The Practice Educator's role
in holistic assessment of
the Professional Capabilities Framework:
using professional judgement to enhance
the quality of practice
NOPT Conference
Ruskin College, Oxford, 4th July 2013
Hilary Burgess
(HEA/University of Bristol)
What we will cover today
•
•
•
•
The nature and purpose of the PCF
The PCF in qualifying SW Education
The PCF in practice placements
Holistic assessment and TCSW/HEA
guidance
• What’s new for all parties
• Some challenges
Purpose of the PCF
The PCF ‘sets out the profession’s
expectations of what a social worker
should be able to do at each stage of their
career and professional development’.
Professional Capabilities
Framework for Social Workers
The Nine Domains
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Professionalism.
Values and Ethics.
Diversity.
Rights, Justice and Economic Well-being.
Knowledge.
Critical Reflection and Analysis.
Intervention and Skills.
Contexts and Organisations.
Professional Leadership.
The nine levels
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Entry to SW qualifying programmes.
Assessed readiness for direct practice
End of first placement
End of second placement/end of progamme
End of ASYE.
Social Worker
Experienced Social Worker
Advanced Social Worker; Professional SW
Educator; SW Manager
Strategic SW Educator; Principal SW; Strategic SW
Manager.
Features of the PCF
• 9 domains and 9 levels.
• Domains are interdependent.
• Relevant to social workers in all settings and with
all user groups.
• First attempt to provide a professional framework
linked to career progression.
• Developed by social workers for social workers,
held by TCSW on behalf of profession.
• Will change and develop to reflect developments
in the profession.
Features of the PCF (2)
• Based on the notion of ‘Capability’: ‘An
integration of knowledge, skills, personal
qualities and understanding used appropriately
and effectively – not just in familiar and highly
focused specialist contexts but in response to
new and changing circumstances’
• Developmental cf competences
• Provides coherence to standards/requirements
and expectations at all levels
Progression
Progression between levels is characterised by the
‘development of people’s ability to manage
complexity, risk, ambiguity and increasingly
autonomous decision-making across a range of
situations.’
The PCF in qualifying SW
education
1.
2.
3.
4.
Entry
ARDP
End of first placement
End final placement/qualification
Entry (admission point)
The capability statements at this level are intended to be
used as a framework for selection of applicants to
programmes, by academics with employers and/or
practitioners, and service users and carers
By the point of entry to SW qualifying programmes,
prospective students/candidates should demonstrate
awareness of social context for social work practice,
awareness of self, ability to develop rapport, and the
potential to develop relevant knowledge, skills and
values through professional training.
Assessment of Readiness for
Direct Practice
The statements at this level should be used as a framework
to assess students’ readiness to go out on placement.
By this point students should demonstrate basic
communication skills, ability to engage with users,
capacity to work as a member of an organisation,
willingness to learn from feedback and supervision, and
demonstrate basic social work values, knowledge and
skills in order to be able to make effective use of first
practice placement.
End of first placement
Statements at this level to be used as a framework
to assess whether students have successfully
completed their first placement.
By this stage students should demonstrate
effective use of knowledge, skills and
commitment to core values in social work in a
given setting in predominantly less complex
situations, with supervision and support; and
the capacity to work with people and situations
where there may not be simple clear-cut
solutions
End of last placement/
qualifying point
Statements at this level are used to assess whether
student has successfully completed their qualification.
By this stage students should have demonstrated the
knowledge, skills and values to work with a range of user
groups, the ability to undertake a range of tasks at a
foundation level and the capacity to work with more
complex situations. They must be able to work more
autonomously; whilst recognising that the final decision
will still rest with their supervisor, they will seek
appropriate support and supervision.
These capabilities will have been demonstrated through the
last placement together with other work on the qualifying
programme.
So what’s new?
• Practice learning progression linked into
continuing professional development
• First and last placements clearly identified
nationally in terms of staged learning
• Linked to uniform model of (30) + 70 + 100
day placement
• Capability not competence
• National guidance on assessment for
practice learning using holistic approach
Other contextual changes
– Practice Educator Professional Standards
– ASYE
– Supervision guidelines
– ‘Health checks’ and Employers Standards
BUT
– Cuts to budgets/staffing/’austerity’
– Mounting caseloads
– Mounting needs
Also
Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Standards of Proficiency for Social Workers
SoPs mapped against the PCF at qualifying level at
https://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm.aspx?id=6442451337
PCF qualifying level mapped against the SoPS at
http://www.hpcuk.org/assets/documents/10003B0BMappingoftheHPC'sstandardsof
proficiencyforsocialworkersinEnglandagainstthePCF.pdf
What is holistic assessment?
• Reflects the complexity (non-linearity) of SW
practice: and the interplay of knowledge, skills
and values, within changing contexts
• All nine domains of the PCF have to be taken
into account to assess a student’s capability,
rather than looking at each separately.
• Similarly, assessment within each domain is
undertaken by looking across the elements.
What is holistic assessment? (2)
• Holistic assessment is ‘progressive’ (leading to a
final decision) – cf ‘formative’ or ‘summative’
assessment. In progressive assessment
everything that takes places counts towards the
assessment decision.
• Each stage should build on the previous one,
with links between the ARDP, first placement
and last placement, into the ASYE
What is holistic assessment? (3)
• ‘To understand and undertake a holistic approach to
assessment, the partial and the contextual must be
considered together. In this way, we arrive at a synthesis
of specific and general, discrete and dynamic. This is a
truly holistic approach to assessment.' (Doel et al, 1992)
• Where learning or performance objectives are complex
‘the judgment of the assessor is considered central in
making a holistic decision about the quality of
performance,’ and ‘Understanding the whole in the light
of the parts’ (Biggs, 2007)
• Previous interpretation of the NOS tended to suggest
and reinforce a segmented or ‘partial’ approach (‘tickbox’)
What is holistic assessment? (4)
• Thus practice educators need to exercise
judgment, yet also pay attention to detail
where necessary
• Analogies
– Assessing a meal
– Assessing architectural submissions or PhD’s
– Assessing individuals and families as a SW
TCSW/HEA Guidance on holistic
assessment for practice learning
• Developed with PEs and academics from across
England
• Recommended templates in which PE records
their judgement of student's capability overall,
then in each of the nine domains
• Supporting evidence from: DOPs, critical
reflections of practice, feedback from service
users & carers, evidence from supervision,
agency records, student’s work, other (ideally all
linked to the PCF)
• A robust but concise portfolio
HEA/TCSW Guidance (2)
• The student comments on the report
• The tutor comments on the report
• The report is submitted with a recommendation
to the PAP or similar
• Guidance emphasises significance of placement
support structures (tutor; PAP and/or other
intervention measures) to clarify how problems
in the placement will be resolved
• Importance of interim review
• Importance of clear and transparent decisionmaking process and appeals
Planning for placement
Information, Student access needs, CRB
checks
Practice Placement Cycle
Placement Agreement
(including learning needs of student) – completed
prior to or at the start of the placement
Induction
Early Termination of
placement with subsequent
options e.g. New placement,
termination of studies
PRACTICE ON PLACEMENT
Student generated
evidence
Practice Educator
generated or directed
evidence
Evidence linked to PCF
Practice
Evidence
SUPERVISION SESSIONS
Capabilities
Progress
Continue cycle of
positive learning
No Concerns re; progress
Student or Tutor concerns
about placement
Practice Educator ongoing
assessment with evidence
to support
Interim review, normally with tutor
visit
Final Assessment
Recommend: Pass/Fail/Defer
Learning needs for next stage identified
Student response to assessment
Final Recommendation to :
Practice Assessment Panel or Exam Board for
final decision
Practice Educator
Concerns re; progress
Support to Practice
Educator from
partnership- e.g. Early
intervention, second
opinion, tutor report
What is new for Practice
Educators?
• The PE’s judgment is central, and forms
the basis of the recommendation to the
PAP or Exam Board (as opposed to the
onus being primarily on student to selfevidence and the PE to verify)
• So PE has more control/power/autonomy
• Writing a holistic assessment may be new
and require a different approach
Links to the ASYE
• General congruence of TCSW/HEA
guidance with that for ASYE assessment
• Some PEs will be using this already
What is new for Students?
• ‘A focus on practice, not writing about practice’
• They need to understand the criteria from the
relevant level of the PCF, and refer to this in their
discussion of practice, whilst not seeking to
evidence every single part
• Need to be aware of progressive (continual)
assessment
• Need to flag up any concerns (about the
placement setting or the PE early)
• Incoming students – they will not be aware of a
change!
What is new for Academics?
• Need to be aware of and intervene if there are
problematic dynamics between the student and
PE
• Need to support PEs generally to be confident
about their own judgements (e.g. workshops)
• Need to support the PE view, unless there is
strong evidence to suggest this is flawed or
unfair
• Need to ensure consistently/QA of PE’s
Working with HEIs
and within regions
• HEIs encouraged to work with PE’s and
workforce development teams to build
awareness of the PCF and of holisitic
assessment
• HEIs encouraged to develop regional
collaboration for PL arrangements e.g.
Pan London, E.Midlands etc, so that PEs
are working to similar expectations
Some challenges
• Changing the culture of practice education: from
tick-box to judgement
• Linking assessment of practice with other
assessment work in HE
• Meeting both the PCF and the HCPC SoPs
• Using/adapting TCSW/HEA guidance
• Local/regional coordination
• Helping final year students think about their next
steps: PDP/ASYE learning plans
A final thought
• Exercising judgment is at the core of social
work practice
• PE’s have a vital gate-keeping role for the
profession, but a decision to defer or fail
will be made with input from others
• PEs have a central role in developing the
NQSW’s of tomorrow, some of whom will
go on to be PSW’s, Directors, Professors
or even Chief Social Workers!
Feedback
about holistic assessment and the use of
the PCF to
Hilary Burgess (HEA)
h.c.burgess@bristol.ac.uk
Kate Johnson (TCSW)
kate.johnson@tcsw.org.uk
NOPT admin@nopt.org