Making Practice Learning Part of Our Core Business: A Case Study of Organisational Change

Implementing the new degree in social work in Britain will require practice agencies to deliver an increased number of practice learning opportunities to students undertaking social work training. Indeed the Practice Learning Taskforce ( 2004 ) estimates that, in London, a 70% increase from 2002/3 t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social work education 2006-08, Vol.25 (5), p.518-532
Main Author: Fairtlough, Anna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Research
Autobiography
Case Study
Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods
Education
Educational sciences
Learning
London, England
Needs
Organisational Change
Practice Learning
Social and human sciences
Social Services
Social work
Social Work Education
Teaching methods
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Summary:Implementing the new degree in social work in Britain will require practice agencies to deliver an increased number of practice learning opportunities to students undertaking social work training. Indeed the Practice Learning Taskforce ( 2004 ) estimates that, in London, a 70% increase from 2002/3 to 2006/7 will be needed. In order to achieve this practice agencies are being urged to transform themselves into learning organisations. Given that social work programmes in many areas are already struggling to find sufficient placements for their students this is likely to be hugely challenging. Research carried out by Lindsay & Tompsett suggests that, in order to achieve this, social work agencies need to bring planning for practice learning more centrally into the organisation's strategic planning. This paper presents a case study of the author's experience in an English social services department that attempted this. It concludes that practice agencies, in moving towards becoming learning organisations, need to pay attention both to the structural arrangements they develop and the organisational processes involved.
ISSN:0261-5479
1470-1227
DOI:10.1080/02615470600738916