Social Work Placements: A Traveller's Guide

Placements can be one of the most exciting parts of your social work training but also one of the most daunting. This Guide will help you to make the most of your practice learning opportunities.

The guide highlights how you can make the most of your placement, as well as anticipating some of the problem areas and pitfalls to avoid. It covers:

• preparing for your placement
• getting to grips with placement documentation
• understanding how and what you might learn on placement
• integrating theory with practice
• non-traditional placements
• anticipating difficulties and dealing with them
• getting the best from assessment and evaluation.

Using a cast of ‘fellow travellers’ – students, work-based supervisors, practice educators and college tutors – to illustrate issues raised, the Guide is accessible and contains plenty of case studies. It is the ideal book for anyone wanting to make sure their placement goes as well as possible, whether they are a student or a supervisor.

Professor Mark Doel is Research Professor of Social Work in the Centre for Health and Social Care Research at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is also the author and co-author of Experiencing Social Work: learning from service users, Using Groupwork, The Task-Centred Book, Practice Learning and Teaching, The Essential Groupworker and Modern Social Work Practice.