An Exploration of Issues affecting the assessment of social Work students on practice placement in England

Abstract

The authors of this practice note acknowledge the centrality of practice learning in social work training in England. They recognise it is a defining feature of social work training. However they critically discuss the current model used to assess social work students on placement in England; a process prompted by research one of the authors presented at the 12th International Conference on Practice Teaching and Field Education in Health and Social Work, September 2018.The PN reviews persitant issues in the assessment of students on placement and argues these have been exacerbated by changes to practice within the English higher education system and social work practice. They argue the current system is fundamentally flawed and encourage the SW profession to reflect using imagination and creativity to envisage alternative ways to assess students practice and to identify new ideas to pilot.

Social work field education in the United Arab Emirates: Emerging standards, opportunities, and challenges

“…Citing neoliberal policy trends, Canada, Australia, and England are among countries where the social service sector is facing issues of increased and complex caseloads, funding cutbacks, and increased accountability measures which adversely impact the availability of placements and placement supervision (Ayala et al, 2018; Caffrey and Fruin, 2018; Zuchowski et al, 2019). These complexities are exacerbated by increased student enrollment, and competition among higher education providers (Ayala et al, 2018).…”