Clean Bill Of Health For Social Work
12 July 2010
Britannia Mill, part of the Derby Campus, where social work courses are taught.
The General Social Care Council (GSCC) has given a clean bill of health to the Social Work degree courses offered by the University of Derby.
For the first time, the regulator has published annual monitoring reports for the 83 universities and colleges which provide degrees in this subject area.
Only 14 institutions - including the University of Derby - fully met national requirements set out by the GSCC and Department of Health for all their social work courses.
Fran Fuller, Programme Leader BA (Hons) Applied Social Work and TEL Teaching Fellow, at the University of Derby, said: "The team at Derby has worked hard with partner agencies, service users, and students to achieve this clean bill of health which we hope will demonstrate to prospective students and indeed to students currently enrolled on the programme that work goes on behind the scenes to ensure we continue to meet the regulatory requirements.
"This is constantly reviewed through robust procedures which the programme has developed over a number of years and we will continue to do so to ensure Derby is known for its 'kite mark' of quality both in practice and academic arenas."
The findings follow the conclusion of the Social Work Task Force, that initial social work training in England was 'not yet reliable enough' in meeting its primary objective of preparing students for frontline practice.
As well as recommending an overhaul of courses, the taskforce called for more transparent and effective regulation of social work education 'to give greater assurance of consistency and quality.'
Penny Thompson, Chief Executive of the GSCC, said the transparent approach to inspection would enable students to make more informed choices about where to study.
She said: "We hope that the publication of these reports will help drive up standards, by compelling failing institutions to act and encouraging others to learn from best practice.
"Where degree courses are not up to the mark, we will take decisive action to improve them without penalising or interfering with the vast majority that provide a high quality social work course for students."
Derby's annual monitoring report can be found on the GSCC website.
-ends-
For more information about this news release, contact Deputy Head of Corporate Relations Simon Redfern on 01332 591942 or 07748 920038 or email s.redfern@derby.ac.uk.
