Social Work Skills Days - An Introduction

Why do we have skills days? They are part of the new requirements of the qualifying programme in Social Work, ( Social Work Task Force, which, amongst other things, reviewed social work education). Social work students have to go out onto work placements READY to carry quite a lot of responsibility and to work with some independence, not under constant supervision, unlike other care professions. Therefore, much greater preparation is needed before the first placement module occurs in the course, in order to make sure that students are ready to practice with vulnerable service users, children, adults, families and groups. Scaffolding of skills development across the courses to enable learning and develop critical reflection skills Social work qualification courses are required to run a programme of ‘Developing skills for practice’ of at least 30 days (generally known as ‘skills days’). There was a consensus that the approach taken to skills days in 2015/16 was far better than that which was previously in place, but it was also felt that even more attention needed to be paid to sequencing and organisational arrangements to make the most of these times. Students and others also drew attention to specific issues where training needed to be developed or extended on these days. These included practical skills, particularly in relation to undertaking assessments, dealing with conflict, and communicating with service users of all ages. Students were convinced that input from the field and from service users was vital in allowing them to access and explore the knowledge base of those who were considered to hold 'expertise by virtue of their experience'. The 30 skills days' delivery plan could be seen in Appendix 1.

Messages from Stakeholders Practice Educators told us that students would benefit from being better prepared to do assessments, make plans and conduct reviews, and to make active use of the supervision they provide. They said that students need more help to make the connections between theories, research, values and practice. Having these skills days running through the academic modules will provide a bridge between the theoretical learning and the practical application.

Messages from Stakeholders Students varied previous social care experience. For some students, their work placement is the first time that they have been in a professional environment on a full-time basis, and there is therefore a need to make sure that the fundamentals of professional conduct, including formal communication formats are addressed. Service users want student social workers to be attentive, honest, and reliable. They want students to be good listeners, and to ask questions in a way that is thoughtful but thorough. They don't expect you to know everything, but they expect you to know how to find out, and they expect you to do what you have promised to do.

Messages from Stakeholders Students told us that they would have liked to have more opportunities to think about practicalities like personal safety, HOW to conduct yourself on a home visit, and HOW to do running records of their work. Students wanted more practice of interviewing, assessment skills and other professional skills such as task centred practice BEFORE they go out on placement and have to do these things "for real" and be observed and assessed whilst doing them. The PCF also defines key skills at each level.

How did we decide what to include in the Skills Days? The College of Social Work specified that there should be 30 skills days, spread through the whole of the course.(TCSW 2012) The Professional Capabilities Framework, which defines nine domains of knowledge, skills and values. The Framework has different levels, and you already passed the first one in being selected for a place on the course. In the first year of your course, the modules and skills days address the "Readiness for Practice" level of the PCF. Students' need to read and understand this document and use it to gauge your progress.

How we developed the Skills Days Programme During the period of time when we were re-designing our courses to meet the new requirements, we engaged with: students, practice educators (the people who supervise and assess students in practice) service users, carers, social workers and managers To identify the whole range of skills needed to prepare for placement and to continue to develop skills between the two SW placements, and Prepare our graduates for a challenging career by the end of the course.

Skills days -an "Escalator" model We therefore arrived at an agreed set of 30 skills days, which are the same across all our social work programmes. They are spread in slightly different ways in each course in order to fit with other aspects of course design. Some of the early days are about "micro-level" skills and are likely to be a refresher such as email and running records, the fundamentals of listening and rapport-building. But these soon build into bigger and more challenging areas like assessment and planning, using specific interventions, and the fundamentals of safeguarding. By the end of the course, there are days about courtroom skills and career management. So there is a progressive pattern through the range of days.

Skills Day 1. Office skills 2. Case recording 3. Rapport, active listening and empathy 4. Clarifying, probing, challenging 5. Assessing needs, risks, strengths, planning an intervention 6. Task Centred Practice 7. Motivational interviewing 8. Personal Safety on Home visits 9. Shadowing virtual visit; family scenario (to include basic safeguarding) 10. Shadowing virtual visit, adult scenario (to include basic safeguarding) 11. Using Supervision, reflection, handling feedback 12. Transcultural communication 13. Communicating with different service users (children, people with LD, MH, and Dementia etc.) 14. Inter-professional skills. 15. Roles, boundaries, consent and confidentiality 16. Risk Management 17. Family Group Conferencing 18. Solution Focused approaches 19. Group work skills 20. Crisis Intervention 21. Outcome focused practice and reviewing 22. Complex safeguarding - Children 23. Complex Safeguarding - Adults 24. Managing Ethical dilemmas 25. Report writing 26. Emotional resilience for practitioners 27. Long term service users (LAC, adults with long-term issues) 28. Working with hostile and involuntary service users 29. Courts and Tribunals 30. Career skills, preparing for ASYE.

Skills days on YOUR programme BA Social Work (BASW) BASW has 15 in year ONE - Level 4 BASW Level 4 - Two modules : Readiness for Social Work 1: Evidence for studies and practice (7 skills days and Readiness for practice and Social work 2: Values and AOP (8 days) BASW has 8 skills days in year TWO Level 5: Modules: Social work practice with children young people and families (4 days) and Social Work Practice with Adults (4 skills days) - Skills days (16-23) BASW skills day for year Three Level 6 (within the Developing Critical Practice Module 7 skills days)(Skills days 23-30).

Skills days on YOUR programme BA Learning Disability and Social Work (BANSW) BANSW has 10 skills days at Level 4. (Joint teaching with BASW level 4). BANSW level 5 - 10 skills days with skills day 16-20 with BASW. BANSW level 6- 10 skills days with skills day 21-30 delivery on their own AND MSW year 1 - Skills day 1-20 prior to placement experience one MSW year 2 - Skills day 21-30 prior to placement two

Teaching and Learning Blended learning: role play exercises, simulation activities, service user led, practitioner led, actors, group discussion and practical application e.g. MOOT Court Using Reflective Diary Sheets: analysing progress against the domains of the PCF. Also, future SW placement your practice educator may ask to see your Readiness for Practice portfolio, paying attention to WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED 4hrs teaching - split 2hrs x 2 sessions per day

Feedback from students " Different perspectives from service users, gives meaning to their stories" "I have enjoyed the service user involvement sessions and the importance of this for my practice" "Having service users coming to talk to us and share some of their experiences was hard to listen to but very good examples" "The court room skills days prepared me for the realities of children and families work" Would prefer this session before we go out on placement one" "I have enjoyed the children and adults safeguarding sessions with the video clips using actors - that made me think about how I would be as a social worker" "The session on Family group conferencing and Solution Focused Interventions helped me to link theory with practice"  

Next Steps Evaluation of the Skills days: June 2017-September 2017 Opportunity for the Teaching Partnership development of skills days 2018-2019 Creative joint teaching opportunities with practioners and service users/ carers