Course overview

Approved by the HCPC

This Master's degree is a professional qualification for social work approved by the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC). It will provide you with the opportunity (at postgraduate level) to acquire the knowledge, theory, values and skills to work with vulnerable individuals and groups in society. It will also enable you to develop the flexibility to work in any sector of social work – children and families, mental health, disabilities, vulnerable adults or in the wide range of voluntary and independent organisations providing services to people who are homeless, who misuse substances, who are in the criminal justice system or who have experience of the care system.

The programme comprises a combination of academic university-based structured learning and 200 days of practical placements in two different social work/social care agencies (70 days in year one and 130 days in year two).

The key to the programme is our commitment to inclusion, inter-professionalism and internationalism. We place the development of knowledge and the skills necessary to create egalitarian and empowering forms of practice at the centre of the student experience. We emphasise the need to engage in inter-professional practice and seek to ensure that our students are sensitive to the needs of minority groups within the UK and the wider international arena. Our commitment to anti-discriminatory/anti-oppressive practice will be at the heart of all our activities.

We highly value our links with service users and local agencies from both the statutory and voluntary sector. They contribute to curriculum development, admissions, teaching and assessment, helping ensure that our course is up-to-date, relevant to service provision and firmly focused on service user and carer needs. Examples of the work we do with our Social Work Inclusion Group can be found at www.swig.uk.net.

Is this the right course for me?

The MSc Social Work is a full-time, two-year course leading to professional qualification and eligibility to register as a social worker with the HCPC. Candidates will normally be required to hold an existing undergraduate degree, preferably in a subject relevant to the social work curriculum at a minimum of lower second-class level. Other professional qualifications, such as nursing or teaching, may be considered. Candidates will be expected to have paid or voluntary practical experience in social care settings or services to support their application.

Course content

Year one

• Bridging Unit: this unit of study is designed to enable you to gain a grounding in the social sciences and an understanding of social work theory and practice. This will equip you to engage with the practical and theoretical challenges raised within the course. It will also allow those who are more familiar with social work to develop their knowledge in this area.
• Researching and Contextualising Social Work: this unit aims to enable you to develop your knowledge of research approaches and to be able to apply such approaches to real-world situations within social work. You will gain an understanding of the changing social work environment and the contemporary challenges faced by social work.
• Empowerment, Inclusion, Service Users and Social Work Methods: through a combination of personal reflective journals and creative and performance activities, this unit will enable you to understand the motivations, experiences and actions of service users within a clear ethical framework that recognises and promotes diversity. It will explore the methods used by social workers to intervene in a range of situations and settings and will enable you to develop a critical understanding of the way contemporary social work deals with issues of power/empowerment, care/control and social exclusion/inclusion.
• Practice Placement One: all students on courses leading to a social work qualification are required to undertake assessed practice in relevant placements and meet the requirements of the Health Care Professions Council and the Professional Capabilities Framework developed by the College of Social Work. You will spend 70 days on the first-year placement. Every student is assigned a Practice Teacher/Assessor who directs, supports and evaluates their practice development and achievement. You will be expected to undertake three analyses of your practice and have your practice observed on three occasions.

Year two

• Policy Analysis and International Welfare: this unit reflects the expectation that students at Master's level should exhibit higher critical and analytical skills. It provides a framework for the evaluation of policy development and implementation and builds on the unit Researching and Contextualising Social Work. Studying this unit will enable you to look at social work and social policy developments internationally in the context of contemporary social work practice.
• Empowerment, Inclusion and Service Users: this unit builds on the stage one unit around empowerment and social work methods. Its focus is on the service user/carer experience, but involves you evaluating how creativity can be used in working with service users and a critical evaluation of the impact of service user involvement on social work education.
• Dissertation: you will write an 8,000-word dissertation, which will be submitted as part of the assessment for this unit. You will also be expected to defend your dissertation before a panel consisting of academic staff, practitioners and service users/carers. Those undertaking an international placement will be expected to produce a comparative analysis.
• Practice Placement Two: you will undertake a second practice placement of 130 days, during which you will be expected to undertake five practice analyses and have your practice observed on five occasions. You will have the option of undertaking up to 60 placement days overseas in a social work teaching institution with which we have links.

Teaching and assessment

Academic support

You will be allocated an academic lecturer as your personal tutor, who will support, advise and assess you throughout the course. We use a variety of teaching methods including lectures, group work and other classroom strategies, as well as group and creative work with service users and carers. We are keen to develop imaginative use of techniques such as art and performance in our understanding of social work.

Practice experience

A key component of our social work degrees is practice learning. This involves working with a range of user groups and the individuals who support them.

Assessment

Assessment is primarily based on written, oral or portfolio evidence relating to each of the taught units. Learning in practice involves assessment measured against the Standards of Proficiency as required by the HCPC and the Professional Capability Framework developed by the College of Social Work. There are no formal written examinations.

Career prospects

The MSc Social Work qualifies you to register (with the HCPC) and work as a professional social worker in a wide variety of statutory, voluntary and independent sector agencies.

Our social work graduates are now working in many aspects of social care and social work provision as practitioners, practice teachers, community organisers and managers, both in Britain and worldwide.

Facilities and features

Portsmouth has a reputation for providing a supportive and friendly atmosphere in which its students can enjoy their studies. Personal tutors will help you gain access to any support you may require and you will also have use of a wide range of University resources including our library and computing facilities, which are open seven days a week.

Our staff are all experts in a range of appropriate subjects and areas of practice. Their enthusiasm and motivation means you will get the most out of your time with us.

Entry requirements

The entry requirements for MSc Social Work are shown above, for more detailed information please contact:

Department: School of Health Sciences and Social Work
Tel: +44 (0) 23 9284 5550
Email: sci-pgrad@port.ac.uk