Introducing: “A Guide to being a Practice Educator in a ‘Blended’ Placement”
Introduction
We are absolutely delighted to share the Teaching Partnership’s “A Guide to being a Practice Educator in a ‘Blended’ Placement”. This guide has been a true partnership project, developed in response to the challenges associated with supporting social work students on placement during CV19, and has been under development for some months now.
We have had significant input from a wide range of contributors including Practice Educators, students and People with Lived Experience and would like to take this opportunity to extend a huge thank you to all those who supplied information, context, resources and valuable insights in order to develop the guide. Details of all contributors can be found within the guide which you can download below:
You can also see a pre-recorded ‘show and tell’ from some of the key contributors to the guide below:
Background
It was acknowledged early in 2020, soon after the pandemic hit the UK, that everyone had to work differently and think more creatively about the contact and communication we have with others. This period has included spending more time at home and using considerably more technology to connect with and carry out work remotely. With a relationship-based approach being at the heart of social work, it was clear that there would be significant challenges in effectively supporting and promoting change with those using services.
These challenges generated anxiety-provoking concerns for PEs, wondering how they would be able to provide students with the necessary learning opportunities in this new ‘virtual’ way of working, whilst supporting and assessing with the same standards i.e. Professional Capability Framework (PCF) and Social Work England (SWE).
Following successful facilitation of various PE workshops to those across our Social Work Teaching Partnership, it was evident a new workshop was needed and the popular ‘How to be a PE in a Virtual Placement’ workshop was developed, which in turn paved the way for developing this practical guide, originally called ‘A Guide to being a Practice Educator in a Virtual Placement’. A working group was quickly established and contributors came together to agree the structure and format of the guide, before going away to collate as much relevant and useful information as they could possibly find!
In the intervening months, the circumstances surrounding the pandemic changed, and it was evident that we needed to ensure that the guide remained current. Students were now experiencing a mixture of virtual and face-to-face contact and communication on their placements and as such, the resource has evolved to reflect this and has been renamed “A Guide to being a Practice Educator in a ‘Blended’ Placement”.
We hope you find the resource useful and invite you to share your thoughts, feedback and suggestions for future editions with us: admin@developingtogetherswtp.org.uk
