Does qualifying route inform preparedness for child protection practice? An appraisal of the testimonies of 201 'early career' social workers.

England's children's social care workforce is in a state of crisis, with the problem perhaps more prominent in the field of child protection. This led the Review of Children's Social Care to call for further evaluation of social work education pathways, particularly in their ability to prepare early...

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Published in:Social Work Education Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 858 - 879
Main Authors: Murphy, Ciarán, Liverpool, Shaun, Parry, Nicole, Birch, Nicola, Turay, Jennifer
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Jun2025
Subjects:
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      dt: Jun2025
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/02615479.2024.2355637
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        atl: Does qualifying route inform preparedness for child protection practice? An appraisal of the testimonies of 201 'early career' social workers.
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          Murphy, Ciarán
          Liverpool, Shaun
          Parry, Nicole
          Birch, Nicola
          Turay, Jennifer
        affil:
          Department of Social Work & Wellbeing, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, England
          Children's Services, Wigan Council, Children's Safeguarding Academy Team 1, Wigan, UK
          Children's Safeguarding Team, Children's Services, Dudley Metropolitan Council, Dudley, England
      su:
        England
        Social work education
        Social workers
        Child welfare
        Cooperativeness
        Preparedness
        Experimental design
      sug:
        subj:
          Social work education
          Social workers
          Child welfare
          Cooperativeness
          England
          Other Individual and Family Services
          Preparedness
          Experimental design
      keyword:
        Child protection
        children's social care
        preparedness
        social work
        social work education
        Child protection
        children's social care
        preparedness
        social work
        social work education
      ab: England's children's social care workforce is in a state of crisis, with the problem perhaps more prominent in the field of child protection. This led the Review of Children's Social Care to call for further evaluation of social work education pathways, particularly in their ability to prepare early career social workers for the rigors of contemporary practice. The study emerged in response to this call, but also in the context of a concurrent narrative emanating from the local Social Work Teaching Partnership, that newly qualified social workers were often found to be 'ill-prepared' for child protection work. The study employed an iterative mixed method design to explore the impact of social work qualification route on early career social workers' sense of preparedness for child protection practice. Whilst some statistical association was found, the study identified areas where social workers generally felt either 'well' or 'ill-prepared' for child protection work. Moreover, the study presents several strategies for improving the preparation of early career social workers for child protection practice, including cultivating partnerships with specialist child protection organizations; interprofessional teaching and learning across suitable programmes; better collaboration with 'experts-by-experience' in the delivery of content; and designed field trips to child protection settings.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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