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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 BogoGovernment 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 WorkISSN
0045-3102Publisher
Oxford University PressExternal DOI
Issue
6Volume
44Page range
1402-1418Department affiliated with
- Social Work and Social Care Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes