Applying Social Work Skills in Practice

You will also explore the application of relevant knowledge, skills, and values in social work, and think about the place of research in supporting social work practice.

Introduction

In this course, Applying social work skills in practice, you will be exploring the social work role in working with vulnerable and socially excluded individuals and groups.

You will start by exploring risk and the assessment of need in social work practice and the broader context of social work within society. You will then look at some specific contexts within which social work is practiced. You will hear about different service user/carer and practitioner experiences and how social work knowledge, skills, and values are applied when social workers are supporting children and adults in transition. You will be exploring these facets of social work practice:

• Assessing need and managing risk
• Understanding what it means to practice reflectively
• Planning and intervening
• Managing and evaluating practice
• Being accountable.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course K216 Applied social work practice, which forms part of the OU’s Social Work qualifications.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• Understand and apply some concepts of risks, needs, rights and responsibilities
• Discuss some ethical dilemmas faced by social workers as morally active practitioners
• Identify circumstances that lead to risks of harm, and recognise the responsibilities of social workers in protecting service users and the public within legal contexts
• Explore transitions in child and adult social work practice, and recognise factors that determine the way people experience and manage change
• Identify elements of good practice for supporting people through transitions.