Social Work MA

You will gain understanding of key social work theories and models and will critically reflect on these from an academic perspective as well learning to apply these to a proficient level in your practice. You will critically reflect on ethics and values as they engage in decision-making, learning to evaluate your interventions while holding service users and carers’ perspectives at the centre of their thinking.  You will develop your understanding of professional authority, through critical reflection and use of self, as you are readied for the complex and changing nature of qualified social work practice.

By the end of the last placement and at the completion of qualifying programmes, newly qualified social workers should have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and values to work with a range of user and carer groups, and demonstrate the ability to undertake a range of tasks at a foundation level, demonstrating the capacity to work with more complex situations and in working with resistant service users within a statutory framework. You will meet the requirements set by the Knowledge and Skills Statements in Adults Services (DoH, 2015) or Knowledge and Skills Statement for Child and Family Practitioners (DfE, 2018) and will be ready to continue demonstrating these in their ASYE.

By the end of the first placement, you will be able to evidence effective use of knowledge, skills and commitment to core values in social work in predominantly less complex situations, with supervision and support. You will have demonstrated your ability to work with people and situations where there may not be simple clear-cut solutions. 

This module will prepare you for your first and final practice placements, ensuring you have the required skills and knowledge to undertake supervised practice with adults, children and families and to engage with the learning opportunities this will provide; adhering with requirements set in the Professional Capabilities Framework (BASW 2018) for the readiness for direct practice level and Social Work England Professional Standards (2019).

This module will introduce you to key legislation relating to adult and child and family social work. It considers the origins of legislation and social policy and their application in practice. You will be provided with the opportunity to gain knowledge of, and to critically reflect upon, legislative and policy developments affecting your areas of practice including adult and child safeguarding.  Service users and carers will be actively involved in learning and teaching on this module, providing feedback.

This module will familiarise you with major approaches to research; enhance your understanding of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods and your ability to conduct research-informed social work practice. The module will ensure you understand how to apply relevant approaches and methods to your own research project and to extended literature review at master’s level, which will prepare you to undertake the dissertation module should you wish to continue to complete the MA Social Work award. 

This module promotes a critical and advanced understanding of bio-psycho-social theories of human growth and development across the life course, including the impact of diversity, difference and structural inequalities. You will explore and critically evaluate a range of relevant theoretical perspectives, relating these to their experiences in carrying out observations of young children and adults. This will enhance and develop your ‘use of self’ and other professional practice skills, including the need to be ethical, professionally curious and to underpin practice interventions with a critical appreciation of the evidence base. 

In this module, you will apply the knowledge gained in previous study of social research methodologies to identify a topic and research question. This will be investigated and explored via carrying out a critical review of research, policy, practice, theory and service users and carers’ perspectives on their topic, and production of a master’s dissertation. A reflective element will be included, to enable you to make connections between your research experience and practice learning. 

You will gain knowledge and understanding through:

• Large and small group workshops (incl. skills workshops and role plays)
• Engaging research-based exercises 
• Engagement in peer and individual led classroom presentations 
• Assessed professional practice learning - practice tutorials in placement
• Guidance provided in class and on VLE on how to plan individual study and on assessment preparation, including pre- and post- classroom delivery exercises.
• Debate and discussion in small and large groups and through reading and critical reflection on learning materials

Our Hendon campus, north London. 

Whether you are studying full or part-time – your course timetable will balance your study commitments on campus with time for work, life commitments and independent study.

We aim to make timetables available to students at least 2 weeks before the start of term. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.

You have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to do well on your course.

Our support services will be delivered online and on campus and you have access to a range of different resources so you can get the help you need, whether you’re studying at home or have the opportunity to come to campus.

You have access to one to one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our library and IT teams, and our network of learning experts.

Your knowledge and understanding will be assessed by research-based exercises in practitioner enquiry, peer and individual presentations, focused debate and discussion in small and large groups, practice learning portfolios connecting knowledge (formal & informal) and placement practice skills, presentation, discussion and analysis of case studies and online searches and critiques of findings

You'll evaluate your work, skills and knowledge and identify areas for improvement. Sometimes you'll work in groups and assess each other's progress. Each term, you'll get regular feedback on your learning.