Students
We welcome social work students from a range of pathways and higher education institutions, including those completing undergraduate or master’s degrees, through our internal apprenticeship programme, those from other organisations apprenticeship programmes and through the Approach (formally Frontline) programme which we facilitate within Gloucestershire. A high percentage of students who complete their final placement with us at Gloucestershire County Council Children’s Social Care go on to successfully secure a newly qualified social worker (ASYE) position with us.
We facilitate student placements across our service in all types of non-statutory and statutory settings including Children and Family Teams, Child in Care Teams, Fostering Teams, Leaving Care Teams and specialist services including our Families Together Team and Family Meeting Service – plus many more great teams with amazing learning opportunities. Students in all of these settings gain valuable experience of working with children and families, multi-agency working, and developing insight into the social work role. These learning opportunities enable students to evidence all 9 domains of the Professional Capabilities Framework relevant to their learning level, and wider assessment criteria such as the Apprentice Standards.
Through their placements, students are introduced to systemic practice as our model for working with children and families in Gloucestershire, as well as our practice principles for analysis and child focused planning, risk assessment and risk review, purposeful visiting and management oversight. They also have access to the Social Work Academy library and resources such as Research in Practice to help ensure their practice is informed by evidence.
All students have a clear support team around them through their Placement Supervisor and Practice Educator to support them throughout their placement, including weekly supervision. Regular student forums are also held in person at the Social Work Academy where students have the opportunity to share peer support, reflect on their learning and find out more about how we practice in Gloucestershire. Forum topics include:
- Direct Observations and Feedback
- Integrating Theory into Practice
- Genograms
- Family History and Social Graces
- Hypothesising
- Relationship Dynamics
- Endings