Can BASW do social work proud?
Neil Puffett
Monday, August 31, 2015
BASW is to take on The College of Social Work's role in upholding social work's status and standards.
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) will take on many of the functions performed by The College of Social Work (TCSW) when it closes this month, it has been confirmed.
Specifically, it will take over the running of the professional capabilities framework (PCF), which sets out expectations of social workers at every stage in their career; the continuing professional development (CPD) endorsement framework; and a range of publications, reports and policy documents.
It is also in talks over the future of the college's three faculties - children and families, adults and mental health - and its professional assembly, which has shaped strategy on professional development and reviewed policies and strategies for raising standards. With the college's demise announced in June, how will its work now continue under BASW's charge?
Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF)
The PCF was developed by the Social Work Reform Board and passed on to TCSW in 2012 to give social work in England a common language in describing the capabilities social workers need at different stages of their careers. But the development of the knowledge and skills statement (KSS) for child and family social work has since led to questions about the framework's continued relevance.
Last December, the college announced a review of PCF, which BASW will publish this month as part of the handover.
TCSW chief executive Annie Hudson reveals it will show there is a desire for the framework to continue. "People really value the PCF and see it as critical to professional development," she says. "The review has highlighted very strong support for PCF in the profession.
"It has brought many benefits but there will potentially be some changes needed. There is obviously a concern that the knowledge and skills statement will be seen as trumping it, but they describe things in slightly different ways.
"It's about making sure the relationship between different types of statement is clear and what their status and value is."
BASW chief executive Bridget Robb points out that the knowledge and skills statement represents central government's vision of what social work should be, whereas the PCF is "written by the profession, for the profession".
"The PCF doesn't fit easily with the direction government is taking in relation to social work standards and education," she says. "That's why we felt it was important to keep it in the ownership of the profession.
"We want to talk to employers and social workers about what they see as the future for it, whether there is a role for it in our own understanding of what we do, which is maybe slightly different to what the government wants."
Continuing professional development (CPD)
All social workers in England are required to demonstrate their continued professional development when they re-register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) every two years.
However, concerns have been raised that the current list produced by HCPC of what qualifies as CPD includes "updating knowledge through the internet or TV" and "being promoted".
TCSW developed an endorsement scheme for CPD. It currently endorses training from a total of 31 individuals, organisations and learning programmes.
Endorsement indicates that an education and training provider works to an agreed set of quality criteria and offers provision that meets the CPD learning needs of social workers.
However, there have been calls for the process to be strengthened further by requiring CPD to be more formally accredited rather than endorsed, and to be more rigorously scrutinised when social workers re-register.
"Good strong professions have strong CPD frameworks. Sometimes in social work the attention to that has been patchy," says Hudson. "TCSW's endorsement programme has endorsed quite a lot of programmes but there's more to be done. I hope BASW will progress and develop that scheme when it takes it on."
Robb says BASW will work to ensure it can offer guidance on good CPD opportunities for social workers, but says there appears to be "no appetite" in the sector for a formalised national CPD framework.
Faculties
Although the three faculties run by TCSW worked independently, they received administrative support.
Brigid Featherstone, chair of the children and families faculty, says she and her co-chairs are keen to combine forces with BASW to "provide the strongest voice for social workers and social work students that we can".
Featherstone says that, should the future of the faculties be secured, she is keen that they endeavour to do more work on issues affecting members, such as high caseloads.
"We spent a lot of the first year responding to government consultations, which can be rather invisible work in terms of the wider membership," she says. "We did quite a bit on developing ideas on policies, but there is a long way to go on reaching out to the wider membership.
"I would like us to be reach out and be a bit more forward-thinking, visible and more engaged with the social work community."