New Approach To Teaching Child Protection In Social Work Degrees

Student social workers are to be given more consistent and improved guidance on how to protect vulnerable children when they enter practice.

{mosimage}The Key Capabilities in Child Care and Protection have been developed by the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE) in collaboration with other key stakeholders and funded by the Scottish Executive.  

The Key Capabilities provide a framework for learning outcomes and competencies in Child Care and Protection across all generic social work degree programmes to support social workers in protecting vulnerable children. The Key Capabilities will further enhance the knowledge base of social work degree students in Scotland, ensuring that all newly qualified social work practitioners will have core knowledge, understanding and skills in child care and protection regardless of whether they work directly with children, or in other settings such as learning disability, mental health or older people’s services.

Universities will now work to embed the Key Capabilities in their teaching programmes, supported by SIESWE and the Scottish Social Services Council.

Minister for Education Hugh Henry said: “Protecting vulnerable children is a priority for everyone involved in their care and support. Social workers must have the skills they need to identify and act when child protection issues arise. The Key Capabilities published today will help ensure that social workers are better equipped to deal with these situations, so that more children get the help they need.”

Tina Miller, Assistant Director for Social Work for The Open University said “The OU welcomes this important new development.  The Key Capabilities framework will support universities in ensuring that all qualifying social workers are fully prepared for their role in protecting children.   The introduction of the new standards has already enabled the University to demonstrate that this vital aspect of social work practice is taught across its qualifying Programme and we look forward to working with the SIESWE to ensure the future promotion of the framework.”