Glossaryof Termsused in Social Work Practice Education

Glossaryof termsused in social work practice education

This glossary was created at the request of Care Home Link Workers who find some of the terms used within Social Work education mystifying. It is set out in alphabetical order and is a work in progress.

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A critical incident for the purposes of a reflective/reflexive journal is a piece of practice which caused the learner to pause and think.

Direct Observation: It is a requirement of Social Work placements that the Practice Teacher or the Link Worker watch the student working directly with a service user or family on at least two occasions during the placement. These observations are formally recorded and the student is given feedback on their performance and helped to reflect on their work in that situation. These are meant to help the student’s learning but they also form an important part of the assessment of the student.

A framework is an approach to an idea or area of debate; it can be likened to a map which allows us to think and write about this idea. The term is used in other ways in different disciplines and contexts but Social Work it usually means a way of thinking about a topic.

A Placement is also referred to as a ‘practice learning opportunity’. It refers to the period of time a learner spends with an agency working with service users, either directly or indirectly.

Agency: This refers to the service setting within which the placement occurs. A care home or a Social Work Department would be an ‘agency’ in these terms.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) refers to assessed and non-assessed study or other learning which is undertaken by workers to help them to improve their practice. This is a requirement of registered workers in order to maintain registration.

First Placement – the first formally assessed on-the-job experience of a Social Work student.

Learning Network: The Scottish Social Services Learning Networks supported the learning and development of Scotland's social services workforce. They were funded by the Scottish Government to enable partnerships, to bring together stakeholders to share knowledge and experience and to facilitate sharing of resources across the social services sector. There were four Learning Networks in Scotland and their funding ceased in March 2011.

Link Worker: the practitioner responsible for the student and their work on a day-to-day basis in the placement setting or ‘agency’.

Observational Placement – a period of time spent in a practice setting observing the work that happens there.

Practice Educator/Assessor/Teacher are terms used in Social Work Education to refer to a supervisor who is responsible for the formal assessment of a Social Work student on placement.

Practice Learning Agreement, also called the working agreement, is a document created by the student which sets out the expectations and responsibilities of everyone involved in the placement. It is normally written and approved in the first three weeks of the placement. It is signed by the Link Worker, Student, Practice Educator and University Tutor.

Reflection is the self-observing and reporting of actions taken, reasons for them and feelings about the process and outcome.

Reflective account is the written account of reflection

Reflective journal is a series of reflective accounts written over a period of time. The entries in this journal are more than a log of work undertaken; rather they present critical analyses of single pieces of work or events.

Reflective writing is the process of writing down one’s reflections

Reflexivity is reflection which takes the context into account. That context includes the situation and history of the person doing the reflection and the knowledge base which illuminates the situation.

A Reflexive journal/account/writing is written reflexively, that is takes context into account.

Resident: a person who lives in a care home. A resident is a ‘service user’ (see below) in relation to the Social Work student.

Scottish Credit & Qualification Framework (SCQF). Credit and Qualifications Frameworkshelp learners and providers of learning to understand how different qualifications and learning programmes relate to each other. They generally include performance indicators relating to the different academic levels. By using measures such as levels of qualifications and the credit attached to them, a framework assists with understanding and comparing qualifications. See for further information on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.

SCQF Level 8 describes the outcomes of learning expected at that level, which equates to Diploma in Higher Education (Dip HE), Higher National Diploma (HND) and SVQ4.

SCQF Level 9describes the outcomes of learning expected at that level, which equates to ordinary degree, graduate certificate and some SVQ 4 qualifications.

SCQF Level 10describes the outcomes of learning expected at that level, which equates to honours degrees and graduate diplomas.

Second Placement –the second, and usually final, formally assessed practice experience of a Social Work student.

Service-user/client: These terms are used to describe people who receive a service from a Social Worker, social care worker or advocate (‘partner’ is often used in advocacy). A care home resident is a ‘service user’ when the student is placed in the home or otherwise works with the resident.

SiSWE: Standards in Social Work Education. These specify the framework within which the student is assessed on placement.

The Private Sector Workforce Initiative (PSWI) represented the private sector health and social care sector providers in relation to developing the workforce and in building capacity in the sector. This initiative was hosted by Scottish Care and its funding ceased in March 2011.

Tutor: Each Social Work student has an individual tutor who is based in the University and who oversees the academic development of the student on placement. The tutor normally visits the student twice during the placement.

The term supervision is used in this learning object to refer to the process of reflecting on the learner’s work in a formal meeting with a supervisor with the aim of supporting the learner’s personal and professional development.

The term supervisor is used in this learning object to mean a person who has any formal responsibility for the learner’s work; they may be a supervisor of the learner’s practice, of their written work or of the process of reflectivity/ reflexivity on practice.

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A Glossary of TermsbyMoira Dunworthis licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.1