As a team the Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work are proud of our reputation and achievements and our aim is to improve the quality of social work practice in the UK through helping social workers increase their level of competence, knowledge and skills. To this end, we work tirelessly to ensure that our courses are relevant, current and reflect modern professional and policy contents.

In particular, the Leadership and Management courses have been designed, developed and evaluated to respond to the Social Work Task Force recommendation that a clear Leadership and Management Framework be developed for front-line social managers. During 2010/2011 we worked with a number of organisations to design, pilot and evaluate a leadership policy in social work/care and these units and courses are the product of this research and development.

The Employers’ Guide to Leadership and Management Programmes has been designed in conjunction with Leadership and Management Development for Social Work and Social Care publication released in September 2011.

Learn to Care and SWC to provide advice and guidance on the developing CPD agenda including the publication further guidance materials for the sector. Partnerships, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL): Supporting Work Force Development across the Social Care Sector, Third Edition.

We first published the first edition of ‘Partnerships, CPD and APL’ in 2006 as a response to the requests for advice, guidance and support from employers and employees. Four years on, the world of workforce development in social care had changed somewhat, and in reaction to the 15 recommendations published by the Social Work Task Force in 2009, a second edition was published in April 2010.

The recent work of the Social Work Reform Board (2010) and the launch of The College of Social Work have brought a new focus on the need for active quality partnerships between employers and social work educators. To ensure that employers and employees are informed and supported; a third edition is now needed and will be published in the near future.

Issues surrounding partnerships, CPD and APL can be both complex and sensitive. We do not profess to have all the answers, but instead we seek a way forward that will ultimately have a positive impact on people who use services and their carers.

National Competence Framework for Safeguarding Adults

Learn to Care and Bournemouth University undertook this work in partnership to reflect the significant role that learning and developing plays in the delivery of high standards of social work and social care.

The framework will be invaluable to Adult Safeguarding Boards, practitioners and learning and development personnel, both in managing performance and delivering quality outcomes for people who are made vulnerable by their circumstances.

National Competence Framework for Safeguarding Children

This document complies with legislation, statutory guidance and best practice in relation to the safeguarding of children. Local Safeguarding Boards should take account of local needs, including an assessment of the effectiveness of multi-agency training to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people (Munro, 2011).

This document incorporates the recommendations from Professor Eileen Munro’s review into Child Protection in England and Wales.

The aim of this Framework, as with the other publication in this series – National Competence Framework for Safeguarding Adults – is to provide a baseline for standards of competence that individuals can expect to receive from those professionals and organisations, who are tasked with Safeguarding Children. It also provides employees and employers with a benchmark for the minimum standard of competence required of those who work to safeguard children across a range of sectors.

Author Lynne Rutter from the Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work at Bournemouth Universityexplains more about professional learning, a new way of thinking and her own research.

“I am intrigued by the psychology associated with learning. It is obviously an emotional and very personal experience, especially for qualified practitioners, but it should also be an empowering experience.

“For me, professional higher education is about developing more complex thinking which has practical, reflective, personal, moral, as well as objective, conceptual and theoretical aspects. All these aspects are part of professional reasoning and judgement and ultimately professional understanding and knowledge, and so are equally important.

“My journey has led me to understand that there is a productive and empowering synergy here if no one aspect is privileged over the others and if a professional perspective becomes a focus. These were very important elements within the professional doctorate which made it very meaningful and useful for my own practice. The book brings much of this work together and aims to highlight and develop the complex thinking associated with professional learning as a key part of developing confidence and authority in a professional role.”

Order a copy of ‘Critical thinking and professional judgement for social work’.

A new report that will serve as a blueprint for effective leadership in social work and social care has just been published by the Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work at BournemouthUniversity.

Entitled ‘Leadership and Management Development for Social Work and Social Care: Creating Leadership Pathways of Progression’, the ground-breaking report is co-authored by Professor Keith Brown, Director of the Centre, and Jane Holroyd MBE on behalf of Learn to Care, the body which represents workforce development managers from all local authorities in England.

The report provides the UK’s first framework for establishing an effective Leadership and Management pathway in social work and social care.  It addresses the major concerns and recommendations identified following the Peter Connelly case by the Social Work Reform Board (2009) and the Munro Review of Child Protection Services (2011) in terms of the call for a clear leadership and management strategy for front line social work managers.

This new framework has been developed over the past 18 months and has involved rigorous testing and piloting. A new underpinning theory and approach, Self-Leadership, which critically emphasises the quality of thinking and developing the abilities to manage self as part of improving personal and organisational performance, has been developed by Professor Brown and Jane Holroyd. Holroyd suggests this model is applicable to all professions, whatever their managerial position, as all professionals will be leaders within their own sphere of influence.

The report also highlights the critical role of assessment and evaluation to demonstrate that individuals have reached the required levels of competence and that a return on the investment is evidenced.

Conor Burns, MP for Bournemouth West, has hailed the framework as enormously important for the future of long term care in the UK.

“Reputationally for Bournemouth University, this is an incredibly important breakthrough. What we are currently doing with social work and social care training is teaching without testing and training without measuring the impact,” he said.

“As a state, we are spending millions and millions and not questioning the effectiveness of that spend”.

The Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work at Bournemouth University is at the leading edge of post qualifying social work education in the UK. It works with over one third of all local authorities in England and over 70 major employers, including training social workers within the armed forces.

The Centre’s portfolio of courses are designed to raise standards in social work practice and help those in social work and social care demonstrate their competence to work within complex situations with the most vulnerable in our society.

Of particular note, this leadership framework has been developed to meet the requirements of the NHS Leadership Qualities Framework and it is anticipated that this will be of real value, especially as we see increasing integration between the NHS and Local Authority community services in the coming months.

You can order a copy of the publication by emailing kbrown@bournemouth.ac.uk 

The presentation will provide information on error and adverse incidents, supporting those involved in such cases and the implications they have on primary care nursing.

The event is designed to discuss best practice and current health issues including: Asthma, nutrition, drug and alcohol misuse, mental health and suicide, sexual health, women’s health and diabetes.

Held at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) on November 1, the event is aimed at primary care nurses who include practice nurses, health visitors, community nurses, school nurses, healthcare assistants, midwives, PCT nursing staff managers and district nurses.

Exhibitors, charities, colleges and pharmaceutical companies will also be attending the event to show their products and samples to attendees. Key note speeches will be given by leading names in primary healthcare.

For further information please see: http://www.nursinginpractice.com/bournemouth

The report, ‘Leadership and Management Development for Social Work and Social Care,’ is in response to the government’s requirement for dedicated training and support for frontline managers.

Professor Keith Brown is director of Bournemouth University’s centre for post-qualifying social work. Speaking to Guardian journalist Linda Jackson he said: “Effective leadership is the fundamental bedrock of the profession. Arguably, getting supervision right is a specialist professional remit rather than a generalist one. It is vital to have leadership development for managers, who need to be able to challenge decisions and have a professional responsibility to individuals and communities as well as to their employers. Currently, there is a lot of training out there but it is not assessed – and does not make a difference to frontline practice.”

Professor Brown’s report is currently being delivered to workforces across England. For more information read in the article ‘A Model for Good Social Care Management’ published in today’s Guardian.

Bournemouth University’s Centre For Post Qualifying Social Work

Professor Keith Brown