Our Work
Our vision
By leveraging the strengths of our partners we aim to create the UK’s leading pre-and post- qualifying social work education community.
Our partnership will attract, develop and retain the best and brightest social workers in the country.
We offer high quality education shaped by academic research and front-line practice, and a dynamic programme of post-qualifying learning and development which will be accessible to all social workers within the partnership.
By creating a culture of ongoing learning, research and support we hope to grow and retain a community of passionate and capable social work professionals that will meet with the region’s future workforce demands.
Our aims
Working in collaboration across the Partnership we aim to:
Ensure the highest calibre of social work students with the attributes, competencies and passion needed to thrive in the profession are recruited to our academic programmes.
Develop a curriculum that aligns with local need and is grounded not only in research and the CSWs’ KSS, but also in practice.
Give students the experience & support they need to ensure they are ready to practice within our region as Newly Qualified Social Workers.
Ensure practice across our region is consistently informed by theory & research and that academics’ teaching is equally informed by practice.
Create regional progression pathways and CPD opportunities capable of attracting and retaining the best and brightest social workers in the UK.
Better understand our regional labour market to enable us to develop a robust plan to meet our partnership’s current and future workforce demands.
How will the Social Work Teaching Partnership deliver it’s aims?
Attract, develop and retain the best and brightest social workers in the country
We want to attract capable and passionate social work students to the Bachelor and Masters programmes at Kingston University. The Partnership wants to retain these social workers so they progress their careers in South West London and Surrey.
How?
- Select capable and passionate students to train on the BA/Masters Social Work course.
- Deliver high quality training and development using of curriculum based on academic research and in-the-field experience.
- Provide a collaborative delivery of training and other learning opportunities through the use the teaching consultants and academic staff in the university.
- Provide two statutory placements matched to students preferred area of practice.
Deliver an education experience that not only prepares and supports learners in their transition to frontline practice but also allows social work practitioners and academics to contribute their respective knowledge. We aim to create a culture of research and front -line based learning that creates excellent social work practice, leading to improved outcomes for vulnerable children and adults.
Deliver the curriculum that is grounded in research and practice and aligns with the workforce needs in the Partnership area. Ensure practice across the region is consistently informed by theory and research and that academics’ teaching is equally informed by practice.
How?
- Recruit current practitioners to become Teaching Consultants.
- Develop Teaching Consultants by providing support and opportunities.
- Empower Teaching Consultants to use their in-the field-knowledge to contribute to, and co deliver a dynamic and enriching curriculum of learning for students.
- Provide opportunities for academic university staff and Teaching Consultants to engage in activities to ensure academics’ teaching is informed by practice and Teaching Consultants’ teaching is informed by academic research.
Find out how you can become a Teaching Consultant
Help future workforce demands.
How?
- Create regional progression pathways and CPD Opportunities across the partnership
- Undertake skills gap analysis to support development of the workforce
- Commission specialist consultants to develop a labour market plan to better understand the regional labour market to enable them to develop a robust plan to meet the partnership’s current and future workforce demands.