Introduction

We have developed this suite of modules, in collaboration with South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership (SYTP), to meet the professional development needs of Social Workers, Managers and other professionals working in adult social care. The aim is to ensure your continuous development of knowledge and skills as professionally capable, reflective and analytical practitioners.

You will have the opportunity to study assessed modules as well as participate in non-credit bearing online masterclasses. These can be tailored to suit your specific CPD needs, whether that is applying for just one module or several events.  The programme up to July 2023 will be extended for the autumn with additional modules added.

Module overview

Applied Adult Social Work Law 1 (credit-bearing)

The overarching aim of this module is to enable you to build on practice experience, develop and demonstrate critical knowledge and skills relevant to the Care Act 2014 within the context of strength-based approaches and other relevant theories and models. It will be delivered face-to-face.

Themes: You will contextualise and reflect upon the statutory basis for social work and the duties and responsibilities invested upon social workers, and other lead professionals in social care, including the legal principles underpinning them. There is a focus upon the development of skills in the use and application of the Care Act 2014, and its relationship to other key legislation such as human rights, equalities and mental capacity.

Suitable for: Social workers and other practitioners who work in adult services using the care and support provisions of the Care Act 2014. 

Applied Adult Social Work Law 2 (credit-bearing)

This module enables you to build upon practice knowledge & skills key in developing emancipatory practice within Adult Social Work assessments with people who lack mental capacity.

Themes: The Mental Capacity Act 2005, and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (and its success LPS) are the focus. You will also examine the inter-play between the contextual legislative processes such as the Care Act 2014 (in terms of both safeguarding and care/support) , Human Rights Act 1998, Equality Act 2010 and the interface with the Mental Health Act 1983. It is a suitable precursor to undertaking Best Interest Assessor training and as a refresher for existing BIA holders. 

Suitable for: Social workers and other practitioners in adult services who work with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and related legislation. 

Masterclasses (non-credit bearing)

In consultation with key partner agencies, a programme of masterclasses will run between March and July 2023.

• MASTERCLASS: - Defensible decision making: legal literacy in adult social care (8^th March 2023): A half day online seminar focused on legal, ethical, and evidential reasoning. Drawing from the work of a range of academics and legal experts, we will explore the dimensions that make up legally, ethically defensible decisions in practice with adults. Facilitated by specialist staff from SHU, this will be an opportunity to draw together the learning from recent case law and safeguarding adult reviews and reflect on the implications for decision making in adult social care. This seminar is targeted at Assessors and decision makers in adult social care settings.

• MASTERCLASS: - Strengths based approaches to supporting wellbeing: co-production, technology enhanced care and the duty to prevent needs (26th April 2023). A half-day online seminar that explores strengths-based ways of working with local communities, drawing on learning from co-production as a way of doing things. We will explore the challenges of fulfilling the duty to prevent needs in the context of shrinking resources, with examples of innovative practice (including technology enhanced care) and create opportunities to explore practice issues with peers too. This seminar is targeted at frontline adult social care staff in first contact settings, Adult social care assessors and Adult social care providers.

• MASTERCLASS: - Working with people with Hoarding Behaviour: the interface between capacity, safeguarding and the multi-agency context (14^th June 2023). A half-day online seminar, focusing on good sharing practice, identifying some of the challenges and sharing ideas for taking practice forwards. Keynote speaker for the seminar will be Fiona Bateman - Independent Safeguarding Trainer and former Local Authority Solicitor. Core themes covered:

• Recognising and exploring the complexity of engaging with and supporting people with hoarding behaviours

• Discussing the legal issues regarding consent, decisional / executive capacity and the interface with safeguarding
• Support for practitioners when engaging with supporting people with hoarding behaviours
• Learning from safeguarding adult reviews

• MASTERCLASS: - Diversity, Equalities and Inclusion in Adult social care: meeting the needs of marginalised groups (12^th July 2023). A half-day online seminar based on messages from research and from safeguarding adult reviews reveal a number of issues that impact upon access to help for members of several different and intersecting marginalised groups. This includes LGBTQ people, asylum seekers, and people who identify as neurodiverse.  The seminar will bring together some key messages from research, case law and SARs along with some expert speakers to explore distinctive experiences and lessons to be learned for assessors and providers.

Please use the links below to apply for/book on any of the modules and masterclasses - module fees are listed. Further down the page you can explore the specific attendance dates and how the credit-bearing modules will be assessed.

Fees and Funding for 2022/23

Further details

For further information please contact the module leader Jane Foggin - j.foggin@shu.ac.uk or contact the student experience team:

SocialWorkStudies@shu.ac.uk