Social Work Skills Days – ‘Keeping It Real’

Abstract

As part of the South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership, a part time secondment of a Practice Consultant was made to the Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). The remit was to contribute to teaching from a practitioner's viewpoint. One example of curriculum development was working with the Social Work Skills lead on the report writing and court skills days offered on the BA Social Work course. The skills days on report writing and court skills, had previously been delivered separately. By using the same case study and linking the report writing to the evidence submitted as part of the court bundle, students could see the importance of ensuring their writing was clear, factual, and demonstrated analysis of the case. This strengthened their written and legal skills. When students were presented with a full court bundle on the same case, they could compare their writing to the examples in the bundle. This enabled them to critically reflect on their own writing and whether it would stand up to scrutiny during cross-examination. It offered students the opportunity to learn to write for different purposes and reflect on the tools and techniques of writing and developing their professional voice.