Chapter 9: More than a piece of paper.

This chapter offers information on social work education in Great Britain. In Britain it will only take two years to become a qualified social worker. Despite considerable lobbying from within the profession and outside, culminating in a proposal for a three-year training period put forward in 1987, the government refused to extend the length of basic training for social workers. The Diploma in Social Work is the professional qualification for all social workers in Great Britain and for probation officers in Northern Ireland. Diploma in Social Work programs are based at universities and colleges of higher education. As with most other courses of study, students have the option of full-time or part-time study, or they can gain the social work qualification at home through a distance learning program. All social services departments have a training plan, which has to be submitted to the Department of Health who then allocate a Training Support Grant for social services staff to each local authority in Great Britain. Training plans have to be developed after a training needs analysis, of individual staff, of staff groups and of the needs of the service as a whole. Training is a good way of stretching boundaries, therefore, social services should take a responsibility for making sure that training takes place locally across sectors and that staff from different agencies, including the independent sector, are able to participate in programs.