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Perfect opportunity~perfect storm? Raising the standards of social work education in England

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 13:59 authored by Imogen Taylor, Marion Bogo
Government plans to reform social work in England, led by the Social Work Reform Board, have resulted in far-reaching changes to social work education. These include establishment of The College of Social Work and adoption of its Performance Capability Framework, and transfer of regulation to the Health Care Professions Council whose Standards of Proficiency competences gate-keep the threshold to practice. A critical scrutiny of the literature on competence and capability used by the architects of change provides a lens with which to explore findings from a content analysis of the new standards. Comparisons are made with the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) competences approved by the American Council on Social Work Education. Fault lines are identified that might seriously jeopardise the future of social work education in England and ways forward are explored to address these. First, given the importance of making what's important assessable, the choice is presented between opting for ‘wicked competences’ or investing in the design of complex assessment models and their operation. Second, the priority of building robust partnerships to contain different stakeholder objectives is underlined. Both are essential to prevent fault lines developing into a perfect storm.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

British Journal of Social Work

ISSN

0045-3102

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Issue

6

Volume

44

Page range

1402-1418

Department affiliated with

  • Social Work and Social Care Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-01-24

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