Building a safe and confident
future: One year on
HE Forum 21st February
Employers
ADASS
ADCS
CAFCASS
Children England
LGA
LGID
LGE
Mind
NHS
Confederation
SOLACE
Government
BIS
DfE
DH
Educators
Association of SW Professors
SWAP
JUC-SWEC
Universities UK
Professional
Regulators
GSCC
HPC
Profession
Aspect
BASW
College of Social Work
Unison
Service users
A National Voice
Princess Royal Trust
for Carers
Shaping Our Lives
Delivery orgs
CQC
CWDC
HEFCE
Ofsted
QAA
SCIE
Skills for Care
Employers’ Reference Group
Social Workers’ Reference Group
Career development
working group
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Service users and carers
Education
working group
Assessed &
 Calibre of
Supported Year
entrants
in Employment
 Curriculum
Licence to
 Education
practise
regulation
Career structure
 CPD  Practice learning
Frontline
Managers
 Professional standards
Employers’ standard
Working group
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Employers’
standards
Supervision
Supply &
demand
Workloads
Partnerships
The National Reform Programme recommended by the
Social Work Task Force
One year on from the SWTF report
A different environment for reform
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Government, policy and priorities
– Deregulation and localisation
– Munro review of children’s services
– DH vision; personalisation
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Spending cuts and HE funding
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A new regulator – Health Professions Council
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Developing role for a new College of Social Work
Proposals for five key areas of
reform
• Anniversary report +
– Overarching Professional Capabilities Framework
– Standards for employers & supervision framework
– Principles for Continuing Professional Development
– Requirements for social work education
– Effective partnership working
Proposals to be published later this year:
• Assessed and supported year in employment
• Supply and demand model
Professional capabilities framework
• Currently no single comprehensive set of expectations of social
workers at each stage of their career
• Framework proposes nine capabilities that are relevant regardless
of level of experience
• Links to:
•Entry requirements, levels of placement, qualification
•AYSE and CPD
•Performance appraisal/pay and grading structures
• Forms the main stages of national social work career structure
• Capabilities agreed, elements under development
PCF – what next?
• Seeking your views on the strengths of the framework
and the challenges of developing and using it
• Particularly interested in:
• Use of the term ‘capabilities’
• Whether we have identified the right capabilities
• Whether we have included the right job roles
• SWRB consider early transfer to the College of Social
Work important
8 Standards for employers
• Effective workforce planning
• Transparent systems for workload management
• Tools and resources for effective practice,
minimising risk
• Regular and appropriate supervision
• Opportunities for CPD
• Support professional registration
• Effective partnerships for social work education
• Social work accountability framework
New coherent and effective CPD
framework
• Simple, accessible, portable
• Based on PCF to provide consistent/standardised learning
objectives
• A hybrid approach with an academic core and non academic
learning from range of activities (accredited and non-accredited)
• National recording system through performance appraisal
• Opens up new thinking about responsibility and entitlement
• Four principles unpin the proposals – for further discussion
What are the four principles?
CPD should:
• Support social workers to maintain and develop minimum
standards for re-registration
• Encourage and motive social workers to improve practice through
a wide range of learning opportunities, based on analysis of
individual needs, ambition, career stage and learning style
• Be underpinned by annual appraisal cycle and recording
• Be simple to access, value for money and with opportunities for
qualification and accreditation
CPD – what next?
• Seeking test sites to give feedback by the end of March
• Seeking your views on whether the proposals will improve the
effectiveness and development of social workers at all stages of
their career – (incl. impact of setting and finances)
• Particularly interested in testing out the principles against:
• existing initiatives and in different settings
• interrelationship between CPD achieved through academic
qualification and that achieved through a wide range of learning
opportunities in practice and outside the academic framework
• inter-relationship between local arrangements and the need for a
national framework.
• SWRB consider early transfer to the College of Social Work important
Improving the quality and consistency
of the social work degree
• Suite of proposals to improve the learning experiences of students
and result in graduates better prepared to meet the demands and
complexity of social work
• Proposals include:
– Improving calibre of entrants - guidance spring/summer 2011
– New arrangements for practice learning – guidance
spring/summer 2011
– Continuing work on content and delivery of the curriculum
– New Curriculum framework and guidance ready for consultation
by Sept 2011, published April 2012 /adopted Sept 2013
What are the proposals for calibre of
entrants?
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Written test for all
Individual interview
Group exercises
Agreed UCAS/A’ level points
English language assessment
Basic skills; English, Maths and IT
Continuing involvement of employers and people who
use services
What are the proposals for new
practice learning arrangements?
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2 placements: 1st 70 days and 2nd 100 days – across
the country
30 days to be used flexibly for skills development
Practice learning curriculum including statutory
interventions for final placement
All students to be assessed by qualified and
experienced social workers with Practice Educator
standards
Qualifying Curriculum
Specification of outcomes using the PCF
Guidance on topics including:
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research
assessment
'specialism's
'process'
CPD for educators
Masters vs BA/BSc
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different routes
practice learning
exit routes
SU&C involvement
IPE
the student 'contract'
Initial social work education – what
next?
• Seeking test sites to try out some of these proposals (placement
days, skills development, assessment) but not time limited
• Seeking views on whether the proposals will improve the learning
experience of students and result in better trained social workers –
(incl. impact of funding constraints)
• Particularly interested in:
• How we can ensure these changes are adopted
• SWRB consider eventual owners of initial training will be the
Health Professions Council (regulator) and College of Social Work
(standards)
Effective partnership working
• A partnership framework between employers and educators
across whole spectrum of education and professional development
• Practice placements
• ASYE
• CPD
• Supply & demand
• Aim is to build on existing partnerships - local, flexible and diverse
• Able to respond to future change
• Introduction of formal written agreements
What is the proposed partnership
framework?
Partnership should be:
• Driven by a shared understanding of the mutual benefits of
partnership
• Based on a formal written agreement, supported by the
regulatory framework, sector standards and good practice
• Based around local, flexible and diverse partnerships, building
on existing arrangements, where possible.
• Structured to operate at strategic and operational levels, and
informed by workforce planning, supply and demand
• Structured to operate across the whole spectrum of education
and professional development and able to respond flexibly to
new initiatives and policy developments
Effective partnership – what next?
• Seeking test sites to give feedback by the end of March
• Seeking your views on whether the framework will create effective
partnerships between employers and HEIs
• Particularly interested in:
• What goals can be addressed by effective partnerships
• How written agreements will help and what they are likely to
contain
• How existing arrangements need to evolve to meet these new
expectations
• SWRB consider eventual owners of partnership framework are
likely to be College of Social Work with endorsement from other key
organisations
Next steps
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Discussion today
Debate in other forums
Test sites
Collated JUC-SWEC/APSW/SWAP
response to SWRB
• Further development of the PCF at
qualifying level and ASYE