Unit Outline

HGW527

Communication and Assessment Skills in Social Work

Semester 1, 2024

Justin Canty

School of Social Sciences

College of Arts, Law and Education

CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B

What is the Unit About?

Unit Description

Communication and Assessment Skills in Social Work provides a broad overview of human development theories and direct practice skills underpinning work with individuals. Additionally, you are taught communication skills to support assessment report and case note writing. Two key themes – deep listening and reflective self-awareness – are a focus throughout the learning experience to guide you on how to respond appropriately and purposefully to people's needs in a variety of contexts. Cultural diversity and the decolonization of social work practice are considered integral to all aspects of interpersonal helping skills, including how to conduct social work assessments and develop intervention plans. Techniques of strengths based, relational approaches and social justice principles are applied throughout the curriculum incorporating issues of child safety and mental health.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:


1.	Choose ethical methods of communicating with clients, colleagues and managers that are respectful, collaborative and involve sharing information appropriately.
2.	Maximise opportunities for inclusive and detailed social work assessments through relationship building and highly effective interpersonal communication skills.
3.	Appraise how social work assessment practices, including report writing, meld analysis with empathy for client contexts.
4.	Suggest ways to improve social work assessments and practices that can contribute to decolonising social work in local, national and international contexts.

Alterations as a result of student feedback

Improvements have been made to the unit in response to eVALUate feedback, peer review, and accreditation review. This has included: adjustments to assessments and weighting, refining learning activities to support learning of skills for assessment, and restructuring of weekly content topics.

Teaching arrangements


ATTENDANCE MODE	TEACHING TYPE	LEARNING ACTIVITY	CONTACT HOURS	FREQUENCY
On Campus	Blended Learning	Online learning activities, including lecture and other self-directed exercises.	1	Weekly
On Campus	Tutorial	Tutorial/workshop	2	Weekly

Attendance / engagement expectations

If your unit is offered On campus, it is expected that you will attend all on-campus and onsite learning activities. This is to support your own learning and the development of a learning community within the unit. If you are unable to attend regularly, please discuss the situation with your course coordinator and/or our UConnect support team.

If your unit is offered Online, it is expected you will engage in all those activities as indicated in the Unit Outline, including any self-directed learning.

If you miss a learning activity for a legitimate reason (e.g., illness, carer responsibilities) teaching staff will attempt to provide alternative activities (e.g., make up readings) where it is possible.

Tutorials for this unit start in Week 1. Face-to-face tutorials are held in all weeks in this unit and are of two hours duration.

Your tutorial attendance is recorded. Students attending less than 11 of 13 tutorials will be deemed ineligible for assessment in this unit. You are required to contact your tutor or unit coordinator to account for any tutorial absence. A medical certificate, statutory declaration and/or other supporting documentation may be required for absences. Please note that even with supporting documentation, a missed tutorial is counted as an absence. You are expected to be punctual and a pattern of lateness will be considered absence. Students are strongly recommended to maintain a record of their tutorial attendance in order to ensure that they meet attendance requirements and continue to be eligible to submit work in the unit.

Students who have not met the attendance requirements in this unit will be notified towards the end of the semester that they are no longer eligible to submit work or be assessed. This necessarily means a fail result (NN). Please note that even where there is cause for extended absence, due to serious illness for instance, students will still be considered ineligible for assessment if they have not attended a sufficient number of tutorials. In some cases (sufficient medical documentation for instance) they may be able to apply to withdraw from the unit without penalty. If you are concerned that you may not be able to attend enough tutorials, please discuss the issue with your unit coordinator.

In this unit your active engagement will be monitored in the following way:
1. You have accessed MyLO for this unit by the end of Week 1; and

2. You have attended sufficient tutorials by the end of Week 3 to be on-track to meet the tutorial attendance requirement specified above.

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule


ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Written assignment	Week 4	20 %	LO1, LO2
Assessment Task 2:	Video recording and written assignment	Week 9	50 %	LO1, LO2, LO3
Assessment Task 3:	Written assignment	Week 13	30 %	LO3, LO4

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Written assignment

Task Description:

Written assignment 1000 words.

See MyLO page Assessment Task 1 for detailed information and guidance.

Task Length:

1000 words

Due Date:

Week 4 (20/Mar/2024)

Weight:

20 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Each component of communication is clearly identified and applied to critically evaluating your personal communication style and behaviour. Viewpoints and interpretations are supported with examples and links with reading.	LO1
2	Self-evaluation demonstrates honest and critical analysis and evaluation through application of relevant concepts. Specific and relevant examples used to illustrate your insights into your communication style and behaviour as it is now.	LO2
3	Self-evaluation is written clearly and concisely. Responses structured in a logical and articulate manner.	LO1, LO2

Assessment Task 2: Video recording and written assignment

Task Description:

Video recorded interview 30 mins and written assignment 750 words

See MyLO page Assessment Task 2 for detailed information and guidance.

Task Length:

30 minutes and 750 words

Due Date:

Week 9 (01/May/2024)

Weight:

50 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Video-record a social work interview demonstrating proficient and confident use of the main components of a social work interview.	LO1, LO2, LO3
2	Demonstrate highly effective use of a range of interpersonal skills at relevant points throughout the interview.	LO1, LO2
3	Demonstrate skills for maximising engagement with client leading to a collaborative and comprehensive assessment process.	LO2, LO3
4	Demonstrate clear and concise recording skills that provides specific overview of client circumstances/situation and agreed plan for the recorded interview.	LO2, LO3
5	Demonstrate critical reflection skills in written self-evaluation of skills demonstrated in video-recorded interview.	LO2, LO3
6	Communicate your ideas in writing with reference to professional, cultural and academic contexts and standards (i.e. reference your work accordingly, pay attention to your grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax; use headings where relevant).	LO1, LO2, LO3

Assessment Task 3: Written assignment

Task Description:

Written assignment 2000 words

See MyLO page Assessment Task 3 for detailed information and guidance.

Task Length:

2000 words

Due Date:

Week 13 (28/May/2024)

Weight:

30 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Identify and assess the personal, family, environmental, and structural impacts of key factors relevant to the case study, drawing on a range of professional and academic social work literature to support your assessment.	LO3
2	Demonstrate critical cultural responsiveness in your assessment report by identifying and analysing cultural factors relevant to the case study and using respectful, person-centred language.	LO3, LO4
3	Identify and assess potential hazards and risks in the case study, combining focused analysis of relative risks with empathy for client contexts	LO3
4	Critically examine the capacity of social work assessments to contribute to decolonising social work. Suggest ways to improve social work assessments and practices to contribute to decolonising, using your assessment report as an example.	LO4
5	Communicate your ideas in writing with reference to professional, cultural and academic contexts and standards (i.e. reference your work accordingly, pay attention to your grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax; use headings where relevant).	LO3

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and achieve a mark of 50% or greater for the video-recorded interview component of Assessment Task 2 (hurdle task).

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.

Review of results and appeals

You are entitled to ask for a review of the marking and grading of your assessment task if there is an irregularity in the marking standards or an error in the process for determining the outcome of an assessment. Details on how to request a review of a mark for an assignment are outlined in the Review and Appeal of Academic Decisions Procedure.

Required Resources

Required reading materials

All required readings are available on the unit Reading List. The Reading List has been structured into weekly sections for ease of use.

You will need regular access to the following text:
Maidment, J., Egan, R., Tudor, R., and Nipperess, S. 2022. Practice skills in social work and welfare: More than just common sense (4th edition). Routledge.

The Library has copies of the ebook for you to access. You are able to download sections as PDF files for offline use. Links to all required reading sections appear in the Reading List.
You may choose to purchase the book if you wish, however this is optional. There are paperback and ebook versions available through Booktopia.