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Social Work Practice Placement Opportunities

With over 30 years' experience of supporting birth families and over 13 years’ experience of social work practice teaching Families in Care is a training centre offering  70 and 100 day practice placements for social work students - this includes statutory interventions opportunities.

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Offering such practice placements FIC plays an important role in promoting, developing and strengthening good social work practice. Our professionally qualified Practice Educators (On and Off -site) supervise trainee social workers to ensure they demonstrate sufficient and consistent evidence to meet professional standards.

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Benefits of Families in Care practice placements for students:

 

  • an excellent and frequent supervision

  • Practice Supervisors and Educators with both practice and academic backgroung

  • a good quality induction involving service users

  • direct work with families involved in the child protection process and care proceedings

  • an opportunity to gain an understanding of the child protection process and care proceedings by working with local authority social workers, mental health practitioners, legal representatives and taking active part in statutory interventions

  • an opportunity to gain a better understanding of both voluntary and statutory sector

  • learning and working with commited, dedicated and inspiring people and a chance to show your own initiative and creativity

  • we consider the work life balance of our students seriously and are supportive of a range of flexible learning and working strategies

 

 

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Please contact us for more information.

"Families in Care has strong links with the Masters in Social Work programme delivered by the  

university. The organisation provides student placements for our Master’s students….. practice has shown that outcomes for looked after children are much improved when birth relatives receive appropriate support and are enabled to understand the legal and professional systems with which they come into contact.

 

Students are always impressed by the commitment of the team and deeply value the opportunity to learn about this very challenging area of social work."

 

                                                                                                                           Lecturer from Durham University

 

'I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Families in Care. In the four months I have been there I have learned a huge amount about the complex Child Protection process and the oppressive nature of the system itself. I have also learned about the role and importance of advocacy and support for parents in legal meetings and court as well as more informal support. I have had the opportunities to carry my own caseload of 4-5 and have benefited hugely from this. Due to the nature of the work at Families in Care I have furthered my organisation skills, time management, communication and gained a better understanding of what outreach work entails. I have also developed my independent working skills as well as confidence in my own abilities. I have gained an understanding of the complex issues that the parents who use Families in Care face and understood that often the Child Protection is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Through carrying my own caseload I have had the opportunities to build good working relationships with the parents and begun to understand their experiences of the Child Protection process and the way they are treated by social workers; regularly well, but unfortunately often less favourably.  Throughout this placement I have been faced with a number of ethical dilemmas yet I have welcomed this experience and through the support of my excellent Practice Educator and Practice Supervisor and have managed to work through these. I have found having my ethics and values challenged the most interesting of all and I’m aware this will continue throughout my profession.

 

I have been extremely lucky with my Practice Educator and Practice Supervisor. From day one they have been nothing but helpful and supportive and have happily answered any questions and offered me advice or further readings or websites for me to use to learn more about a particular subject.'

 

                                                                                                                                                                 MA SW Student 

                                                                                                           

 

 

 

                                                           

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