What is a Social Work Teaching Partnership?
In 2014 there were two key reports published that reviewed social work education. Sir Martin Narey’s independent review of the education of children’s social workers and David Croisdale-Appleby’s independent review Re-visioning social work education.
Following the publication of these, Government developed a programme to improve the quality of education received by social work students, including through provision of statutory placements for more students and increased employer involvement in student selection. It also accepted Narey’s recommendation to define more clearly the skills and knowledge that social workers should have, to carry out their professional roles effectively.
The Department for Education (DfE) and the Department of Health (DH) worked together to set up the Social Work Teaching Partnerships (SWTPs) programme with a view to:
- Enhancing partnership arrangements between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and employers
- Attracting more able students
- Embed the knowledge and skills into academic curricula and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for existing workers
- Overall raise the quality of social work practice
The first pilot launched in 2015 with four SWTPs being created. The programme invited bids from Local Authority led partnerships. Partnerships would include local HEIs and other local key employers of social workers, for example Health Trusts; Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) organisations; CAFCASS. The objective was to build on existing partnership work but also to provide stretch criteria to support the required improvement. There have since been two further funding rounds.
You can read the initial evaluation of the first SWTPs here.
How did Greater Cambridgeshire Social Work Teaching Partnership start?
We had confirmation that our bid was successful in June 2018. At the start of the partnership there were eight partners.
Coram were providing Adoption services in Cambridgeshire and TACT were providing a Permanence Service in Peterborough, including Fostering and Adoption. Both of these arrangements have since returned in house to the respective Local Authority and the partnership now has six members.
You can find out more about each of the current partners by clicking the links below:
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT)
Kneesworth House, Priory Hospital
Our SWTP follows clear pathways of roles, responsibilities and accountabilities (set up by Terms of Reference and Memorandum of Cooperation). It has an Executive Board, an Operations Implementation Board and Working Strands to match the identified priorities.
In 2021 we were successful in being awarded further funding to ensure the sustainability of the project.
You can follow us on Twitter @GCSWTP
