Social Work

Promoting social justice, empowering people to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential are pillars of The Open University’s (the OU) mission. It’s the shared responsibility of all at the OU to contribute to these aims and we do this not only by providing life-changing learning, but also by embedding personal development planning, self-reflection, employability and the employer voice throughout the student journey. // Following an institutional review of employability at the OU, a strategic programme – Enhanced Employability and Career Progression (EECP) – was established to review and refresh the OU’s approach to employability. // This paper will describe EECP’s innovative approach to supporting students’ understanding, development and articulation of employability – engaging stakeholders across the University; developing innovative working practices and supporting academic teams to understand employability in relation to their subject area. // In developing a supportive ...

Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Prepared for practice? Exploring and evaluating the first six months of post-qualified practice in social work

In a collection of more than 50 readings, Mental Health Still Matters reflects the wide diversity of views about how best to understand and explain mental health and distress. Drawing on writings from a range of academic sources, as well as the rich and compelling stories of mental health service users themselves, it provides a sharp challenge to traditional understandings of mental illness and aims to illuminate future thinking, policy and practice. As a sister volume to the best-selling Mental Health Matters, it combines classic writings about mental health theories, perspectives and practices from psychiatry, sociology, psychology and service users, alongside newly commissioned readings. The book is divided into four parts: • Part I discusses and critiques mental health theory in an exploration of contemporary debates. • Part II considers social inclusion as a goal for mental health services and reviews aspects of the services in which inequality continues to dominate. • Part III...

Version: Version of Record Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Final report from the project:

This paper is based on the development of a framework that conceptualises forms of power in social work research. Its aim is to encourage readers to critically reflect on potentially oppressive manifestations of power in social work research. The article draws on Lukes' model of power and Gould's subsequent framework which contributed to anti-racist teaching in social work education. Gould's framework is reinterpreted and applied to a differing context: social work research. The field of social work research is explored through this framework, highlighting potentially oppressive manifestations of power and suggesting anti-oppressive strategies. The model is then applied to social work education and specifically the teaching of research methods. The paper concludes by suggesting curriculum guidelines that promote the teaching of anti-oppressive social work research methods.

http://gu.com/p/4cc7f/stw

In response to the refugee crisis, the Fostering Network has called for more people to come forward to foster refugee children. A Christian faith group have also encouraged its community to foster and 9,000 people have apparently expressed an interest in fostering refugee children. A policy response is now needed that provides an increase in funding to local authority family placement teams so that social workers are able to recruit and assess more carers for unaccompanied refugee children.

This series of posters shows a research project undertaken with a group of unaccompanied asylum seeking children who are placed in foster care with TACT in Bristol. As a result of war and human rights abuses in countries neighbouring Europe, there has been an increase in people entering the UK to seek asylum. Despite a large number of people in the UK wanting to welcome refugees, TACT's fostering service in the southwest had very few people coming forward to enquire about fostering refugee children who arrived in the country alone. TACT have also experienced some apprehension from their existing carers to offer placements to refugee children. The Social Workers at TACT felt that this was due to a barrier where people saw the refugee/asylum seeker status first and the child/young person second. This research aimed to shift perceptions and show that despite challenging life experiences these young people are adapting to their lives in the south west of England and thriving in their foster placements.

This paper reflects on the methodological approach adopted during a study which explored the experiences of young people in foster care in the United Kingdom (UK). The study used a novel combination of visual methods, which included eco-maps and photo elicitation. The paper begins with a brief account of the context of foster care in the UK, and provides an overview of the theoretical framework that underpinned the study. The two main sections of the paper provide an overview of the two different visual research methods that were used, eco-maps and then photo elicitation. These sections include examples where these approaches have previously been used in research, as well as reflections on their application in this study. The challenges and the benefits of using visual research methods with children and young people in foster care are considered throughout. The paper concludes by arguing that these chosen methods were of value as they enabled the collection of important data that may otherwise have gone unobserved.