ABSTRACT
This chapter is written particularly for social workers extending their practice education skills in the role of practice development educator with individual practitioners. The term is used by Skills for Care (2013) to denote those who continue to develop qualified social workers through providing support, supervision and assessment. It encompasses a variety of roles. It includes, for instance, the role of post-qualifying award or NQSW mentor and assessor and other less formal coaching and mentoring roles. Practice supervisors may or may not undertake a formal assessment role in addition to providing line management and/or professional supervision to qualified social workers, but they will in any case be responsible for their development and performance review. Although not identified by Skills for Care, I have included in this role that of the social work tutor, who uses similar capabilities. Tutors are employed by HEIs to support practice educators to provide effective practice learning and assessment, ensure that the opportunities provided to students enable them to meet professional requirements and facilitate students’ integration of academic and practice learning. In some HEIs the academic and personal tutor role is combined with placement support and monitoring, though sometimes it is separated. Throughout this chapter the term ‘practice development educator’ (PDE) is used to encompass the above roles, unless specific differences between them are being highlighted. ‘Practitioner’ refers to a PQ learner, supervisee or mentee, and, in the case of the tutor role, the student. The term ‘practice development session’ is used to refer to professional meetings between PDEs and practitioners.
