The Role Of Assessment In The Workplace Social Work Essay

The Role Of Assessment In The Workplace Social Work Essay In this assignment I will discuss the role of assessment in collaborative learning. It will also discuss service-user involvement in practice-based educational processes. For the practice teacher an essential responsibility of this role is to assess whether the student has developed a satisfactory level of competence in their practice within their placement. The assessors responsibility is to measure the students performance against the national occupational standards. I would agree with Harden and Crosby (2000 in: Walker et al, 2008, p.61) that the role of an assessor is to contribute to a students development in a number of ways, i.e.: facilitator, role model, information provider, resource developer, supervisor, planner and assessor. This was my first opportunity to formally assess a Social Work student. Before this I have mentored the students however this particular role of being work based supervisor was different to my previous experiences. I felt it was essential to develop an open and honest relationship; from our first initial meeting prior to the placement starting. It was explained to the student that the students are assessed on their ability to respect, understand and support the roles of other professionals involved in health and social care. It is recognised that each member of the group brings with them relevant/different experience and skills. Research confirms that a collaborative partnership, which allows the student the sharing of power where possible, is important and that a supportive and nurturing approach enables the development of trust and safety. These features are thought to also facilitate more accurate assessments. (Walker et al, 2008, p.83). I offered my student opportunity to be open about her expectations from me considering that this was my first time to be a work based supervisor as I was a student too. It was a challenge to take on this responsibility due to the work load we had at that time, the amount of cases which were complicated and the whole team was going through lots of changes. I had less support from my practice teachers due to his sickness. Social workers often deal with some of the most vulnerable people in society at times of greatest stress and there can be tragic consequences if things go wrong. I was mindful of this. My line manager supported me to take on this challenge in a more positi ve way and enabled me to be effective in my role as a practice assessor. Following the Lord Laming Report one of the significant changes for Social Workers was the introduction of The General Social Care Council on 1st October 2001. This set out a code of practice and National Occupational Standards for employers and Social Workers. This was the first time that such standards have been set out at national level. I attended a Safeguarding conference recently held in our department for social workers. We were encouraged to follow a SMART tool. SMART is a useful way of measuring what is needed, a simple tool to use in the work place, supervision and completing direct work. An assessment plan should be: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Targeted. This gives a precise explanation to the way social worker should carry out an assessment work. Social workers need to work to the core values of social work outlined by the General Social Care Council in their Code of Practice for Social Care Workers. Students during their placements need to demonstrate that they know and understand these values, which they will also be assessed against. The assessment of students is central to the role of practice education. The relationship between a practice educator and their student and how it is perceived is important for learning between them both. (Knight, 2001, Kolevzon, 1979 in: Walker, Crawford and Parker, 2008, p.82). The student will need to meet the six key roles set out in the National Occupational Standards for Social Workers: Prepare for work with individuals, families, carers to assess their needs Plan, carryout, review and evaluate social work practice Support individuals to represent their needs, view and circumstances Manage risk to individuals, families, carers, groups, communities self and colleagues manage and be accountable, with supervision, for own social work practice within the organisation Demonstrate professional competence in social work practice (TOPSS 2002) As the work-based educator/ practice assessor, my aim was to give the student the opportunity to gain an understanding of working for a statutory agency and to put their academic learning into practice. As the assessor my role was to link theories to practice for the student and for the student to use the framework for assessment and to link the national occupational standards for social work to the framework for assessment. Following some shadowing my student was gradually offered to gain practical experience of handling situations through co working as well as individual pieces of work. As social workers, we all have responsibility to safeguard the child. The inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie, recommendation 14 (Laming, 2003) stated that all national agencies for children and families should require each of the training bodies covering the services provided by: doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers, housing departments and social workers to demonstrate that effective joint working between each of these professional groups features in their national training programmes. Within my assessor role I was also required to arrange an induction programme for my student, a component of this was giving the student the time to meet other professionals that she would come into contact with. I helped my student to arrange some visits to the agencies we work most frequently such as local police, child protection units, Behavioural Resource services, family centres. We also arranged slots for my student to observe some Forums where we request different types of work with children and families. Training together gives people the opportunity to challenge and reframe established practices, to encourage productive dissention to encourage new ways of thinking and acting according to Fay who describes emancipatory personal development. (Fay in Rogers 2009). As part if the induction I arranged my student to attend the training called Paris Training this was crucial for her to be able to access and use the software we use to put all the data in the system. One of my aims in this placement was to give the student the opportunity to help and empower service users to have a better quality of life and to feel safe. Lymbery (2000 in Doel and Shardlow, 2005, p.21) has identified three ways of relating to service users: the traditional view, the market view and the partnership view. The first highlights the traditional power imbalance, the second divides users and providers and focuses on commodity and finance; the third is currently the most used approach. There can be problems when there are significant conflicting interests such as child protection or mental health work but using the principles of empowerment and communication can help move things forward more positively. Involvement of service users in training, as part of learning together and sharing information to a common end; gaining feedback through various means; planning and delivering services, involvement in budget allocation (Doel and Shardlow, 2005, p.21) helps to empower people and gives them and social workers and organisations opportunities to learn from and develop services which use strengths, knowledge and abilities to resolve problems. Social work has to be seen as one part of the wider field of societys responsibility for the community at all levels, in the same way that all people within the community and other agencies must. By developing structures within which people work and participate in this wider context, particularly at the starting point of peoples involvement through their education, it should be possible to reduce the levels of differences at a time when everyone should be following the same aims rather than trying to resolve their different perspectives or absolve themselves from their responsibilities. Bibliography/Referencing Banks S (2001) Ethics and Values in Social work (2nd ed) Palgrave, Basingstoke Baldwin M (1994) Social Work Education Vol13, No.2 Department of Health (2004) Children Act 2004 DOH London Department of Health (2003) Every Child Matters DOH London Department of Health (2000) Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families the Stationary Office, London Fay in RogersT, Lecture notes, 12.02.09 Fook J (2005) Social Work Critical Theory and Practice, Sage Publications London HM Government (2006) Working Together to Safeguard Children The Stationary Office, London Jones-Devitt and Smith (2007) in Rogers T, Lecture notes 12.02.09 Jones P in Lawson H(Ed) (1998) Practice Teaching-Changing Social Work Jessica Kingsley Publishers London Lawson H (Ed) (1998) Practice Teaching-Changing Social Work, Jessica Kingsley Publishers London Laming (2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report, DOH, the Stationary Office, London National Organisation of Practice Teaching (NOPT) (2006) in: Maclean S, with Lloyd I (2008) Developing Parker J (2004) Effective Practice Learning in Social Work, Learning Matters Ltd, Maidstone Payne M (2005) Modern Social Work Theory (3rd ed) Palgrave London Rogers, T Lecture notes 12.02.09 Rustin, in Ruch,G (2008) Lecture notes Simmonds in Le Riche and Tanner (1996) in Ruch, G (2008) Lecture notes Smith D (2005) Social work and Evidence-base Practice (2nd ed) Jessica Kingsley Publishers London Training Organisation for the Personal Social Services (TOPSS UK) (2002) The National Occupational Standards for Social Work

The Increasing demand on the UK’s construction industry

Britain's construction activities have risen considerably over the last decade and according to industry forecasts, the next five years will see more large projects commencing and highlighting once again the need for skilled labour in the UK. The government already has many construction plans underway which all lead to an 11% predicted increase (Olympic shortfall 18/11/07) in construction output between now and 2011. Some of the major projects that contribute to the rising demands include a surge in schools construction, increased spending on transport and projects for the London Olympics. The government has invested in a reported à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4.7bn (Financial Times Limited 2007 17/11/07) to rebiuld or renew every secondary school in the country. This is a massive project and dwarfs the construction of the London olympics in comparison. ConstructionSkills is one of a series of employer-led sector skills bodies established by government to help produce enough skilled workers to meet the high demand. ConstructionSkills says that employment in the industry will need to rise by almost a sixth to 2.8m by 2011, compared with 2.4m in 2005 and 87,600 new recruits will be needed by the industry â€Å"each year between 2007 and 2011 in order to meet demand†.(ConstructionSkills 2007) Infrustructure activity is also increasing with construction underway for the redevelopment of King's Cross and Crossrail and the expansion and refurbishment of the Birmingham New Street and Nottingham railway stations. Other infrastructure developments include work on the Manchester Metro Link, the M6 toll road, the M25. Also the Scottish Executive's (Financial Times Limited 2007 17/11/07) planned à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3bn capital investment programme in strategic road and rail projects and expansion of ports at Harwich, Felixstowe and Great Yarmouth. Aside from all these major developments, there is still as high demand as ever for more residential housing. It is reported (UK home supply way below demand 17/11/07) that Britain is now so short of new houses that an extra 39,000 need to be built each year just to keep up with the UK's population growth. The huge shortage of skilled labour in the UK is undoubtedly a major factor and could undermine the success of the 2012 Olympics in London. Reports made through the Research by the sector skills councils has revealed the Olympics needs around 13,000 construction workers and 1,500 electricians and plumbers a year between now and 2012 (Olympic shortfall 18/11/07). The new Heathrow terminal 5 is another project that highlights the severe skills shortage in the construction sector. The new T5 is estimated to cost à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4bn and is one of Europe's biggest projects at the moment. Terminal 5 will have roads and rail links built for it and will have over a hundred aircraft stands as well as the tallest control tower in the country. All these projects are desperately in need of skilled labour and huge investments are being made by the government and big companies to provide training schemes for people to help overcome these demands. The construction of the Heathrow terminal 5 has influenced BAA, the company that manages Heathrow to collaborate with the learning and Skills Council (LSC) to set up the Heathrow Construction Centre to train young people in carpentry, joinery and bricklaying. Many young people are now applying to the training centre with the influence of high salary opportunities being advertised for a wide range of jobs. David Boyer, a representative of LSC says â€Å"the key is finding something that they want to do and that employers will pay for†¦and construction fits the bill perfectly.† (David Bower 2007) CSV, the UK's largest volunteering and training charity is another organisation that has many Construction Training Centres around the country. Its main aim is to take on young people from the age of 16 and train them up in a construction field that interests them. The Training Centre on Hornsey Road is CSV Springboard Islington Trust's training facility and is helping to meet the demand from employer training needs arising as a result of the Kings Cross re-generation programme or the Olympics. The Islington training centre has three sectors in the area and alone provides learning for over 600 students (Sky-high salaries for airport construction workers 18/11/07). The main issue with the construction industry in the UK at the moment is that activity continues to rise at a rapid pace and with all the training schemes at the minute, not enough skilled craftsman and professional workman are coming out of it to keep up with the demand. There is a reported large number of craftsmen in the UK that don't have the qualifications that are required to work on the Olympic sites etc. Organisations such as Summit Skills are committed to helping provide the necessary qualifications to people with the skills but who have not finished an NVQ level 3 for instance. Students doing a construction course at schools or colleges will commonly do a full NVQ which includes gaining technical certificates and national vocational qualifications. Some of the courses involve training on-site to acquire the appropriate qualifications. The government has also addressed the issue for the need of more skilled labour by introducing new courses at schools and colleges. In 2008, a new diploma in construction and the built environment will be introduced. However many specialist diplomas and GCSE's will not be available until 2013. The other opportunities that are given to young people to work in construction are through the apprenticeship or scholarship schemes. Such schemes are usually offered directly from companies. It's often the best route for young people who do not have the appropriate background. The apprenticeship programme was introduced to the UK in 1994 (as modern apprenticeships). Apprenticeships give the student the opportunity to study at college to receive the required qualifications and do work based on the site on a part time basis. Apprentices earn while being in education and for most young people it is a very attractive prospect. It also gives a higher rate of employment for those that do it as the companies, for the majority of the time offer the person a full time job after they have completed their apprenticeship. But in the last couple of years, the numbers of apprenticeships have reduced as the interest for them has increased. With over 50,000 applications for 10,000 places (Olympic s hortfall 18/11/07), the traditional apprenticeship route cannot meet growing demand. However, to help overcome this problem, there are many colleges today that are involved with big construction companies making it easier for students to find the apprenticeship that interest them. In apprenticeships, the students are usually required to stay in education until they achieve a full NVQ before they are offered a full time job but a scholarship on the other hand requires the student to attend university either part time or full time in order to gain higher qualifications such as a degree to make them eligible for high skilled work afterwards. Scholarships are also offered usually directly from a company and offers to support the student financially by paying the tuition fees to the university and the company will often offer a the student work placement between their time at university to give them the required experience in the job. Although there is many efforts being done to overcome the shortage of skilled labour in the UK, it is still evident that yet more needs to be done to reduce the gap between the demand for skilled labour and the amount of trained personnel coming up every year. In the next five years, there is going to be an increase in activity for the UK construction industry and it is estimated that 87,600 new recruits (Financial Times Limited 2007 17/11/07) will be needed by the industry every year to cope with the work needed. I believe that in order to tackle this problem for the shortage of skilled labour in the UK, more efforts must be made concentrating on the source of the problem, the training of personal to meet the levels required by the industry. It is a fact that yet not enough programmes are being opened to help encourage young people to look for a career in construction and to educate and train them to the required levels. At the moment, the government is concentrating on opening new training centres in London because of the increasing work being made by the construction of the East London Olympic sites. However, training centres should be opened in more cities around the UK in the next few years to help train up as many people in as short time as possible to help overcome the shortage of required labour. I think that more training programmes should be done on development sites such as the Heathrow construction centres helping to train young people. I believe that such programmes help to train and educate a person on the job and give them the required skills in a short period of time. Other steps that can be taken is to introduce more specialized construction courses at schools and colleges to help encourage young people to choose a career in the construction field. At the moment, a successful example is the Construction and Built Environment Diploma which around 4000 people take every year (Construction Digital 17/11/07) Another step that can be taken is to encourage more construction companies to introduce more apprenticeships and scholarships to young people. This will attract more people to join the construction industry and will produce more high skilled labour to meet demands of the modern day. If the UK construction industry remains to be in the situation it is now with a huge shortage of skilled labour then the only solution left will be to bring in even more migrant workers from east European countries, such as Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, to fill gaps on building sites. This will in effect reduce the building standards and safety on the site just so companies can give out low wages and save costs. In reality, this is very likey to happen but the government will only apply it in a worst case scenerio to overcome the problem. Although it might not be possible to finish all these huge projects in the UK without aquiring the help from migrant workers, we could however train as many people as we can so that less workers from abroad are needed, making the UK construction industry stronger and more successful.

Approaches to Branding Essay

It is essential for a business to build strong relationship with its customers to be able to stay above all competitors. One tool that a company has is a strong brand. The following are the most common ways of how companies use branding in marketing their products or services. Corporate Branding. This type has been around ever since competition among business started. In corporate branding a company uses its own name as the brand for the company. The company usually promotes its products under that brand name (Crystal 2003). An example of which is Disney, where all products of the company included the name â€Å"Disney†. In this approach the corporation or company is the main selling point (Csaba, Schultz & Yun 2005). If successfully used the company can create brand loyalty where customers look for products under that company or under the brand name. The downside of this approach is that the company will have a tendency to be identified with a single product category (Crystal 2003). Employer Branding. With the rise of newer resources like technology, the fact remains that personnel are still the most important resource of any company. As the competition for first-rate employees becomes tight, companies attract them through Human Resources Marketing or through employer branding (VersantWorks 2008). Employer branding is the impression of the stakeholders – current employees, potential hires, and previous staff – about the company as place of work (Harris 2002). The idea is to instill in the stakeholders mind that the company is â€Å"great place to work†. It immerses the employee into the company, gives the employees a sense of pride and belongingness and most important of all job fulfillment (VersantWorks 2008). A company with a good employer branding is L’Oreal. Voted as one of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods – FMCG – Employer of Choice (Employer Profile 2008). L’Oreal’s career website declares it in black and white. The company’s objective is to provide a sound working environment for its employees. Working for L’Oreal would entail a secure workplace, performance is given credit, a diverse culture, and where privacy and private life are valued (As An Employer 2008). What makes this strategy work for the company is because L’Oreal knows who it wanted to hire and focus the HR endeavor to accomplish the task (Klein 2008). Cause Branding. This is an approach in branding where a company supports a cause to be able to increase profits or to set it apart from competitors (Ivy Cohen Corporate Communications 2007). As examples will be Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, ConAgra Foods’ Feeding Children Better Program, Reebok’s Human Rights Awards and Rockport’s Fitness Walking Program. This initiative is usually interchanged with cause marketing and corporate social responsibility. Cause marketing just like cause branding seems to have the same objective but the difference lies in the duration. Short-lived cause marketing initiatives are usually one-time deals like food drives, collection bins, and auctions for charity. While cause branding is a year-long continuous endeavor. Where the company tries to associate a cause to the brand in the customers’ mentality (Evergreen & Partners 2005). On the other hand CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility is the broader initiative that consumers expect from a company. CSR involves labor practices of the company, community activities and environmental programs. It comprises various causes while cause branding focus only on one cause (Evergreen & Partners 2005).

Alzheimer s Disease Symptoms, Probable Causes, And...

This paper reviews studies about Alzheimer’s disease, the symptoms, probable causes, and stages of the disease, duration, and its treatment options. It is intended to support readers engaging them with literature about the disease and a summation of available research findings and descriptive studies that include analysis of outcomes and cognitive training, rehabilitation and stimulation. Its primary goals are to find out whether the disease can be prevented or delayed. In addition to highlighting these different perspectives on the study of Alzheimer’s disease, this review highlights key findings from the research and suggests directions for continuing inquiry in this field. Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, symptoms, probable causes, cognitive training, cognitive rehabilitation and cognitive stimulation, stages of Alzheimer’s disease, duration of Alzheimer’s disease. COMBATTING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Over the years, the definition of the term â€Å"dementia† has broadened to include other mental diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Although previous descriptions of dementia involve the onset of memory loss, the fourth edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (also known as DSMV-IV-TR) define dementia as â€Å"the development of multiple cognitive deficits (including memory impairment) that are due to the direct physiological effects of a general medical condition, to the persisting effects of a substance, to multiple etiologies† (e.g., the combined cerebrovascularShow MoreRelatedThe Disease Of Alzheimer s Disease1421 Words   |  6 Pagesengulfed by a mysterious disease. The neurons being cut off and destroyed by two abnormal structures. First memory is affected gradually getting worse. Then one is unable to think properly, reason, and lacks of self control. Gaps are formed in the brain s ventricles, due to the amount of dead tissue. 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