A consortium approach for child and family practice education.

Child and family practice and child protection are extraordinarily complex. They require in-depth understanding of intra- and inter-personal skills and intricate service systems, and capacity to operate in a constantly changing policy environment. One way of meeting the needs of such practitioners i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social Work Education Vol. 35; no. 7; pp. 780 - 794
Main Authors: Frederico, Margarita, Long, Maureen, McPherson, Lynne, McNamara, Patricia, Cameron, Nadine
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Oct2016
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:Child and family practice and child protection are extraordinarily complex. They require in-depth understanding of intra- and inter-personal skills and intricate service systems, and capacity to operate in a constantly changing policy environment. One way of meeting the needs of such practitioners is facilitating their access to experts working across direct practice, management and leadership and policy-making contexts. This article discusses the rationale for collaboratively delivered post-qualifying courses for child and family practitioners, and discusses a highly successful example of such courses delivered through La Trobe University. It outlines the unique developmental process and model of delivery adopted by the consortium responsible for the postgraduate programme. It concludes with reference to early evaluative findings indicating it as a promising pedagogical model.