Dates: 2004-2005
Funding organisation: Social Care Institute for Excellence
Researchers: Suzy Braye, Michael Preston-Shoot

Project summary
This project constituted a review of knowledge relating to the teaching, learning and assessment of law in social work education. The work was commissioned by SCIE as part of its research programme to support the introduction from 2003 onwards of new social work degree qualifications in the UK.

The review comprised two pieces of research:
(a) A systematic review of international research evaluated published and unpublished material on the teaching of law to social work students and to students in health-related professions.

(b) A UK-based practice survey identified the range of approaches taken within programmes leading to social work qualification, and the views of those involved in teaching, learning and assessment, including educators, students and practice teachers.

An integrative analysis identified key themes from both studies. The views of a wider range of stakeholders including service users, carers and practitioners were also sought through three consultation events. The research adopted a broad and inclusive approach, building a network of participants who formed an influential reference group in relation to the design and conduct of the research and interpretation of the data. Participants also actively contributed their perspectives on the relationship between law and social work, their experience of how social workers practise within the legal framework, and what this means for student learning.

Publications

• Braye, S. and Preston-Shoot, M. (with Cull, L-A., Johns, R., Roche, J.) (2005) Learning, Teaching and Assessment of Law on Social Work Education: A Knowledge Review. London: Social Care Institute for Excellence.
• Braye, S. and Preston-Shoot, M. (2005) 'Emerging from out of the shadows? Service user and carer involvement in systematic reviews', Evidence and Policy, 1(2), 173-193.
• Braye, S., Preston-Shoot, M. and Johns, R. (2005) Law in Social Work Education: Reviewing the Evidence on Teaching, Learning and Assessment', Social Work Education, 24(5), 547-563.
• Braye, S., Preston-Shoot, M. and Johns, R. (2006) 'Lost in translation? Teaching law to non-lawyers: reviewing the evidence from social work', The Law Teacher, 40, (2), 131-150.
• Braye, S. and Preston-Shoot, M. (2006) 'Broadening the vision: law teaching, social work and civil society', International Social Work, 49, (3), 376-389.
• Braye, S. and Preston-Shoot, M. (2006) 'The role of law in welfare reform: critical perspectives on the relationship between law and social work practice', International Journal of Social Welfare, 15, 19-26.
• Braye, S. and Preston-Shoot, M. (2007) 'On systematic reviews in social work: observations from teaching, learning and assessment of law in social work education', British Journal of Social Work, 37, (2), 313-334.
• Braye, S., Preston-Shoot, M. and Thorpe, A. (2007) 'Beyond the classroom: law learning in practice'. Journal of Social Work, 7, (3), 322-340.

Conferences

• 'Law and social work in health and mental health' Symposium. 5th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health, Hong Kong, December 2006.
• 'User involvement in systematic reviews'. ESRC TLRP Seminar Series 'Making a Difference: working with users to develop educational research', Oxford, March 2006.
• 'Law, Human Rights and Social Justice: Can Social Work Education Make the Connections?' 2nd Congress of Social Work, Portoroz, Slovenia, September 2005.
• 'In Search of Wise Plumbers: Working for the inclusion of service users and carers in research about social work education'. UK Joint Social Work Conference, Loughborough, July 2005.
• ' International perspectives on law, social work, social justice and human rights: models of teaching, learning and practice'. UK Joint Social Work Conference, Loughborough, July 2005.
• 'Law teaching in social work education: promoting social cohesion'. Biennial Conference of the European Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Federation of Social Workers, Lefkosia, Cyprus, May 2005.
• 'The Role of Law in Welfare Reform: Critical Perspectives on the Relationship between Law and Practice'. Monash University, Melbourne, October 2004.
• 'Broadening the Vision: An International Review of Law Teaching in Social Work Education'. International Association of Schools of Social Work/International Federation of Social Workers Biennial Conference, Adelaide, October 2004.
• 'Learning, Teaching and Assessment of Law in Social Work Education'. 6th UK Joint Social Work Conference, Glasgow, July 2004.

Dates: 2005-2006
Funding organisation: Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Researchers: Imogen Taylor, Elaine Sharland, Judy Sebba, Pat Le Riche, Elaine Keep and David Orr

Project summary
Learning to work in partnership is a requirement for the new social work qualification. In 2004-05, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) commissioned the University of Sussex to undertake a research review and practice survey of partnership in qualifying social work education: to examine partnership as a curriculum topic, and the structures and processes whereby users, carers, professionals, students and educators participate in the teaching of partnership.

The research review included all relevant English language literature. From hundreds of references screened, a subset meeting specific eligibility criteria were subjected to detailed assessment of the quality of the research and its relevance to the study focus. The practice survey consisted of a 'drilling down' approach with higher education providers: a national survey of relevant programme documentation; a sample of telephone interviews to further interrogate the documentation; and five focus groups of key stakeholders (academic and practice staff, users and carers, and students) who further explored partnership issues. The findings enable us to report on partnership in social work education, the robustness of the evidence, and the impact on students and other stakeholders.

Publications
Taylor, I., Sharland, E., Le Riche, P., and Sebba, J (2006) - The learning, teaching and assessment of partnership (London, Social Care Institute for Excellence)

Taylor, I., and Le Riche, P. (2006) - 'What do we know about partnership in social work education and how robust is the evidence base?', Health and Social Care in the Community, 14 (5), 418-425. Available Online Early Special Issue of Health and Social Care in the Community: Partnership Working in Health and Social Care. Guest Editors; Jon Glasby, Helen Dickinson & Edward Peck, based on an invited International Symposium on Effective Partnerships in Health and Social Care, University of Birmingham, Health Services Management Centre, Birmingham 2006.

Sharland, E. and Taylor, I. (2006) - 'Social work research: a suitable case for systematic review?' Evidence and Policy 2 (4) (2006), 503-523. This article builds on the experience of undertaking two systematic reviews, including this one. It is the first article to critically review application of EPPI systematic review methodology to social care, and the first to explore the potential of the TAPUPAS model (SCIE) for social care.

Presented (peer reviewed):

• '5th International Conference on Evaluation for Practice', Huddersfield, July 2005
• Campbell Collaboration, February 2007
• 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Granada, July 2007

Builds on two systematic reviews, quality assessed by EPPI and SCIE
Rigorously examines interdisciplinary methodological literature for application to social care
Likely to become major (or 'primary') reference point 'The paper is excellent. This will make an important contribution to debate.' (Editor, Evidence and Policy)

Conferences
An earlier version of 'What do we know about partnership in social work education and how robust is the evidence base?' (see above) was presented by Imogen Taylor to the 7th Joint UK Social Work Education Conference, 2005, University of Loughborough. 'Equality and oppression in the learning, teaching and assessment of partnership work' was presented at the International Association of Schools of Social Work Conference, Santiago, Chile, September 2006.

Imogen Taylor's keynotes:

• 2006 University of Ireland at Cork, Child and Family Welfare Teaching Colloquium.
• 2005 Taiwan, Soochow University, International Symposium on Excellence in Teaching and Learning, 'Designing Excellent learning and Teaching'.
• 2005 Hong Kong, City University, 'Recent Changes in Social Work and Social Work Education in the UK'.
• 2005 Hong Kong, Baptist University, 'Suitability for Social Work'.
• 2005 Sheffield Hallam Faculty of Health and Well Being, Research Lecture, 'Excellence in Learning and Teaching'.

Other information
Imogen was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2003. She has presented on the topic of excellence in learning and teaching in Adelaide (2005), Taiwan (2005) Vancouver (2005) and Sheffield (2005) (see above). Her paper 'Pursued by excellence: rewards and the performance culture in higher education', was published in Social Work Education, 26 (5) (2007), 504-519

Imogen is a member of the Steering Group for the Higher Education Academy Centre for Social Policy and Social Work. From 2000-2005, Imogen was Co-Director of the Centre. Since 2003, Imogen has been working closely with social work education departments at 5 universities in Hong Kong. In particular she has been consultant to the 'Learning to Practise, Learning in Practice' project, jointly led by City University and Baptist University where she holds Visiting Professorships. Discussions are underway with a major publisher to co-edit with Hong Kong colleagues a book on the project. Imogen co-edited with Professor Angie Yeun, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a theme edition of Social Work Education on social work education in Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China, 26 (6), (2007)

Dates: 2006 - 2007
Funding organisation: SWAP (The Higher Education Academy for Social Policy and Social Work)
Researchers: Michelle Lefevre & Barry Luckock

Project summary
This dissemination project developed findings from pedagogical research already undertaken on the teaching, learning and assessment of communication skills with children and young people in social work education. The findings from this SCIE Knowledge Review were unsettling. They indicated the need for the further clarification of learning objectives and teaching methods. Workshops were held with social work educators and other stakeholders drawn from across the UK to support them in developing more effective curriculum structures, content and teaching and assessment methods.

Publications

Luckock,B., Lefevre, M., Orr, D., Jones, M., Marchant, R. and Tanner, K., (2006), Knowledge Review 12: Teaching, learning and assessing communication skills with children and young people in social work education

Related conferences

• Michelle Lefevre and Barry Luckock: Communicating with Children and Young People in Social Work Education: A workshop to develop the curriculum. Day conference in conjunction with SWAP, September 2008 London.
• Michelle Lefevre with Mary Sainsbury, 'Skilled communication with children to promote both needs and rights: a challenge for social work education and practice' at the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), York, September 2006.

Dates: January - November 2005
Funding organisation: Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Researchers: Barry Luckock, Michelle Lefevre & David Orr

Project summary
This Knowledge Review identifies key findings from a systematic research review and a survey of current practice in the teaching, learning and assessment of communication skills with children in social work education settings. Its main focus is to enable social work educators to apply these findings in the design and implementation of social work programmes.

Publications

• Luckock, B., Lefevre, M. and Tanner, K., (2007) 'Teaching and learning communication with children and young people: developing the qualifying social work curriculum in a changing policy context', Child and Family Social Work, 12 (2), 192-201.
• Lefevre, M., Tanner, K., Luckock, B. (2008) Developing Social Work Students' Communication Skills with Children and Young People: a model for the qualifying level curriculum. Child and Family Social Work, 2008 - 13 pp 166-176.

Related conferences

• Michelle Lefevre and Barry Luckock: Effective Communication with Children and Young People. Invited keynote presentation at the BAAF Conference, Have social workers forgotten how to communicate with children?, December 2007.
• Michelle Lefevre: An Integrative Model for Developing Social Work Students' Communication Skills with Children and Young People. Joint Social Work Education Conference, July 2007, Swansea.
• Michelle Lefevre, Karen Tanner and Barry Luckock: Communication Skills with Children: equipping the next generation of social workers', JSWEC Conference, July 2006.
• Michelle Lefevre:  Not Just What You Do, But Who You Are: knowledge, skills, values and attributes for effective communication with children. Invited keynote presentation at the NCB Conference, , August 2008.
• Michelle Lefevre and Barry Luckock: Effective Communication with Children and Young People. Invited keynote presentation at the BAAF Conference, Have social workers forgotten how to communicate with children?, 12.12.07* Michelle Lefevre: An Integrative Model for Developing Social Work Students' Communication Skills with Children and Young People, July 2007, Swansea.
• Michelle Lefevre, Karen Tanner and Barry Luckock: Communication Skills with Children: equipping the next generation of social workers', JSWEC Conference, July 2006.

Date: 2007
Funding organisation: Higher Education Academy with HEFCE
Researchers: Imogen Taylor, Russell Whiting, Elaine Sharland

Project summary
The Every Children Matters agenda, aims to bring together health, child care, education, social work and social justice to improve outcomes for children, young people and families, and has far-reaching consequences for higher education. The ICS-HE project aims to bring together relevant subject disciplines and sector bodies to address three key aims.

Imogen Taylor, supported by Russell Whiting and Elaine Sharland, is conducting a knowledge review which will address the first two aims of:

• providing an evidence-based approach to identify effective ways of developing inter-professional curricula and pedagogy for professional practice in children's services
• scoping existing initiatives and support the development of informed educational policy and practice for professionals who will be working in reconfigured children's services.

Judy McKimm, University of Bedfordshire is leading on the third aim of:

• facilitating a co-ordinated response across higher education to the Integrated Qualifications Framework for the children's workforce.

Project partners
The Project is funded by the HEA with a grant from HEFCE, to support employer engagement in HE. It is co-ordinated by SWAP, the Higher Education Academy's subject centre for Social Policy and Social Work in collaboration with the HEA's subject centres for: Escalate (Education); Health Sciences and Practice; Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine; and, Psychology. The Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and the Children's Workforce Network (CWN) are also project partners. A National Conference, 'The Higher Education role in Integrated Children's Services: Preparing Tomorrow's Professionals', was held in Manchester on Nov 26 2007. Professor Taylor presented 'Key insights and messages from the practice survey'. Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Director and Head of Partnerships for Children and Young People's Services, West Sussex Council presented 'The practice perspective' . For further information about the conference or to register, go to the SWAP website.
Further developments
Academics from the School of Social Work and Social Care, the Sussex School of Education. the Sussex Law School and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School have been meeting together to plan development of interprofessional curricula to support the ECM agenda. For further information contact Professor Imogen Taylor.

Dates: 2006 - 2007
Funding organisation: Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Researchers: Elaine Sharland, Imogen Taylor, Liz Jones, David Orr & Russell Whiting

Project summary
This systematic research review of interprofessional education (IPE) for qualifying social work was commissioned by SCIE as an extension of a completed knowledge review of partnership work (Taylor et al, 2006). The review examined what is known about IPE and in particular what is effective and what promotes or hinders successful outcomes. The review identifies and evaluates a wide range of empirical research material relevant to the teaching, learning, assessment and outcomes of IPE at qualifying social work level. It highlights the range of approaches, contexts, institutional arrangements and participants in IPE evidenced, goals espoused and pedagogical processes and content. An in-depth component of the review quality assesses a subset of research studies that consider the outcomes and effectiveness of IPE. It examines the range and nature of outcomes evaluated, and barriers or facilitators to effectiveness identified. The review draws additionally on existing reviews of IPE in the wider disciplinary field to contextualise discussion, and on relevant conceptual work to provide a theoretically informed review of empirical research.

Publications

• Sharland, E., Taylor, I., with Jones, L., Orr, D. & Whiting, R. (2006) Interprofessional education for qualifying social work (SCIE).
• Sharland, E., and Taylor,I., (2006) 'Social care research: a suitable case for systematic review?'. Evidence and Policy 2 (4), 503-523.

Conferences

Papers presented at:

• 5th International Conference on Evaluation for Practice, University of Huddersfield, July 2005.
• CAIPE Symposium on Learning for Collaboration, London, December 2006.
• Campbell Collaboration, February 2007.
• 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Granada, Spain July 2007.

Dates: 2006 - 2007
Funding organisation: Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Researchers: Pat Le Riche, Elaine Sharland and David Orr

Project summary
This scoping project was commissioned by SCIE from the University of Sussex, as a Registered Provider of Knowledge Reviews, with the aim of developing an evidence base to inform social work education practice in this area. The scoping project has provided the basis for one or more knowledge reviews, funded by SCIE, to follow. The scoping project examined research databases and relevant websites, and involved small-scale consultation with education providers and experts, to:

• map the range of available research, practice and policy evidence about the teaching, learning and assessment of human growth and development, mental health and disability (HGD, MH&D) in qualifying social work, and its effectiveness
• respond to concerns within the social work education community about teaching and learning on fathers and older people, identifying where these groups are highlighted within HGD, MH&D social work education literature and practice
• provide the basis for recommending the nature and scope of knowledge review(s) to be commissioned by SCIE from the University of Sussex, and to inform judgement of the time and resource required.

Date: 2008 - 2011
Funding organisation: SCIE
Researcher: Suzy Braye and Michael Preston-Shoot (University of Bedfordshire)

Project summary
In 2007, SCIE launched a series of e-learning resources to support the teaching of law in social work education - these are available to view and use at SCIE publication. SCIE are now supporting a further project to explore how social work educators in England use the resources in their teaching and what the outcomes for students are. The key questions to be explored are:

• How do educators use the SCIE e-learning objects to support social work students' law learning?
• How do students and educators alike experience their use?
• What are the processes and challenges that arise?
• What early outcomes for student learning arise from use of the e-learning materials?

Educators responsible for teaching law to social work students are working in a learning set which will meet over a period of 2.5 years, engaging in a process of 'collaborative capacity building' to explore the issues pertinent to take up of e-learning within this area of the curriculum.

Date: 2007-2008
Funding organisation: SCIE
Researcher: Michelle Lefevre, Pam Trevithick, Sally Richards

Project summary
Michelle Lefevre co-produced ten re-usable e-learning resources on communication skills in collaboration with Pam Trevithick and Sally Richards. The work was commissioned by the Social Care Institute for Excellence to encourage the take-up of e-learning in the sector and exploit e-learning methodology to make key messages/evidence relating to communication skills more accessible to the target audience. The resources offer a range of opportunities for social work students and qualified practitioners to develop the kinds of knowledge, values and skills which they will need to communicate effectively within social work practice.

Related conferences

• M.Lefevre, S.Richards, P.Trevithick and D.King: Not Just For Specialists! Developing communication skills through an e-learning resource. 11th UK Joint Social Work Education Conference with the 3rd UK Social Work Research Conference, Hatfield, UK, July 2009