PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Personal Development Plan

Practice Learning Two

SW3006N

Personal Development Plan

My second placement has been in Camden Family Services and Social Work, Children In Need Team. The Team works with other local partners to provide a range of services for children in need, disabled and vulnerable children, looked-after children and their families, as well as organizing fostering and adoption placements. The main focus for this service is to promote the 5 outcomes as stated in Every Child Matters to ensure that the child's welfare is paramount when working in any case. This is integrated with the Assessment Framework of safeguarding and promoting child's welfare.

In my Personal development Plan (PDP) I will explain what I have learnt whilst on my placement and how I have been able to reflect on my practice throughout the placement. I will also show how, as a student social worker on my second placement I have been able to, have a better understanding of what I will be undertaking in the future as a qualified social worker with the support of my practice teacher and the modules undertaken over the last 4 years. As part of the learning agreement between me and my practice teacher, we had agreed that I would keep a weekly reflective diary in which I would present a case and theoretical links in each supervision sessions. This was a very useful tool in my first placement and was equally vital in my final placement. As stated previously, this not only facilitated my learning through constant reflection and discussion, but also provided me a safe forum to seek clarifications and guidance on any areas where I required clarity and also to evaluate the effectiveness of my work.

I struggled with linking theories and practice in my second year, but managed to tackle this hurdle and then extensively covered the theory module in the previous year. Theory module has never been my favorite but I have learned a lot regarding the effectiveness of using theory in practice. During my first few weeks I was given a good induction in which I was given material to read, and various resources and numbers to contact and visit, so that I would have better knowledge about the support available in the community for children and families. This information supported me to be able to work together with all professionals involved in a child's life and in accordance with The Children Act for safeguarding of children. The idea of inter-agency and multi-disciplinary approach to child protection is now in-bedded in policy, procedure and practice.

“Working Together sets out how organizations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act” (Working Together to Safeguard children 2010, p. 7).

During the early weeks of placement, I have shadowed not only my practice teacher and other social workers from various teams to CIN meeting, LAC meeting and Court Hearing. This had a very positive impact on my confidence, as prior ...