Mel Hughes – författare

The portfolio is an essential part of the summative assessment within qualifying social work programmes. All students are required to complete a practice portfolio to provide evidence of their learning in practice. This essential book demonstrates how students can use the portfolio to demonstrate their learning in terms of developing core knowledge, values and skills.

Topics covered include:

What a portfolio is, and how to make best use of it in your learning journeyHow to evidence your capability using the Professional Capabilities Framework for Social WorkersHow to reflect on your own learning needs and learning styleHow to work with your practice educator in terms of practice learning and portfolio developmentHow to evidence the use of theory in your portfolioHow to evidence meaningful service user and carer involvement within your placement and portfolioHow to use your portfolio as a basis for future CPD learning, including the need to develop Personal Development Plans and the role of AYSEWritten by a team of experts from Bournemouth University, each chapter uses a range of reflective activities, practice educator comments, and student testimony to illustrate the discussion.

In UK society, there are cultural norms and assumptions that affect many marginalised groups and this book aims to address and challenge these through the lens of the people who have lived these experiences.Social Exclusion in the UK presents a range of lived experiences alongside a critical commentary on the impact of social stigma, exclusion and marginalisation on people's lives. This book's chapters are co-authored by people with lived experience and academics and are all underpinned by the Transformative Learning Theory developed by scholar Mezirow. The marginalised experiences discussed in this book include different types of substance users, care leavers, asylum seekers, offenders, HIV positive, those living in poverty or those who identify as transgender.What makes this book unique is that it gives a voice to those who have been the most affected by inequality - whether it's economic or social and health inequalities. Those affected are the least likely to be involved in shaping and informing responses to it and this lack of involvement risks the further exclusion of those who are already marginalised.A few of the ways this book aims to challenge this include: legitimising and prioritising lived experience expertise; fostering critical reflection of our own beliefs and assumptions and drawing on lived experience expertise to inform responses and solutions.

Poverty is a root cause and effect of many social inequalities in the UK, due to the disproportionate impact on those living in poverty of their access to basic resources, services and opportunities. This important book covers a wide range of experiences relating to the everyday realities of living in poverty, providing timely and relevant insights for all areas of social work practice.Written by those with lived experience of poverty, each chapter dives into a key topic related to poverty in the UK, including parenting, schooling, housing and homelessness, mental health, cancer, disability, trauma and addiction, as well as discussions related to being in prison, a refugee, a carer, or care experienced. Taken together, these insights will help readers to develop and inform their appreciation of the challenges and potential solutions required to advocate for those in poverty.Offering bitesize formal knowledge on UK legislation and policy, alongside reflective activities which foster criticality and transformative learning, this book will be of great interest to professionals, academics and students in the fields of social work, social care, health, education, police work and media, as well as students and academics of sociology and the social sciences more broadly.

Poverty is a root cause and effect of many social inequalities in the UK, due to the disproportionate impact on those living in poverty of their access to basic resources, services and opportunities. This important book covers a wide range of experiences relating to the everyday realities of living in poverty, providing timely and relevant insights for all areas of social work practice.Written by those with lived experience of poverty, each chapter dives into a key topic related to poverty in the UK, including parenting, schooling, housing and homelessness, mental health, cancer, disability, trauma and addiction, as well as discussions related to being in prison, a refugee, a carer, or care experienced. Taken together, these insights will help readers to develop and inform their appreciation of the challenges and potential solutions required to advocate for those in poverty.Offering bitesize formal knowledge on UK legislation and policy, alongside reflective activities which foster criticality and transformative learning, this book will be of great interest to professionals, academics and students in the fields of social work, social care, health, education, police work and media, as well as students and academics of sociology and the social sciences more broadly.

In recent years there has been a significant shift within social work practice towards recognising the expertise of people with a lived experience. As a result service user involvement is now embedded into curricula. Throughout this textbook, service users and carers detail their experiences of interventions including being detained under the Mental Health Act, having a child removed to a place of safety and having a carer’s assessment. In meeting professional standards such as the Professional Capabilities Framework, students and social workers are required to take into account service user perspectives, and to collaborate with them to achieve positive outcomes. Chapters end with advice to social workers directly from contributors, providing invaluable perspectives on different intervention situations. There is specific focus on statutory social work throughout, as well as an exploration of broader implications of interventions, the underpinning legislation, policies and research.