Paper presented to the IASCE conference in Cork in October
2003
By Michèle Clarke
Chief Inspector
Social Services Inspectorate
‘Fit to Practice:
The Education of Professionals’
Thank you for inviting me to speak at the Annual Conference of Social Care
Educators. I should tell you, least you think me presumptive in addressing
you, the educators in this field, that I contacted your organizer seeking to
know could I attend this conference, as I thought it would be useful for the
Social Services Inspectorate to know what were the burning issues and best
ideas in the field. By reply, I was invited to contribute a view on what were
the findings of the SSI on issues relating to graduates working in the area. It
indeed inspires confidence to know that you, the educators, are interested in
how graduates manage when they take up full time employment; and your
concern to know if your role in their formation as new professionals
prepares them to be ‘fit to practice’.
In the most general sense, what comes to mind regarding fitness to practice,
be it for academics, practicing professionals or students, is that of being
equipped intellectually, ethically and skillfully to analysis, question,
review, adapt, and develop ideas and practices in the field of work in which
one is engaged.
As educators I am sure that you view a degree or diploma as only one step in
the professional development of a social care worker. The view, help
perhaps by some, that there is one body of knowledge, static for all time, that
is imparted to students and that lasts them a life time, although a tempting
one at times, is not viable. The changes in this country in the area of social
policy, and the delivery of social services over the past half century have
been dramatic. Lest we think this is a new phenomena, let me share with you
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a quote from our household’s summer reading.
Loe Tolstoy, writing in War and Peace, between 1864 and 1869 about Tsar
Alexander 1, who died fifty years earlier, said
‘that this character, though not lacking in human virtue living fifty years
ago, had not the same conception concerning the welfare of humanity as a
present-day professor who from his youth has been engaged in study, i.e. in
reading, listening to lectures and making notes on those books and lectures
in a note-book.
But if are going to assume that Alexander 1, fifty years ago, was mistaken in
his view of what was good for the people we can hardly help considering
that the historian who criticizes Alexander may, after a certain lapse of time,
prove to be equally incorrect in his idea of what is for the good of humanity.
This assumption is all the more natural and inevitable because, watching the
development of history, we see that every year, with each new writer,
opinion as to what constitutes the welfare of humanity changes; so that what
once seemed good, ten years later seems bad, and vice versa.’
We need only look at the work of social care fifty years ago in Ireland,
mainly carried out in institutions, to see the distance that has been traveled.
A crucial part of the change agenda; the professionalisation of the sector, is
directly linked to that of the development of degree and diploma courses
such as those offered by the Institutes you represent. We do not know what
will be said fifty years hence about how services are provided, professionals
educated and quality and standards assured. What I think we can predict is
that those professionals that have the ability to identify the challenges and
develop the necessary solutions, keeping the client at the center of any such
process, are most likely to contribute positively to changes in societal norms
and expectations.
And now to move to look at the current situation today How many graduates
work in the field, what are their strengths and weakness and, most
importantly, are they fit to practice?
OVERHEAD 2
SSI’s annual reports outline findings on the centres inspected in the year of
the report, including numbers of graduates, and whilst consistencies are
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found year by year they do not present a comprehensive picture. I am going
to refer in the first instance to an audit of Social Care Workers as undertaken
by the ‘Report on the Joint Committee on Social Care Professionals’ during
2001-2002 to outline the facts of how many qualified social care
professionals at a point in time.
Two audits of qualifications were undertaken during the committee’s
lifetime, (October 2001 and April 2002) one reflecting those working in
children’s services, the other focussed on those in disability.
Nearly 3,000 staff were audited in total, 1,619 in the disability sector and the
remaining in child care.
The qualifications that, for the purposes of the audit, were recognized as a
professional qualification were
OVERHEAD 3
Those that were recognized as associated degrees were
OVERHEAD 4
Other third level qualifications
OVERHEAD 5.
The combined audits found that 54.9% of staff were professionally qualified
and 45.1% of staff were not.
OVHERHEAD 6
For brevity’s sake I am going to break down the picture of those working in
the area of childcare only
OVERHEAD 7
Here we see a span from 44% professionally qualified to 14% with no
qualification.
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I am now going to move on to look at what inspectors find when on
inspections and what, if any, comments can be made with regard to findings
and social care education.
Let me briefly explain a little about the SSI, for those of you who may not be
aware of the work we undertake.
OVERHEAD 8 (SSI establishment and number of inspections, reports etc)
OVERHEAD 9
General findings re numbers and sizes of centers
The overall findings of inspections over the last four years have been fairly
consistent across geographical areas. In the office we have done some
analysis and found clusters of qualified staff and unqualified staff at either
end of the range of staff qualifications. A trend has been noted of centers
with all or nearly all qualified staff, or centres where the team is mainly
unqualified but has many years experience, or else teams set up in
emergencies with undefined purpose and function and a poor level of
training.
I am going to look at overall findings from inspection and then outline some
general issues that may differentiate qualified and unqualified staff groups.
Positive Inspective findings, in relation to areas within the remit of the staff
are:
 Warm caring nurturing relationships between staff and children
 Good sensitive individuated primary care for children
 Attention to education and health needs
 Focus on esteem building recreational activities
 Keeping children safe from harm, in and outside of the centre
 An awareness of safeguarding issues with vulnerable children
 Regular contact with families.
Areas where improvements are required are
 Assessment of children’s current needs based on past history
 Relating this assessment to everyday practice, to how the social care
worker relates to the child in every day life
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 Planning that is linked to outcomes, using evidence to inform future
planning
 Working with family groups, with parents and siblings around
relationship issues
 Helping the child understand the reasons that the child is in care, and the
impact this may have on them
 Working with issues of discrimination
 Developing competency, capacity and confidence to work with troubled
and troubling children as a normal expectation
Inspectors, and others, have come across many situations where there has
been poor anticipation of predictable behaviors by troubled children and
where a lack of planning and team work has been partly responsible for a
poor outcome for the child or young person.
Where professional social care practice is in operation, inspectors find
evidence of a culture of reflective practice, where workers are prepared to
explore their own use of self in the dynamic of the work, and so assist
children and young people who have trouble with relationships.
Obviously, this area is a complex interplay between management, structures,
resources and staff. However, over time some key issues relating to the
ability of the team to engage well with children become evident.
Inspectors have noted general differences that can emerge between qualified
and unqualified staff. It is important to allow for age and experience
differences, and acknowledging that all centers ideally need a range of prior
experience and age in their staff team. To the best of my knowledge there
has been no Irish research identifying different work practices between
qualified and unqualified staff and SSI inspections of centres refer to the
overall quality of care, and not to the individual competencies of staff
members.
Having said that, some general trends are identifiable;
 Qualified and experienced staff tend not to take children’s behavior
personally, they may be more open to reflect more on the relationship
dynamic and to value formal supervision
 Qualified staff tend to work with more confidence with other disciplines
 Qualified staff tend to be more able deal with change
 Qualified staff tend to move more jobs frequently
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 Some qualified staff have developed good assessment and planning skills
 A small minority of qualified staff undertake meaningful work with
children regarding reasons for being in care and their care status
Bearing these trends in mind, it may be more useful to review the core areas
of work for those undertaking social care work, both across disability and
child care as perceived from an inspection viewpoint.
OVERHEAD 12
 Working directly with the client group
 Working with significant others
 Working with and within organizations, social groups and networks
 Working within legislative, regulatory, standards, human rights and best
practice framework
 Working within social care professional developments and standards
If one then looks at the core activities required to prepare a student (school
leaver) to be able to undertake these tasks within the work place, it seems
that four standards emerge, which from the inspection view, reflect the
essence of the task of the social care educator.
OVERHEAD 13
These are
 Standards of knowledge
 Standards of skill and practice
 Standards of ethics, values and self-development and
 Standards of demonstrable integration of knowledge, skill and ethics
It is important to state at this stage that the formation of a professional
workers is only made possible through the integration of the knowledge base
into practice skills that are routinely used in the everyday work situation.
One cannot assume that because a student has an understanding of the
causes of a situation (the knowledge) that they are then equipped to act in a
way to remedy the problem
Course study and skill development need the opportunity to be explored
during year appropriate placements. In my view as students have to
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demonstrate their knowledge in essays and exams, they should also have to
demonstrate skills and values in assessed placements and, as a key
graduating requirement, be able to show how they can use their theory,
values and use of self to inform their practice. This type of formation of
professional staff requires an increased level of input to students. There are
extra demands placed on educators, and it requires service providers, health
boards and others, to commit to providing good quality placement
experiences.
Standards of Knowledge
As the complexity of the task of the social care worker increases so too does
the level of knowledge necessary to underpin practice standards. As an
example, inspection findings that in the area of child care, it is necessary that
a student graduating from a social care course would have an understanding
of the following
OH
 Normal psychological development of children and adolescent
 Attachment and loss in children
 Specific needs of children and adolescents in care
 Impact of poverty addiction and discrimination on families and children
 Why children come into care
 Outcomes of care placements
 Safeguarding and child protection
 Social policy and service delivery
 Relevant legislation, regulation and standards
This is only a sample of key areas. As an undergraduate course can never
cover all areas that a professional may need in their future career, it is
important that, in addition to the foundation of core subjects that students are
also prepared to access research literature and best practice models. Course
content needs to provide students with core knowledge but also to prepare
them to think independently, to acquire knowledge, to develop the cogitative
skills relating to decision making.
Standards of skills and practice competence
OH
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The value of a social care professional to a client is demonstrated in their
practice competence as experienced in the day to day life of the client, child
or adult. Are they able to relate to the client in a way that enables the client
achieve their potential? A challenge to all educational courses is the
development of skills while the student is still within the learning
environment, with all the supports, time for reflection and safety nets
available to make mistakes.
Although many of the skills necessary to undertake this work in the long
term are acquired through experience, (both work and life experience),
young graduates are taking up employment in authentic social care situations
charged with responsible work, and as such need basic skill development.
Some skills can be learned in the classroom situation, through role play, use
of video and one to one feedback. Groups need to be small and teachers
skilled to undertake this work. In the main, opportunities for skill
development are learned on placements. This highlights the mutual
dependence of educator and employer as the team necessary to jointly
produce professional staff.
Standard of Ethics, Values and Self Development.
OH 16
This standard regarding ethical development and principals for practice is
essential in preparing students to work with vulnerable and sometimes
dependent populations. The sound ethics and values of professional social
care staff provide service users with safeguards and protection more robust
that guidelines and policies and inspections. Students must be prepared for
the changing culture that constitutes many areas of social care and views and
potential prejudices should be challenged whilst in the learning and
developmental environment of college life.
Observing appropriate boundaries is an essential safeguard, not just in
preventing abuse but also, in relation to children in residential care, not
creating unrealistic expectations of what workers can provide. The
experience of the Inspectorate is that in some instances, untrained people
often have a poor understanding of basic professional boundaries/ values
around such areas as confidentiality or degrees of involvement with a child
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where a worker may want to have contact with a child outside of the work
environment.
The issue of self development is one that requires consideration on any
course preparing students for work where, in the main, the key tool is the
relationship developed between the professional an the client, in the
everyday business of life.
Professionals need self-insight and an ongoing commitment to self
development to sustain the client at the centre of the working relationship.
They need to sustain the capacity to review ones own part in the dynamic of
a relationship, and to recognize that it has the potential to be part of a
negative cycle as much as a positive one. The habit of self insight should
start in the formative years of education and training, where a student is
open to these ideas and before the potential of professional status and pride
get in the way of good practice.
Integration of knowledge, skills and values
Lastly, let me refer to standards of demonstrable integration of knowledge,
skills and values. The expectation when educating professionals is that they
have acquired a basic level of skill as well as a standard of knowledge. Their
education requires opportunities for students to practice what they are
learning, as they are learning it, and to develop a structure and language in
which to observe and comment on their own practice
The benefits of a student learning how to use the knowledge regarding, for
instance, attachment and loss, for example, in planning the work involved
with a child who has recently come into care is evident. A disappointing
inspection finding is meeting professionally trained staff, where there is a
high degree of understanding of the causes for a distressing behavior, but at
times little confidence or knowledge in how to address the underlying
distress in everyday care practices. Depending on age and circumstances an
example of this could be the staff awareness of the impact of shock and
trauma on a child, caused by an unplanned entry into care, being translated
into care practices which attend to the child’s physical needs. Examples
include the provision of deliberate comfort by bringing transitional objects
to the centre, of warm beds, comforting drinks, soft clothes and easy to
digest (nursery) food. If a child has his physical needs his confidence in the
staff member being able to understand his emotional state increase. It can
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involve reading to the child books that evoke an understanding of loss and
change (Badgers Parting Gift comes to mind) or ensuring that the staff roster
facilitates the same small number of staff being involved with the child in
the early stages of his care. Taking photos/video of the child in the early
days of his care experience can help him talk and integrate his experiences
as the placement continues or ends. All of the above describe everyday
experiences, but employing them at key times in a sensitive manner can
demonstrate a sophisticated integration of knowledge of trauma and use of
skill where anticipating and matching a child’s needs inspires confidence in
the child that he is capable of being cared for well.
The experience of the Inspectorate suggests that developing skills and
integrating knowledge is the greatest challenge to educators in this field. The
two parts to this challenge are being able to set up skill workshop training in
the colleges and developing those partnership relationships with providers so
an adequate number of suitable placements are available.
In conclusion, the area of social care is rapidly becoming professionalized.
Personnel are seen as the key factor in raising standards and improving the
quality of care for clients and their families. There is an expectation that as
services become more professional, they have the capacity to care for all
their clients, even those who are more challenging. Social care professionals
must continue to develop their practice based on integrated knowledge,
values and skill. The development of integrated practice during the student
years poses particular challenges to educators in terms of time and resources.
Finally, I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to contribute to
this conference. It is my hope that the SSI and Institutes and colleges will
continue to inform each other of relevant issues and work together in support
of the professionalisation of social care workers.
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