PG Dip/MA Social Work (Children & Families)

• Developing Professional Relationships in Social Work (Readiness for Direct Practice) for Social Work with Children and Families: You will develop knowledge and understanding of the essential personal and interpersonal skills needed to develop effective relationships with the diverse range of people in our society. The unit is underpinned by research and theory and students will be expected to reflect on their own communication patterns as well as what is needed for excellent social work practice. Through reflection on their own experiences, it will also provide the essential preparation students require to develop and demonstrate their readiness and safety to undertake practice learning in line with the national regulatory requirements.
• The Child’s Journey: You’ll advance your knowledge and understanding of child development and behaviour and different sociological and psychological explanations for this. You will be encouraged to consider the interplay of psycho-social factors on the lives of children and young people, exploring a range of influences on human development including the impact of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and disability.
• Law & Social Policy for Social Work with Children & Families: You will develop a critical understanding of law and social policy, social work values and ethics and considerations relevant to child and family social work. You will explore the implications of social work values and ethics and how they apply to the promotion of the best interests of children and young people. 
• Applying Social Work Models and Methods for Social Work with Children and Families: You will gain essential knowledge on models and methods used in social work practice with a particular focus on how these can be applied when directly working with service users. The unit equips you with an understanding of the complex and multi-layered nature of social work, including the challenges of practicing professional social work with a diverse range of social work service users and carers.​ The aim is to offer you insight into a range of models and methods used in current social work practice using a problem based learning approach. This includes the use of case studies and simulations to help the students in translating theoretical knowledge into practical applications.
• Parenting Capacity for Social Work with Children & Families: This unit will help you develop an in-depth understanding of the multiple factors that contribute to parental mental health, substance-related and domestic violence-related problems and, crucially,   the impact upon the child, including child development. 
• Working with Children and their Families: In this unit you will develop knowledge and understanding of social work in the context of professional practice with children and their families; including responsibilities, analytical skills and knowledge, practical skills and professional accountability in social work practice with children and their families. This Unit is underpinned by research and evidence based judgements and you will develop their understanding and competence in assessment and intervention. Students are expected to examine their own beliefs and values in relation to protection work and to build on their previous learning in both theory and practice.
• Two Statutory Placements (70 & 100 days): You will gain essential practice experiences required in meeting the regulations of the professional body.

If you would like to complete the full Master's, you will complete the above units as well as two additional units: 

Team Working for Service Improvement: You will develop the skills of working in small inter-professional teams to design and develop a service improvement or product to enhance the experiences of people who use services and / or their carers.  

and 

Critical Literature Review: You’ll gain skills and knowledge for undertaking a critical literature review in an aspect of social work and acquire and apply well-grounded research, research mindedness and research literacy skills in social science to undertake an intellectually challenging and in-depth literature review exploring a topic relevant to contemporary social work practice. 

Or

Dissertation: The dissertation is the keystone of all master’s degree pathways and draws on conceptual, theoretical and practical knowledge, developed in other units of the programme. You will undertake a synthesis of research literature, demonstrating a systematic understanding and critical awareness of current social work issues. 

Please note: Only the fees for the Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work are funded by the Department for Education. Students that continue their study to achieve the MA will need to self-fund the Master's units. 

You are required to undertake a 170-day placement split over two terms, providing an opportunity to apply your acquired knowledge and skills in the workplace. Placements are provided by statutory, independent and voluntary sector social work agencies and are identified and quality assured by the university and allocated by a matching process.

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

Students are expected to have relevant experience in social work and/or social care and show that they have learnt from this experience. The longer and more varied that experience, the better. Examples of the sort of experience that candidates often have are:

• Employment as a carer in a residential home
• Being a volunteer in an agency working with young offenders
• Paid or voluntary work in a day centre for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, or mental health problems
• Work on summer play schemes and/or after school clubs
• Personal experience as a service user or carer.

All successfully shortlisted applicants are invited to interview. This will demonstrate whether you show the necessary insight into social work, as well as the motivation and commitment to become a social worker.

Essential criteria

You will need:

• a degree-level qualification in any discipline except social work from a UK higher education institute or an approved overseas equivalent
• a minimum 2:2 (level 6) degree qualification, for example, an honours degree or a graduate certificate
• to have GCSEs in English or English Language and Mathematics at grade C or above, or the new grade 4 and above (or an approved equivalent)
• to have completed your degree, final year students are not eligible to apply
• to show evidence of your qualifications (such as certificates) and be able to upload this to the application form – this is mandatory for overseas qualifications (please ensure you have relevant electronic versions to hand prior to submitting your application)
• to have a minimum of 6 months full-time (or equivalent) direct experience of working with vulnerable children, young people and/or families/carers or adults, either in a paid or voluntary capacity
• to live in England
• a driving licence and use of a vehicle in some locations, or to confirm that you’ll be able to travel for work if you do not have a vehicle
• to complete an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check ​

The skills and experience you’ll need to demonstrate

You’ll need to:

• have the emotional resilience to become an effective social worker
• understand social work theory and research
• be aware of the risk indicators of different forms of harm to children
• demonstrate intuition and logic in decision-making
• show the ability to record accurate child and family assessments
• have an understanding of the Knowledge and Skills Statements for child and family social workers - which all applicants will be assessed against
• be familiar with the Professional Capabilities Framework for social workers (entry level)

You can find details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our entry requirements for non-UK students' page.

Please see below some examples of the qualifications for entry:

• India: Bachelor’s degree (4 years) from a recognised HE institution with a minimum overall result of 55% 
• Nigeria:  Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution with a minimum classification of 2:4 
• China:  Chinese Bachelor's (Honours) degree from a recognised higher education institution with 65% or above 
• Turkey: Bachelor’s degree (Lisans Diplomasi - four years) with a minimum overall GPA of 2.3/4.0 
• Vietnam:  Bachelor's degree/Bang tot nghiep dai hoc with an average score of 6.5/10, or 2.25/4, or a Master’s degree/Thac si.

English language requirements 

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you can understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:

• IELTS (academic) 7.0 overall with a minimum of 6.5 in each component, or equivalent.

View further information about our English language requirements.

Bournemouth University International College offers a number of pre-sessional English and preparatory programmes to prepare international students for postgraduate study at BU. Admission to the degree is guaranteed on successful completion of your course to the required level.

You can also find further details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our international entry requirements page