Social work teaching partnership programme pilots : evaluation. Final research report, May 2016 (original) (raw)
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Social work teaching partnerships: a discussion paper
Social Work Education, 2019
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DFE-RB233 Evaluation of Social Work Practices
2012
Five social work practice (SWP) pilots started up in England between December 2009 and May 2010. These independent organisations were commissioned by local authorities to provide services for looked after children and care leavers. The pilots were introduced to discover whether smaller social workled organisations independent of local authorities could improve the morale and retention of social workers and bring decision making closer to front-line practice. These changes were expected to deliver increased consistency and stability of care for looked after children and care leavers. The pilots have differed substantially in their organisational forms and their origins and in the numbers and profiles of looked after children and young people they support (the Cohort). The SWPs comprised: SWP A An in-house SWP which has remained within the local authority as a separate and discrete unit. Cohort of 180 young people aged 14-21. SWP B A professional practice run as a private company by an organisation that already delivered social care training. Cohort of 80 children and young people aged 8-17 with high levels of need. SWP C A voluntary organisation already providing the local authority's care leaving service. Taking on the attributes of an SWP was a gradual process for an already established service. Cohort of 582 young people aged 16-24 at start-up (increased to 727 by Nov 2011). SWP D An SWP run by a voluntary organisation with a long history of providing services for local authorities. The SWP was a new venture for this organisation and staff were recruited specifically to this service. Cohort of 120 children and young people aged 0-17. SWP F A professional practice run as a social enterprise established by a group of social work practitioners who formerly worked for the host local authority and who moved out to form the SWP, taking with them responsibility for many of the children with whom they already worked. Cohort of 148 children and young people aged 8 and above. A sixth pilot failed to start as the local authority was diverted by an Ofsted inspection report that required it to focus on its core functions. At May 2012, three pilots looked set to continue until at least 2013 when contracts for those outside the local authority come up for renewal. However, two of the pilots had learnt that the local authorities would not be renewing their contracts and plans for returning these children and young people to the care of the local authorities were in place. The Evaluation An independent evaluation was commissioned by the Department for Education (formerly the Department for Children, Schools and Families) to:
Initiating, developing and sustaining social partnerships through partnership work
2005
Social partnerships are increasingly seen as a means by which both government and nongovernment agencies can identify and respond to localised need. This paper reports the findings of the first phase of the project that aims to inform how best social partnerships can be formed and developed to support vocational education and training at the local level. This phase sought to identify key principles and practices that will underpin this aim, using the experiences of 10 existing social partnerships. A key finding was the importance of partnership work. This is detailed through five dimensions of partnership work, and principles and practices that were identified and verified as most likely assisting the development and transformation of social partnerships over time. The dimensions of 'partnership work' comprise (i) cultural scoping work; (ii) connection building work; (iii) capacity building work; (iv) collective work, and (v) trust building work. The principles manifest with subtle differences at the initial and later stages of partnership work, include developing and maintaining: (i) shared goals; (ii) relations with partners; (iii) capacity for partnership work; (iv) governance and leadership, and (v) trust and trustworthiness. The specific implications for VET will be explored in the next phase of this project. Social partnerships In Australia, and worldwide, governments, civic organizations and global agencies, including those associated with vocational education and training (VET), are increasingly valuing social partnerships as means to understand and address local and regional concerns and for building social capital. 'Social partnerships' are localised networks that connect some combination of local community groups, education and training providers, industry and government to work on local issues and community-building activities (Seddon & Billett 2004). Social partnerships hold the prospect of engaging communities with government and non-government organizations in solving problems, making decisions, and negotiating desirable outcomes cooperatively. They are seen as a way to assist collaborative decision-making and build local capacity in ways that support economic, social and civic development attuned to local needs and circumstances. By its very nature, a partnership requires partners to collaborate in achieving common goals. However, the process of working together is complex and challenging, and at times contested. It requires partners and participants to understand that effective social partnerships work in specific ways directed towards shared goals or more likely, a common focus. This paper reports on a NVTRE funded research project to investigate the formation, development and continuity of in social partnerships in order to understand how best they might be initiated and developed. The project reviewed the workings and
The University of Bath has been working in partnership (now referred to as an alliance) with the Wiltshire and Swindon Users' Network for 12 years. This contribution charts the development of this relationship. It will describe how service users have been involved in an increasing range of areas of the programme, starting with teaching, but now including the Programme Management Group, groups dealing with selection and recruitment, curriculum development, assessment, quality assurance and equal opportunities. Service users teach, interview applicants, provide practice learning opportunities, practice teach and assess students. Reflecting our alliance this contribution combines the perspective of a service user, and the perspective of a university social work lecturer on our achievements.
Social Workers in Schools: An evaluation of pilots in three local authorities in England
2020
This evaluation looked at three pilot projects which embedded social workers in schools. It explored how working in this way might help reduce referrals, support schools, and reduce the need for children to enter care. Schools play a key part in keeping children safe, and tend to be a source of many referrals to Children’s Social Care. The thinking behind the project was that if we can improve the way schools and social workers work together, then there could be real benefits for children and families, schools and the social care system. The pilots, based in Lambeth, Southampton and Stockport, offer insights about how to implement such an intervention and give us some early indications about what impact it might have. Social workers did the full range of statutory work in all three places, thought the nature of the work and how the social work teams were configured varied between the pilots. Across the pilots there were a range of types of schools involved, including mainstream prim...
Although there are contentious debates concerning the nature of international and globalised social work, there is considerable evidence that Schools of Social Work Education are actively engaged in cross-border collaborations. Whilst this is occurring and although Social work as a professional discipline exists in diverse contexts across the globe, experiences and voices from the South Pacific have had limited attention. Building on 'data' drawn from the literature and a discussion of international social work, this paper reflects on a collaboration occurring between an Australian social work education program and one in Papua New Guinea. We review and describe a model that is based on transparent, collaborative relationships between equal, although different, partners. We continue to work on how to encourage louder voices from UPNG, but we conclude that focusing on long-term outcomes, built on small steps, offers a framework for meaningful and sustainable cross-border engagements in social work education.