Our aim was to consider new opportunities for inter-professional learning within a range of existing and new service settings and explore the possibilities for a shared approach to the assessment of social work students in these placements. We have done this by placing one cohort (8) of Fast-track Direct Practice 1. (D.P.1.) Diploma in Social Work (Dip.S.W.) students in a range of placements provided by Quarriers. These placements provided opportunities for collaborative practice as defined by Whittington (2003), i.e. opportunities for a range of inter-professional, multi-disciplinary and inter-agency approaches. Inter-professional learning opportunities were defined as those taking place in settings where there was perceived adaptations of roles, responsibilities, values, knowledge and skills between professionals and where workers were expected to take account of and interact with these in their practice. Multiprofessional learning opportunities were defined as those taking place in settings where collaboration within roles occurred but did not necessarily involve adaptation of professional values, knowledge and skills. Collaborative practice learning opportunities were those which involved people working together from different agencies or professions towards providing a better service for users Payne (2000).
Published in Reports on 31 Jul 2005
