1. The Practice Educator's role in holistic assessment of
the Professional Capabilities Framework:
using professional judgement to enhance the quality of practice
NOPT Conference
Ruskin College, Oxford, 4th July 2013
Hilary Burgess
(HEA/University of Bristol)
Co-chair of the SWRB Curriculum Committee and very involved in the development of the PCF

2. What we will cover today
The nature and purpose of the PCF
The PCF in qualifying SW Education
The PCF in practice placements
Holistic assessment and TCSW/HEA guidance
What’s new for all parties
Some challenges
Just to help me get an idea of the audience here today I’d really like to know
How familiar are you with the PCF
VERY STRONG GRASP: Have a role in disseminating its use
GOOD GRASP: Have used it for assessment e.g. the ASYE, or Have worked with colleagues and HEIs on how to use it
REASONABLE GRASP: Understand it and begun to use it
NOT V FAMILIAR: Seen the fan, looked at it
NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE
For how many students have you been a PE?
None; 1-3; 4-6; More!
When did you become a PE?
In the last 5 years (2008 on)
In the last 10 years (2003 – 2008)
Prior to 2003 – i.e. DipSW days
CQSW or CSS!

3. Purpose of the PCF
The PCF ‘sets out the profession’s expectations of what a social worker should be able to do at each stage of their career and professional development’.

4. Professional Capabilities Framework for Social Workers

5. The Nine Domains Professionalism. Values and Ethics. Diversity.
Rights, Justice and Economic Well-being.
Knowledge.
Critical Reflection and Analysis.
Intervention and Skills.
Contexts and Organisations.
Professional Leadership.

6. The nine levels Entry to SW qualifying programmes.
Assessed readiness for direct practice
End of first placement
End of second placement/end of progamme
End of ASYE.
Social Worker
Experienced Social Worker
Advanced Social Worker; Professional SW Educator; SW Manager
Strategic SW Educator; Principal SW; Strategic SW Manager.

7. Features of the PCF 9 domains and 9 levels.
Domains are interdependent.
Relevant to social workers in all settings and with all user groups.
First attempt to provide a professional framework linked to career progression.
Developed by social workers for social workers, held by TCSW on behalf of profession.
Will change and develop to reflect developments in the profession.

8. Features of the PCF (2)
Based on the notion of ‘Capability’: ‘An integration of knowledge, skills, personal qualities and understanding used appropriately and effectively – not just in familiar and highly focused specialist contexts but in response to new and changing circumstances’
Developmental cf competences
Provides coherence to standards/requirements and expectations at all levels

9. Progression Progression between levels is characterised by the
‘development of people’s ability to manage complexity, risk, ambiguity and increasingly autonomous decision-making across a range of situations.’

10. The PCF in qualifying SW education
Entry
ARDP
End of first placement
End final placement/qualification

11. Entry (admission point)
The capability statements at this level are intended to be used as a framework for selection of applicants to programmes, by academics with employers and/or practitioners, and service users and carers
By the point of entry to SW qualifying programmes, prospective students/candidates should demonstrate awareness of social context for social work practice, awareness of self, ability to develop rapport, and the potential to develop relevant knowledge, skills and values through professional training.

12. Assessment of Readiness for Direct Practice
The statements at this level should be used as a framework to assess students’ readiness to go out on placement.
By this point students should demonstrate basic communication skills, ability to engage with users, capacity to work as a member of an organisation, willingness to learn from feedback and supervision, and demonstrate basic social work values, knowledge and skills in order to be able to make effective use of first practice placement.

13. End of first placement
Statements at this level to be used as a framework to assess whether students have successfully completed their first placement.
By this stage students should demonstrate effective use of knowledge, skills and commitment to core values in social work in a given setting in predominantly less complex situations, with supervision and support; and the capacity to work with people and situations where there may not be simple clear-cut solutions

14. End of last placement/ qualifying point
Statements at this level are used to assess whether student has successfully completed their qualification.
By this stage students should have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and values to work with a range of user groups, the ability to undertake a range of tasks at a foundation level and the capacity to work with more complex situations. They must be able to work more autonomously; whilst recognising that the final decision will still rest with their supervisor, they will seek appropriate support and supervision.
These capabilities will have been demonstrated through the last placement together with other work on the qualifying programme.

15. So what’s new?
Practice learning progression linked into continuing professional development
First and last placements clearly identified nationally in terms of staged learning
Linked to uniform model of (30) day placement
Capability not competence
National guidance on assessment for practice learning using holistic approach

16. Other contextual changes
Practice Educator Professional Standards
ASYE
Supervision guidelines
‘Health checks’ and Employers Standards
BUT
Cuts to budgets/staffing/’austerity’
Mounting caseloads
Mounting needs

17. Also
Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Standards of Proficiency for Social Workers
SoPs mapped against the PCF at qualifying level at
PCF qualifying level mapped against the SoPS at
What this means for students is that even though your social work course will be ‘constructed’ using the PCF, you can be confident that if you can evidence that you meet the capabilities of the PCF at the end of last placement/qualifying level, you should be able to evidence how you meet the Standards of Proficiency as well (TCSW)

18. What is holistic assessment?
Reflects the complexity (non-linearity) of SW practice: and the interplay of knowledge, skills and values, within changing contexts
All nine domains of the PCF have to be taken into account to assess a student’s capability, rather than looking at each separately.
Similarly, assessment within each domain is undertaken by looking across the elements.
The nine capabilities should be seen as interdependent, not separate. As they interact in professional practice, so there are overlaps between the capabilities within the domains, and many issues will be relevant to more than one domain. Understanding of what a social worker does will only be complete by taking into account all nine capabilities.
Understanding what a social worker does will only be realised by taking into account all nine capabilities. Similarly, it is important that assessment of progression should be made holistically: neither the nine domains nor the capability statements set for each level should be evaluated in isolation from each other.
So, for example if there is a problem in terms of someone’s value –base it is likely to be observed and have an impact not just on their performance of that capability, but also in others domains, such as their intervention skills, and critical reflection. Similarly, the defined elements within each capability are likely to function holistically – they are not discrete, segmented areas. So here for example, if when looking within the professionalism domain, a student is showing signs of struggling with awareness of personal and professional boundaries, it is not uncommon for them also to struggle to recognise their limitations, and how to seek advice, and to recognise and act on own learning needs in response to practice experience.

19. What is holistic assessment? (2)
Holistic assessment is ‘progressive’ (leading to a final decision) – cf ‘formative’ or ‘summative’ assessment. In progressive assessment everything that takes places counts towards the assessment decision.
Each stage should build on the previous one, with links between the ARDP, first placement and last placement, into the ASYE

20. What is holistic assessment? (3)
‘To understand and undertake a holistic approach to assessment, the partial and the contextual must be considered together. In this way, we arrive at a synthesis of specific and general, discrete and dynamic. This is a truly holistic approach to assessment.' (Doel et al, 1992)
Where learning or performance objectives are complex ‘the judgment of the assessor is considered central in making a holistic decision about the quality of performance,’ and ‘Understanding the whole in the light of the parts’ (Biggs, 2007)
Previous interpretation of the NOS tended to suggest and reinforce a segmented or ‘partial’ approach (‘tick-box’)
This represents a significant change from the way in which the National Occupational Standards were often viewed and assessed, that is that there were seen as distinct areas of competence that could be evidenced separately. The PCF is a way in which the complexity of social work practice is fully reflected. Similarly, the move from the concept of ‘competence’ to that of ‘capability’ reflects the desire for social work education and development to move away from a mechanistic ‘tick box’ approach to a more holistic approach and one which expects educators, students and professional social workers to consider people’s professional capabilities in a rounded way, and helps people to identify areas for development.
The capabilities are much broader than competences, and are not designed or intended to be ‘assessment criteria’. We do, though have to make sure that we know what the capability statements mean, and how we can judge whether they have been demonstrated or not.
Thus TCSW states that: Professionals and their practice will be assessed ‘holistically’, by which we mean that throughout their careers, social work students and practitioners need to demonstrate integration of all aspects of learning, and provide a sufficiency of evidence across all nine domains.

21. What is holistic assessment? (4)
Thus practice educators need to exercise judgment, yet also pay attention to detail where necessary
Analogies
Assessing a meal
Assessing architectural submissions or PhD’s
Assessing individuals and families as a SW

22. TCSW/HEA Guidance on holistic assessment for practice learning
Developed with PEs and academics from across England
Recommended templates in which PE records their judgement of student's capability overall, then in each of the nine domains
Supporting evidence from: DOPs, critical reflections of practice, feedback from service users & carers, evidence from supervision, agency records, student’s work, other (ideally all linked to the PCF)
A robust but concise portfolio
Other could include
e.g. presentations, learning logs, feedback from other professionals, webcam, video recording, live supervision/teaching

23. HEA/TCSW Guidance (2) The student comments on the report
The tutor comments on the report
The report is submitted with a recommendation to the PAP or similar
Guidance emphasises significance of placement support structures (tutor; PAP and/or other intervention measures) to clarify how problems in the placement will be resolved
Importance of interim review
Importance of clear and transparent decision- making process and appeals
Student not evidencing self as sole measure – more focus on the judgement of the PE - so need to protect students for situations where there are factors that might cloud the PE’s judgement. ESSEBTIAL role f tutor here in terms of early intervention.
Using and understanding the PCF is part of the students’ learning. It is important that they are able to work actively with the PCF themselves, both as students and, in the future, as professional social workers. This means that students should be responsible for identifying, discussing and presenting evidence of their achievements linked to the PCF to their practice educators and they should be able say why they believe it is sufficient and appropriate.
However, assessment should not be limited to the evidence students produce. The role of practice educators is to give feedback on whether or not the students’ evidence is sufficient and to suggest other ways capability can be demonstrated, as necessary.
Stress importance of tutor role, so access to tutors or other HE members of the PL team v important
Problems e.g.
Student illness
Problems in relationship between the PE and the student
Problems in the PL setting

25. What is new for Practice Educators?
The PE’s judgment is central, and forms the basis of the recommendation to the PAP or Exam Board (as opposed to the onus being primarily on student to self-evidence and the PE to verify)
So PE has more control/power/autonomy
Writing a holistic assessment may be new and require a different approach

26. Links to the ASYE
General congruence of TCSW/HEA guidance with that for ASYE assessment
Some PEs will be using this already

27. What is new for Students?
‘A focus on practice, not writing about practice’
They need to understand the criteria from the relevant level of the PCF, and refer to this in their discussion of practice, whilst not seeking to evidence every single part
Need to be aware of progressive (continual) assessment
Need to flag up any concerns (about the placement setting or the PE early)
Incoming students – they will not be aware of a change!
Graeme Simpson – University of Wolverhampton

28. What is new for Academics?
Need to be aware of and intervene if there are problematic dynamics between the student and PE
Need to support PEs generally to be confident about their own judgements (e.g. workshops)
Need to support the PE view, unless there is strong evidence to suggest this is flawed or unfair
Need to ensure consistently/QA of PE’s

29. Working with HEIs and within regions
HEIs encouraged to work with PE’s and workforce development teams to build awareness of the PCF and of holisitic assessment
HEIs encouraged to develop regional collaboration for PL arrangements e.g. Pan London, E.Midlands etc, so that PEs are working to similar expectations

30. Some challenges
Changing the culture of practice education: from tick-box to judgement
Linking assessment of practice with other assessment work in HE
Meeting both the PCF and the HCPC SoPs
Using/adapting TCSW/HEA guidance
Local/regional coordination
Helping final year students think about their next steps: PDP/ASYE learning plans
Reversion to the familiar!
Guidance and more guidance!! #
PCF and SoPS
Are mapped against each other (on TCSW and HCPC site)
Different ways of managing this: e.g. Portsmouth/more common
Working with PE’s – see W’ton workshop
Linking to wider assessment issues – see ADRP, but alo final assesment ~ placement and other HEI work
PDP – really interested to know if any HEIs have developed PDPs to reflect the PCF
Using/adapting TCSW/HEA guidance and regional coordination – see Pan London approach. Exemplars onto TCS site and SWAPbox – maybe more in due course
Some early adopters e.g. U of B’ham and U of Wolverhampton

31. A final thought
Exercising judgment is at the core of social work practice
PE’s have a vital gate-keeping role for the profession, but a decision to defer or fail will be made with input from others
PEs have a central role in developing the NQSW’s of tomorrow, some of whom will go on to be PSW’s, Directors, Professors or even Chief Social Workers!

32. Kate Johnson (TCSW) kate.johnson@tcsw.org.uk NOPT admin@nopt.org
Feedback about holistic assessment and the use of the PCF to Hilary Burgess (HEA)
Kate Johnson (TCSW)
NOPT