Key Capabilities in Child Care and Protection

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Key Capabilities in Child Care and Protection
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Agenda for today

• Your role in embedding Key Capabilities
• Sharing approaches
• Your questions and comments

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Terminology

• Different parties have different definitions of
  child protection
• Key Capabilities refer to child protection in
  the context of child care and meeting childrens
  needs, rather than the investigative interviewing
  process.

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Context

• Four year Honours Degree in Social Work (generic)
• Two year Post-Graduate (generic)

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Historic Overview

• Publication of Child Protection Audit Its
  everyones job to make sure Im alright. (2002
  Scottish Executive)
• Inquiry Reports highlighted
• - poor outcomes
• - lack of communication within and across
  agencies
• - poor analysis

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Child Protection Development and Training Project

• Evaluative audit of teaching and learning in
  relation to Child Care and Protection
• Develop Key Capabilities in Child Care and
  Protection
• Establish how these would be embedded.

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Relevant Frameworks

• Scottish Credit and Qualifications
  Framework (SCQF)
• Standards in Social Work Education
• Scottish Social Services Council Codes of
  Practice
• Childrens Charter and Framework for Standards

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The Key Capabilities

• Effective Communication
• Knowledge and Understanding
• Professional Confidence and Competence
• Values and Ethical Practice

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Purpose of Key Capabilities

• To ensure that all social workers at the point
  of qualifying
• are aware of their roles and responsibilities in
  respect of children and young people.
• are able to demonstrate their knowledge, skills
  and understanding in relation to child care and
  protection.

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Incremental learning

• Skills of an emerging social work practitioner
• will change over the course of their training.
• The way skills are taught and assessed will be
  incremental.
• KCs final level at point of qualifying is Level
  10 SCQF/Year 4 BA honors equivalent.

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Post-Graduate SCQF Levels

• Audit
• Post-graduate programmes taught and assessed at
  different levels
• Post- graduate Key Capabilities have been
  aligned at Level 10 for academic work and
  practice competence

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SCQF levels

• Level 9 SCQF
• identify and analyse routine professional
  problems and issues
• Level 10 SCQF
• offer professional level insights,
  interpretations and solutions to problems and
  issues.

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Assessment

• Every student will be assessed in relation to
  child care
• and protection at key stages of their learning.
• At a minimum, students should be summatively
  assessed prior to their first practice learning
  opportunity and prior to completing the course.
• Students also need to evidence that they have
  met the placement requirements.

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Practice Learning

• Underpinning Key Capabilities
• Whatever practice learning opportunity a student
  is engaged in they must be able to evidence their
  knowledge and application of child care and
  protection, as it is relevant to their setting.

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Practice Learning

• In addition, during one of their assessed
  practice learning opportunities, students should
  undertake an assessment of a child or of
  parenting capacity.
• The student may not necessarily be primary case
  holder rather they might be co-working within or
  across organisations.

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Flexibility

• Key Capabilities are designed to allow
  flexibility in the way they are implemented.
• The document gives specific examples of how a
  Key Capability might look, however you will have
  other imaginative ways of how these might be met.

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Outcome

• Every qualified social worker should emerge
  having undertaken an assessment of a child or
  parenting capacity.

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Status

• Key Capabilities were ratified by Peter Peacock,
  then Minister for Education and Young People in
  June 2006.

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Scottish Social Services Council

• The SSSC is the regulatory body which will have
  responsibility for regulating and monitoring
  qualifying social work programmes.

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Your role in the process

• Practice learning opportunity or university?
• What do the requirements mean for you?
• Assessment

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Practice Learning Opportunities

• Ethical and Meaningful
• Outcomes for service user, student and
  organisation
• Creative links within and between teams

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Competent and Confident Level 10Page 35

• Students should be confident in exercising their
  professional powers and responsibilities with
  reference to child care and protection. During
  their practice learning opportunity all students
  should have had the chance to present their
  assessment of a child,/young person or parent to
  an appropriate forum. (This may be formal or
  informal, some examples would be a childrens
  hearing, case conference, LAC review, team
  meeting, core group).

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• Sharing Practice

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Case Examples

• How can they help embed this Key Capability?
• What might the challenges be and how can they be
  overcome?
• What do you want the outcomes to be for the
  service user?
• How might the student be assessed?

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Professionally Competent and Confident

• This is a Key Capability which could be met
  both in a Practice Learning Opportunity and
  University.
• Level8
• Students need to become increasingly responsible
  for managing their own learning. Every students
  going on practice learning opportunities should
  have read that agencys child protection
  procedures and be able to demonstrate that they
  are clear as to their responsibility( and its
  limits). Page 31

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EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

• This is identified as a Key Capability which can
  be met both in the Practice learning Opportunity
  and University
• Level 9
• Students should be able to communicate directly
  with children, young people and parents/carers
  using skills to elicit and impart relevant
  information. For example, responding to
  enquiries, taking and acting on referrals,
  talking to children in families they are working
  with. This includes accurate recording of
  information (knowing what to include and what to
  leave out.) This involves use of appropriate IT
  systems. Any recording should differentiate
  between fact and opinion. (Page 11)

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KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

• This is identified as a Key Capability which can
  be met both in the Practice learning Opportunity
  and University
• Level 9
• Students should develop their understanding of
  child care and protection in a changing context
  demonstrating how they have applied this to their
  practice. Students also need to demonstrate a
  critical understanding of how current social
  developments can influence policy and practice in
  relation to child care and protection.
• (Page 23)

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PROFESSIONALLY COMPETENT AND CONFIDENT

• This is identified as a Key Capability which
  could be met
• within both a practice learning opportunity and
  university
• Level 10
• Students should be able to demonstrate to
  practice teachers and HEIs that they are clear
  about their professional role and
  responsibilities and when they need to share
  information with other professionals to protect a
  child.
• (Page 34)

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VALUES AND ETHICAL PRACTICE

• This is identified as a Key Capability which can
  be met both in the Practice learning Opportunity
  and University
• Level 10
• Students need to demonstrate that they are aware
  of their own personal values in relation to child
  care and protection and if necessary can separate
  these from their practice to ensure they respond
  professionally.
• Students need to demonstrate that where there is
  a conflict between their personal and
  professional values, they can use supervision
  effectively to address this. (Page 44)

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Frequently asked questions
www.iriss.ac.uk/keycapabilities www.iriss.ac.uk/k
eycapabilities/faq