Partners in the Kent, Medway and South East Social Work Teaching Partnership
Academic staff on the Social Work team from SSPSSR play an active role in the Kent, Medway and South East Social Work Teaching Partnership. The teaching partnership was established in 2016 when introduced by the Department for Education. Working in collaboration with social workers from with Local Authorities and other Higher Education providers, the Partnership aims to attract, recruit, develop and retain social workers, through the transformation of education and developing qualified workers once in practice.
One of the Partnership aims is to build stronger collaboration between partners allowing for the higher education curriculum to reflect current practice needs and increase success on student placements as outlined by a social work student:
“On reflection, I found the placement to be a good because it has prepared me for my final year statutory placement; it enabled me to demonstrate effective use of knowledge and skills and commitment to core values in social work in a given setting, predominantly dealing with situations of lower complexity, with supervision and support from the onsite supervisor, the members of staff and my practice educator.”
Furthermore, academic staff have seen the benefits of these collaborations too:
“The outcome of this work has aimed to reduce the gap between the student’s expectations from placement and reality by equipping the students for practice.”
- Learn more about studying for a BA Social Work at Kent here
- Details of the Kent, Medway and South East Social Work Teaching Partnership can be found here.