Social work degree should include training on drug and alcohol misuse

Training on drug, alcohol and substance misuse must be included in the social work degree and not left until post-qualifying courses, the latest poll from the General Social Care Council has concluded.

Out of around 900 social workers questioned on the subject, 89 per cent felt leaving training on this issue until after the core degree was too late.

The education working group of the Social Work Reform Board is currently reviewing the content and delivery of the curriculum for social work. As part of this, it will be considering whether there needs to be more emphasis on certain issues including drug, alcohol and substance misuse training in the core social work degree.

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: “Time and again social work staff have called for more support and training to deal with the alcohol and drug issues their clients face. We know that one third of social workers say they receive no training on substance misuse issues, which is very worrying. With over half of serious case reviews involving alcohol, drugs or mental health issues, it is vital that core training for social workers includes robust training on these issues.”

Shenker called on the government to “wake up to the seriousness of this issue and provide social workers with the additional training they need”.

But Hilary Burgess, member of the reform board’s working group and senior academic adviser for the University of Southampton, said that while this specialist training is needed in the degree it must strike the right balance.

“All initial qualifying programmes should include issues of alcohol and substance misuse in their curricula, but the attention given to this topic must be weighed against the many other pressing demands on the qualifying curriculum, such as relationship breakdowns, behavioural and/or parenting problems, violence and abuse, mental distress and ill health, physical ill health and disability, all of which need to be considered,” she said.

The poll results will be fed back to the working group and will be shared with the College of Social Work.