agent: Yorkshire
& Humber Eastern
West
Midlands Pervez
Akhtar South
East Lynda
Robinson North
West South
West North
East East
Midlands Pervez
Akhtar London Nasreen
Hammond |
|
| |||||
|
not to
receive further issues |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
| |||||||
|
|
| |||||||||
