TY - JOUR
T1 - Does qualifying route inform preparedness for child protection practice? An appraisal of the testimonies of 201 ‘early career’ social workers.
AU - MURPHY, CIARAN
AU - LIVERPOOL, SHAUN
AU - Parry, Nicole
AU - Birch, Nicola
AU - Turay, Jennifer
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024/5/22
Y1 - 2024/5/22
N2 - England’s children’s social care workforce is in a state of crisis, with the problem perhaps more prominent in the field of child protection. This led the Review of Children’s Social Care to call for further evaluation of social work education pathways, particularly in their ability to prepare early career social workers for the rigours of contemporary practice. The study emerged in response to this call, but also in the context of a concurrent narrative emanating from the local Social Work Teaching Partnership, that newly qualified social workers were often found to be ‘ill-prepared’ for child protection work. The study employed an iterative mixed method design to explore the impact of social work qualification route on early career social workers’ sense of preparedness for child protection practice. Whilst some statistical association was found, the study identified areas where social workers generally felt either ‘well’ or ‘ill-prepared’ for child protection work. Moreover, the study presents several strategies for improving the preparation of early career social workers for child protection practice, including cultivating partnerships with specialist child protection organisations; interprofessional teaching and learning across suitable programmes; better collaboration with ‘experts-by-experience’ in the delivery of content; and designed field trips to child protection settings.
AB - England’s children’s social care workforce is in a state of crisis, with the problem perhaps more prominent in the field of child protection. This led the Review of Children’s Social Care to call for further evaluation of social work education pathways, particularly in their ability to prepare early career social workers for the rigours of contemporary practice. The study emerged in response to this call, but also in the context of a concurrent narrative emanating from the local Social Work Teaching Partnership, that newly qualified social workers were often found to be ‘ill-prepared’ for child protection work. The study employed an iterative mixed method design to explore the impact of social work qualification route on early career social workers’ sense of preparedness for child protection practice. Whilst some statistical association was found, the study identified areas where social workers generally felt either ‘well’ or ‘ill-prepared’ for child protection work. Moreover, the study presents several strategies for improving the preparation of early career social workers for child protection practice, including cultivating partnerships with specialist child protection organisations; interprofessional teaching and learning across suitable programmes; better collaboration with ‘experts-by-experience’ in the delivery of content; and designed field trips to child protection settings.
KW - Child protection
KW - children's social care
KW - preparedness
KW - social work
KW - education
KW - children’s social care
KW - social work education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85193791017&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85193791017&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/09bb4b93-df04-38ee-b067-0d38c354b040/
U2 - 10.1080/02615479.2024.2355637
DO - 10.1080/02615479.2024.2355637
M3 - Article (journal)
SN - 0261-5479
SP - 1
EP - 21
JO - Social Work Education
JF - Social Work Education
ER -