People keep asking me for this, so I thought that readers of the blog might find the information useful. These are the three documents that specify the content of social work courses; you can use these for explaining to colleagues from other professions what social workers ought to be able to do and know.

The Department of Health document says what the Secretary of State has ascertained, as he is obliged by the Care Standards Act to do, as the requirements for a social work course; these are rather generalised and prosaic. The more detailed ones are the QAA benchmark, written by academics for other academics which tell you what should be in the curriculum of social work courses. The occupational standards tell you what social workers who have qualified should be able to do. This is being redrafted at the moment, so I’ll update these links again when the new document appears. There are also documents for lower-level courses in social care, published through the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

DH (2002) Requirements for Social Work Training. London: Department of Health.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4007803

QAA (2008) Social Work. Mansfield: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/statements/socialwork08.pdf

TOPSS UK Partnership (2002) The National Occupational Standards for Social Work. Leeds: Skills for Care.
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/spsw/documents/3SWNOSdocpdffileseditionApr04.pdf