Studying our Social Work BSc (Hons) course will equip you with knowledge, skills and resilience needed to improve the lives of vulnerable adults, children and families. In core areas of study, you will build an understanding of human development that will help to inform your professional practice in the assessment, planning and intervention of infants, children, young people, families and adults in our Human Growth and Development Across the Lifespan unit. This is closely linked to our unit in Working with People, where you will be introduced to theories, techniques and approaches to respond to needs, communicate effectively and develop relationships with the people you work with. As an essential guideline to your practice, The Legislative Framework for Professional Practice will provide you with the foundational knowledge around the legal system in relation to social work. This will help you understand the role of law and legal intervention in ordering in the social lives of people and the ethical implications of this. With a sociological approach, you will also consider how the welfare system responds to social issues, such as poverty, with a commitment to social justice by challenging inequality and oppression in our Sociology and Social Policy in Practice unit. To prepare you for practical work in Year 2 and 3, Readiness for Social Work Practice will allow you to develop and apply your knowledge through a series of skills workshops and a shadowing day with professional social workers. 

This will be useful for your First (70-Day) Placement opportunity in your second year to demonstrate your understanding of theory through direct practice. It is also important that you learn the complexities of working across different social care contexts with colleagues and service users, and you will develop the skills to do this in our Social Work in Multi-Agency and Inter-Professional Teams unit. You will continue to develop your knowledge of social work such as in our Issues and Contexts: Engagement and Partnership unit to examine the issues faced by adults and children in need of social work intervention. Building on this, our unit in Issues and Contexts: Authority and Control will allow you to examine the legislative and policy aspects of intervention to ensure that adults, young people and children are safeguarded. At the same time, you will learn to analyse and apply different sources of knowledge that will feed into your Evidence-Based Social Work Practice.  

In your final year, you will undertake your Final (100-Day) Placement where you will integrate and apply the theory, research, policy and legislative frameworks taught in your first year. Drawing on your knowledge from previous units in Working with People and Issues and Contexts, you will learn to work with individuals, families and groups from culturally diverse backgrounds and circumstances, including in complex situations in our Social Work Issues and Interventions unit. This will equip you with the skills to work effectively with a range of people and devise specialist intervention strategies for vulnerable patients. You will also learn to adopt Critical Ethical Reflective Practice to make complex and professional decisions in your work. Finally, you will complete a Research Project for Professional Social Work Practice into a chosen topic that is also relevant to your professional practice. This will be an opportunity to explore your own interests while developing your academic skills and understanding in your area of research. To prepare you for your career, our unit in Consolidation for Social Work Practice will support your transition into a qualified practitioner.