Today was day 88 of placement; in 4 more weeks it will be over. Tomorrow I return to university to begin the second year of my MA. The combination of both has put me in a reflective mood.
It seems like only yesterday that I was starting the first year of the course, full of hopes mixed with a huge dose of trepidation. For most of the year I felt very intimidated by many of the other students, who all seemed far more experienced and confident than myself. I wondered if I was setting myself up to fail, doubting my own ability to cope.
Now, at this stage of my placement, I have suddenly noticed changes in myself. Over the last few weeks, I have developed into an assertive, confident practitioner, not afraid to fight for a client’s rights. My assessment skills have been refined, as have my advocacy, negotiation and communication skills. I’ve learned how to raise difficult issues with people and handle their reaction. I’ve become a more analytical practitioner too, and better at prioritising my workload. I’ve also discovered I’m far more emotionally resilient than I thought, and developed effective strategies to deal with stress.
And now I have no doubt in my ability (and desire, which at one time I doubted) to become a social worker. I’m eager to return to university tomorrow, and no longer feel intimidated.
So tomorrow is the beginning of the mental health specialist pathway, the next step on the way to qualification. I’m looking forward to it; I feel ready to return now and am keen to get stuck into my real area of interest.
Realising that this time next year I will be qualified is downright scary though, especially as I think back on how quickly the last year seems to have passed.
Good luck with the placement and the year – I’ll definitely be interested in following how it pans out!
Thanks!
Hey
I’ve just started my second year of the Social Work MA too. How are you finding the 2nd year work? It sounds like they operate the placements differently as I don’t begin my 105 day placement until January.
Are you doing a dissertation too?
HCR
So far the work has been okay- I’m just in the process of doing the first assignment at present.
We don’t do a large dissertation as such, the uni asks us to write a journal article instead, aimed at a particular journal as if for publication- they say that makes it more relevant for us, and if the results are good enough, they will help us to get them published. Seems to me that it’s effectively the same thing as a dissertation, but slightly shorter.
We always go out on placement after January- last year I didn’t start until the end of April, and have only just finished now (yesterday actually!). Apparently we have to apply for the next placement next week- I’m actually looking forward to going out again, as my first placement has been such a good experience.
How are you finding your course? What pathway have you chosen?
Oh wow, the journal article sounds a little better! I caught myself thinking (after reading the 10th article that day) that I’d much rather work with something the length of an article than a 15,000 behemoth of a dissertation !
Ah I see – our placements run January to July and then we finish on July 17th. Is it the same for you? It’ll be 105 days. We’ve so far finished 75 day and 20 day placements in other settings. The final placement will be statutory! Yippee!!
My placement form is due in next week too! I’ve basically written that I’m not fussed where I work…
I’m finding my course VERY difficult but also very interesting. It is definitely more work than I had bargained for when I signed up but I’m so far managing it OK and just need to stick to my deadlines.
I’m following the Children and Families pathway. I’m definitely pleased with this decision. Which one are you following? I know C&F social workers seem to take it in the neck more often but eh…
HCR
How on earth have they managed to fit in a 20 and a 75day placement all ready, in just one year?? Along with all the academic work too?
Our placements start any time between Jan and April (although some people didn’t go out until the end of May this year), and finish whenever the 100 days is over! Assuming we have finished placement by Oct 14th we will qualify then, when the exam board meets- if not, it could technically be the following year. I think- or hope- that the placement team prioritises sorting out final year placements over the 1st year ones, therefore, as I think we all want to qualify as soon as possible- and most of us will need to, financially too!!
I’m following the mental health pathway, although my intermediate placement was in children & families, and I have loved it- it has changed my mind about the sector. I think C&F workers are taking more flack at the moment, largely due to the political agenda, rather than any other. Being seen to be righting the wrongs of the children’s systems is easy vote winning material- and mental health or elderly care is less popular and ’sexy’ for politicians. Tomorrow it may be mental health social workers that take the flack, or elderly care ones- depending a lot on the political agenda, or when a stranger gets killed again by someone just recently discharged etc…. That might sound cynical- it’s not, it’s just experience gained over the years…
How on earth have they managed to fit in a 20 and a 75day placement all ready, in just one year?? Along with all the academic work too?
- Oh yes, alongside all of our academic work! Last year I did modules in Fitness for Practice, Human Development, Law (plus exam) and Placement Opportunity !! Each of them was at least an essay. A crazy amount of work!
Our placements start any time between Jan and April (although some people didn’t go out until the end of May this year), and finish whenever the 100 days is over!
- How come it’s so higgeldy piggeldy? Ours are a definite you MUST start and finish at these times kind of thing. We MUST start the week of February 2nd and we MUST finish sometime around July 17th. We get 5 annual leave days during placement, do you? I’m using mine to reduce my work days.
We don’t actually graduate until January… great. 
Then our GSCC registration will take goodness knows how long on top of that! Some people wait 4+months I’ve heard. 
What kind of pathways do you choose from? We get to choose either ADULTS or CHILDREN AND FAMILIES and that’s it. If there was a mental health pathway on it’s own I would have probably followed that! Do you think it matters? I am being taught specific child protection laws but I could easily read the laws governing any other section of social work quite easily? I want to work in fostering so I guess I’m on the right pathway.
That opinion doesn’t sound cynical – you’re absolutely right! It’s only a matter of time before an elder care abuse case comes to light or something in the mental health assessment system fails and suddenly that will be across the pages. Elder care also doesn’t have bright blue eyes and blond hair though…
I’ve spent the morning looking through Community Care and downloading social work podcasts. Have you checked on iTunes U? They have the Open University social work podcasts!
Now I just need to find the time to listen to them… ha ha ha ha… 
Last year we did modules in Social welfare and ideology, law, social construction of life development, individual development and change (psychological theories), social work methods and theory, and interprofessional practice, and then placement. This year we do the pathway module, critiquing knowledge and research, and the journal article, and placement. The way our placements work is that we are in uni 2 days a week, and out on placement the other 3 days, while there is still academic teaching going on, and when teaching finishes we are in placement all 5 days a week.
We don’t qualify until October/ November, although the graduation ceremony won’t be until the following summer.
We get a choice of children & families, mental health, disabilities, and elderly pathways, although half the cohort have chosen children’s. If you want to work in fostering, you are on the right pathway, but most jobs will require two years experience in an assessment team (child protection). Most of fostering work is surprisingly with adults, though, which seems quite bizarre really! I enjoyed what I did with a fostering team in my first placement, although it was incredibly busy and stressful.
I listen to quite a few social work podcasts and lectures from iTunes U- I play them in the car when I’m driving, or when I’m doing the washing up etc! Some are better than others, but they are a good way to absorb extra info easily.
It’s amazing how different uni’s organise the same course so differently, isn’t it?
I find it very interesting to hear how other Universities organise the same course, yes! It would make so much sense for us to do our placement alongside our lecture time but I suppose this frees up 3 days a week during term time for us to do our dissertation.
Your range of pathways are interesting! I actually had a lecturer tell me that the use of the word “elderly” is not a politically correct term and hasn’t been for many decades… he has me baffled! What else do I call them?
I think he was having a grumpy day or something.
We had our 1/2 day of “recognising child abuse” training yesterday. That’s pretty much all us children’s social workers will get in the whole course. I might be seeing where child protection is going wrong ?? We have bits and pieces in other lectures but that was the only definitive lecture about the topic. I’m becoming very worried now about working in child protection in the future.
We have just sent our placement forms in and I’ve put that I’d like to work in a statutory child care environment (protection) so we’ll see what happens!
How is your time organised between now and Christmas? We’re lectures 2 days a week and then free for 3. From January to July we’ll work full time up until graduation.
Fun and games.
Helen, we are supposed to call people ‘older adults’ now, to remove the ageism associated with the ‘elderly’, I think. I guess older adults does still remind us that members of this group are still individual people, as are all other adults, not a separate homogenous group with less rights like children etc. Sometimes, however, getting so technical over using theright language can distract us form the real issues at stake, I think.
That’s incredibly worrying, that you have just had one half day of training in child abuse recognition, especially as it is so vast an area with so many different signs etc. However, maybe they believe that you will learn to recognise it only when you are actually doing it, in a practice setting? That is something you can go away and do your own personal reading on I suppose, to prepare yourself as much as possible.
Up[ until Christmas my week is the same as yours, but the last lecture is 10 Nov. After that we submit an essay on the 23rd, and then are free until January- it is a long break, but to allow tutors to mark all assignments and any failing students to re-submit in time for the progression board meeting in January to formalise progression to Masters completion rather than the PgDip. After January, we are two days in uni and three in placement, depending on when we are allocated and begin, until the next module is completed in March, after which we are full-time in placement. I’m looking forward to going out into practice again- I just hope I get a good CMHT that will give me wide overall experience.
Ahh, “older adults” sounds very nicely politically correct. The other half of the course (adults) still uses the term “the elderly” so there was a lot of confusion. Using labels does cloud, yes. We had a lecture the other day about learning disabilities and the social worker lecturing told us that a label can be a positive thing in this field as it means suddenly a lot more support can be accessed. It’s all about ticking those boxes !!
I think we are supposed to pick it up in practice, yes. I suppose the whole field is still reeling from the Baby P tragedy. The mother used nappy cream/chocolate to cover up the fingertip bruising around his face? I am not sure it would even occur to me to ask the mother to remove the cream and clean a child up. Abusers are so deceptive – I suppose I could study child abuse for the rest of my career and never fully know when I am not going to be duped by one.
What criteria is used to judge between PgDip and MA? I asked the head of department to let me do the PgDip when I was stressing about my dissertation and she told me I was “too bright” to follow that qualification. I think for us we still have to do the dissertation but if we get below 40% but over 30% we get the PgDip instead of the MA.