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Why choose the School of Society, Community and Health
Part of the Step Up to Social Work programme that allows you to become a qualified social worker in just 14 months.
100% of students from the last cohort of Step Up to Social Work gained employment as a qualified social worker.
The course runs once every two years; the next course will run 2026/27, opening for applications February/March 2025.
About the course
This innovative Postgraduate Diploma blends practical experience with academic study, leading to a nationally recognised professional qualification in social work. Commissioned by two regional employer partnerships, it provides high-quality, work-based education and training for aspiring social workers, with placements in a local authority. The course is funded by the Department for Education; students receive a bursary and are fully supported by a local authority children’s services department. To apply, you need at least six months’ experience (work or volunteering) with children, young people or families.
Find out more about Step Up to Social Work
Course accreditation
Our Social Work courses are accredited by Social Work England. Once you have completed this course, you will be a qualified social worker and can apply to Social Work England for your professional registration.
Facilities and specialist equipment
- Gain access to the Faculty’s range of simulation units and the Moot Court for practising real-world scenarios you may encounter
- Laptops and mobile phones (where applicable) are provided by your local authority for use while on placement
Industry links
Two Step Up regional partnerships: South East (Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes, Central Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire) and the Central Eastern (Hertfordshire, Luton and Bedford).
Your student experience
Our social sciences courses rank 7th overall in their subject field in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2024; they rank in 1st place for assessment, with top 10 rankings for teaching, engagement and learning community.
Benefit from intensive, hands-on experience of working in a social work role through placements in a local authority.
Earn as you learn with a tax-free bursary and payment of University fees for successful applicants.
Study the social power structures that create inequalities alongside the tools and techniques you can use to counter them.
Build the transferable skills of initiative, resourcefulness, critical reflection and emotional literacy.
On successful completion, you are guaranteed an interview for a social worker role.
After you complete the course, there is also the option to 'top up' your PgDip to a Master's, while working as a qualified social worker, by completing an optional dissertation unit. In some circumstances, your local authority may pay your university fees for this unit.
Course Leader - Laura Shephard
I have experience in working with adults with learning disabilities, adults with mental health difficulties and adults with substance misuse issues but my practice experience has primarily been in the field of child and adolescent mental health.
I have practised social work across a community CAMHS clinic, an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit and a hospital at home crisis service, and have been safeguarding and social work lead within these services. I have had training in a number of therapeutic approaches including Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Dialectic Behaviour Therapy, Structured Clinical Management and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
I took up my position as Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Bedfordshire in 2021 and currently lead on units relating to law and ethics, reflective practice, and authority and control in social work practice.
Course Leader - Laura Shephard
I have experience in working with adults with learning disabilities, adults with mental health difficulties and adults with substance misuse issues but my practice experience has primarily been in the field of child and adolescent mental health.
I have practised social work across a community CAMHS clinic, an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit and a hospital at home crisis service, and have been safeguarding and social work lead within these services. I have had training in a number of therapeutic approaches including Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Dialectic Behaviour Therapy, Structured Clinical Management and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
I took up my position as Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Bedfordshire in 2021 and currently lead on units relating to law and ethics, reflective practice, and authority and control in social work practice.
What will you study?
Studying our Professional Social Work Practice PgDip course will equip you with the knowledge and expertise in areas of sociology, social policy, and social work practice for social work with children and families. As a core part of your practice, Developing Professional Social Work Practice will allow you to explore key issues, theories and advanced skills in working directly with people and in doing so, assess your readiness to go into your 70-day placement. With a critical approach, you will develop advanced communication skills to work in complex and unpredictable social work environments. In relation to theory, you will develop a deep understanding of current discourse around human development, consider ethical practice and learn the methods of intervention to work with people.
You will then refine your approach to practice in our Reflective Social Work Practice unit to develop your skills as a critically reflective practitioner as you engage in a 100-day placement working alongside professionally qualified practitioners in a statutory childcare setting. One element that feeds into your social work practice is ethics, and this is where our Ethical Perspectives on Law and Society will allow you to explore legal, ethical, social policy and sociological themes in social work practice. You will consider ethical and professional principles such as equality, empowerment, partnership and anti-discriminatory practice. To add to this, you will develop knowledge around the models, policies and practice in Research Informed Child Care Practice. As the unit suggests, the first part of this unit will introduce you to research skills for social workers and how to use this to inform practice.
Following this, you will develop a crucial ability to work in partnership and communicate with different agencies and disciplines based on legal requirements and policy. This may extend into areas such as disability, addiction, mental illness, domestic violence and more. You will also be critical of policy and practice in social work provision in the childcare sector and subsequently make recommendations to improve the delivery of these services. Once you have completed your PgDip and have begun working as a newly qualified social worker, there is an option to complete an additional unit in our Dissertation for Social Workers. This will allow you to undertake a practice-based research project into a topic of your interest as you develop a critical understanding of a specific area in the field and apply advanced research skills to develop informed solutions to improved practice.
How will you be assessed?
The course is assessed using a range of methods including formally assessed papers, assignments, case studies, group and individual presentations, research based work and evidence drawn from learning in the work place. All unit assessments will draw on your experiences in the work place in order to embed the integration of theory and practice.
These methods are designed to test you in all the areas necessary for professionally capable practice as qualified Social Workers as well as the academic disciplines underpinning such practice. Through the use of a variety of assessment methods you will be able to demonstrate a wide range of key skills for both academic and practice capability. Representatives of students’ sponsoring authorities and service users and carers will be fully involved in all relevant assessment tasks to ensure that your learning is assessed against the requirements of the profession. Formal Practice Learning will be assessed over two periods of work-based learning in a variety of social work and related settings.
All students qualifying with the Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Social Work Practice are required to meet both the SWE Professional Standards (2020) and the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF)(BASW 2018) In order to ensure this, the course and unit learning outcomes have been carefully designed to meet and are clearly mapped to both the Professional Standards (2020) and the PCF. This information is contained in the course handbook as well as unit information and practice learning documents to ensure that you understand and know what you need to evidence in order to meet these professional requirements.
For the final Masters stage of the course you will be supervised to undertake a piece of original research of relevance to your practice area.
Careers
Graduates achieving the Postgraduate Diploma will be eligible to register and practice as a social worker; if your local authority has vacancies you will be guaranteed an interview for a social worker role in children and families’ statutory social work. The starting salary for a social worker in most authorities in this region is around £30k per annum.
The qualification also opens up career paths within a wide range of statutory private voluntary and independent organisations providing services to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals children families groups and communities.
