Innovation
The innovation concerns a new approach to summative assessment within the “Social Work: Community Care with Adults” level 5 module. Students work in groups and are tasked with creating a fictional case scenario which raises community care issues. They then have to complete a community care assessment of the fictional service-user’s needs and put together a support plan which seeks to meet those needs; this support plan can make use of a RAS in relation to personal budget use, or draw on services which exist in the locality. Once complete, the students must then present the work to a mock funding panel, seeking to secure funding for the package proposed. The mock funding panel consists of an academic tutor, a member of the service-user and carer group and a practitioner from the Local Authority Adult Social Care Team.
What prompted innovation?
Recognising the inter-disciplinary and multi-agency reality of social work in community care settings, we were keen to engage the students in group work; indeed, as part of the above process, students also need to reflect on how they worked together as a team and how they resolved any difficulties within this. The assessment approach also sought to make explicit links between taught sessions and the realities of practice; as the module comes immediately before first placement, it was felt that this would contribute to preparing students for their first ‘taste’ of practice. Finally, the assessment provides an opportunity for students with a range of differing strengths (written abilities, presentation skills, co-ordination and leadership, IT skills, communication skills) to perform well.
What makes innovation different?
Various factors make this approach innovative:
- The involvement of tutors, practitioners and service-users in summative assessment.
- The emphasis on collaboration in producing a piece of work, with additional reflection on this process.
- The explicit link to practice within an ‘academic’ module.
Changes in practice
Examples of the resultant changes of the innovation:
- Students report being better prepared for placement and appear to make clearer links between learning in HE and working in the field.
- Assessments methods and approaches across the award have been reviewed owing to the success of this approach.
Impact
Evidence of impact includes the following:
- Positive feedback has been received from both full time and part time students, as recorded in module feedback forms / surveys. Furthermore, as noted above, students later reported feeling better prepared for placement.
- Module tutor has received positive feedback from the range of LA practitioners involved in the presentations. One practitioner stated that the assessment approach was as “close to social work practice” as possible in a HE setting rather than placement.
- The assessment approach was commended by the External Examiner.
Dissemination
The assessment method was shared during a recent review and revalidation of the degree and the team explored how similar approaches could be used in other modules.