1. Apply the legislative framework and statutory guidance, including the impact of contemporary definitions of harm, risk and need, in practice with children and families.

Application and Problem Solving

2. Recognise and explain the impact of diversity, disadvantage, and discrimination on children and families who access social work services.

Application and Problem Solving

3. Reflect on the role of partnership working with children, families and other professionals to inform assessment and intervention in practice.

Reflection

Critical Reasoning and Collaboration

4. Analyse evidence-informed approaches for effective social work intervention with children and families, including contemporary social work research, methods, theories and models.

Knowledge and Understanding

Research Skills

Formative Assessment:

Group discussions and simulation during teaching and learning sessions to embed learning within the module and to prepare for summative assessment.

Summative assessment:

1) You will engage in a professional supervision role play based on a case study developed in partnership with key stakeholders where you can apply the learning from the module to evidence all learning outcomes.

2) You will analyse and apply the learning from a contemporary Child Safeguarding Practice review to make evidence informed recommendations for contemporary social work practice with children and families, supported by appropriate scholarly sources, and considering the benefits and challenges to effective partnership and multi-agency working.

Taking a rights-based and child-centred approach, this module will contextualise contemporary social work practice with children and families and provide you with the knowledge, skills, and values that form the foundation of evidence informed practice. Teaching and learning on the module will enable you to develop critical understanding of:

- The role of the social worker in practice with children and families.

- The relationship between legislation, policy, and social work practice to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children.

- The way in which events in recent history, such as Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, have shaped the social construction of childhood, parenting and abuse and the impact of this changing narrative on social work practice.

- A range of theoretical perspectives, methods, models, and contemporary research, and how these inform contemporary practice with children and families.

- The nature of abuse, risk, need and harm in contemporary society, and how social workers make evidence-informed decisions to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This will include adult-oriented issues that have a direct impact on children’s wellbeing – such as parental substance misuse, mental ill-health, coercive control and other forms of domestic abuse.

- The role and function of partnership working, in all its forms, to inform decision making, and to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

- The centrality of the voice of the child in practice.

- The impact of diversity, discrimination, and disadvantage on the lived experiences of children and families, and the knowledge, skills, and values that social workers utilise to challenge oppression and empower people who access social work services.

- The significance of anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and anti-poverty practice etc in supporting children and families.

Informed by current research and collaboration with key stakeholders including people with lived experience, the module will also include analysis of the key contemporary issues in practice, and the evidence base to inform social work interventions to respond to them.

This module will develop your understanding of the role of the social worker with children and families. In considering the core knowledge, skills and values that underpin practice to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, the module will enable you to explore the foundations of evidence-informed practice. Informed by current research and collaboration with key stakeholders, the module will include analysis of key contemporary issues in practice and the evidence base to inform social work interventions with children and families.

Scheduled teaching and learning activities:

During the classroom sessions there may be -

Lectures on key topics

Peer learning: Small group discussion to explore some of the key issues in greater depth.

Case-based learning: Realistic scenarios for critical thinking.

Simulated practice: Role-play multi-agency meetings.

Reflective groups: Peer discussion.

Guest speakers: Experienced practitioners and people with lived experience of social work

Directed Independent study consists of:

- Accessing online resources

- Use of the VLE

- Independent reading to consolidate the knowledge introduced in the scheduled teaching and learning sessions

- Formative and summative assessment preparation

Brammer, A. (2024) Social Work Law. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education, Limited.

Horwath, J and Platt, D (2019) The Child’s World: The essential guide to assessing vulnerable children, young people and their families. London. JKP

Payne, M. (2021) Modern social work theory. 5th ed. London: Red Globe Press.

Dyke, C. (2019) Writing analytical assessments in social work. 2nd ed. St Albans: Critical Publishing.

Wilkins, D (2019) Child abuse: an evidence base for confident practice. (5th ed). London. OUP Press

Ferguson, H. (2025) Making Child Protection Work. Bristol: Policy Press

Simulation suites

Virti or other digital tools to support with phenomena or simulation-based learning