Emphasis on partnerships, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) within social work and social care education and training has never been greater.

Today sees the launch of the third edition of ‘Partnerships, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)’. First published in 2006, this latest edition is also the result of a collaboration between BU and the employers’ organisation, Learn to Care.

Anne Connor, as the Chair of Learn to Care, the key organisation representing workforce development managers in the social care sector, writes

“I believe this third edition will be as highly rated as its predecessors…there are positive examples and advice from lessons learnt, that in order for us to achieve high quality and sustainable outcomes we need to work together with professional respect for our partners using the collaborative and differential advantages these relationships can provide.”

The impetus for this third edition has come from the recent work of the Social Work Reform Board and the review of social work with children – The Munro Review of Child Protection (2011). Eileen Munro understands that risk cannot be eliminated but suggests that social work practitioners should be given more freedom to exercise and develop their professional judgement rather than follow procedures within a culture of compliance. Collaboration and partnerships between practitioners, employers and the providers of professional learning and development opportunities can allow such meaningful CPD to exist and flourish.

Yet, you cannot really know if professional learning and development has occurred unless you assess or evaluate it. Professor Keith Brown, Director of BU’s Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work and the lead author of this third edition, writes

“we consider appropriate ways of viewing, undertaking and demonstrating professional learning and development and how such learning can be assessed.”

The publication also contains a number of case studies that highlight the importance of trust between partnerships and an appendix of draft Memorandum of Co-operation written by Mark Pardoe from BU’s legal department.

The book is available through The Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work.