Dissertation excerpts – Social Work and Social Care Academy
The below dissertation excerpts from previous social work master’s students working with us have been kindly shared to promote discussion and learning in these areas for the workforce.
Understanding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on social work student’s readiness to practice
A dissertation by Lynsey Salmasi
Abstract
The global Covid-19 pandemic created a huge impact on social work practice and education globally. Social work practice placements endeavoured to continue where possible to support social work students to continue with their studies, although changes had to be made in line with the Government recommendations at this time. This literature review analyses experiences of social work students and practice educators involved in 7 research studies internationally to answer the research question: ‘How has the covid 19 pandemic impacted on students’ readiness to practice? Looking at to what extent has it impacted on placement learning in relation to missed learning opportunities?’.
The literature review outlines key themes evidenced across the data, demonstrating challenges, but also positives seen within the innovative changes, and moving towards a new way of social work practice. The key themes within this literature review, ‘The holistic impact on relationships’, ‘missed social work practice opportunities’ and ‘developing autonomous practice in a changing social work world’, will be discussed highlighting the challenges and positives within these themes in addressing the research question. The study also identifies recommendations for the continuation of developing social work practice placements to meet the needs of students to ensure they can qualify as competent and confident social workers ready for practice.
To what extent does the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer positively contribute to effective care planning for Looked After children?
A dissertation by Sarah Scott
Abstract
Children in care require care plans that will support them to thrive and achieve the best possible outcomes. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) positively contribute to effective care planning for Looked After children. IROs are specialist social workers who hold a statutory duty to review and monitor care plans and ensure that they are implemented appropriately and in a timely manner. IROs also have a key quality assurance role with expectations that they will escalate concerns where care planning is not meeting need and contribute to supporting both individual social work practice and organisational performance.
The role of the IRO has been the subject of criticism since its inception in 2004. Commentators have raised concerns that as employees of the Local Authority IROs are not independent enough, that the low number of formal escalations evidences a lack of effective challenge and IROs do not consistently enable children to participate in decision making which is a key function of the role. To explore this further, I have undertaken a literature review and autoethnographic study with the aim of exploring the experiences and challenges facing IROs both individually and from a wider perspective.
My findings indicate that whilst there is evidence that IROs do positively contribute to care planning for many children, this is not achieved for all. Whilst sometimes this may be due to the capability of an individual IRO, my research also highlights obstacles including organisational pressures and capacity issues which affect the ability of IROs to fully exercise their functions and responsibilities which in turn can impact care planning.
Recently, there have been renewed calls to reconsider the role of IROs and a proposed government review of the service may be helpful in strengthening and supporting practice. However, it is important to reflect that unless the role of the IRO is understood and valued by social work teams and senior managers and some of the barriers to IRO practice are addressed, it will be difficult for any recommendations regarding practice improvements to be consistently implemented and the ongoing challenges IROs face in supporting all children to have care plans that determine positive outcomes will continue.