MA Social Work

Please note that for 2023 entry, the deadline to apply for this course is 12:00pm on Friday 26th May 2023.

Social work is a human rights profession; be part of it.

This course, unique to the UK, provides an opportunity for you to qualify as a social worker while at the same time engaging with debates around the importance of human rights and social justice in the context of social work practice.

Building on the success of our existing Social Work programmes and the global reputation of the University's outstanding human rights research, we’ve designed a new postgraduate approach to social work education. Our Social Work students will not only acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to practice as social workers, but they will also have the opportunity to learn about the importance of human rights in an inter-professional manner, alongside students and tutors from the University's Law Clinic. Moreover, through our work with the United Nations, governments, human rights organisations and corporations all over the world, we bring a global outlook to our teaching.

We’ve blended theory and practice throughout to nurture you from a trainee social worker to a confident professional practitioner. You will explore the fundamental principles of human rights and equality, and examine how these doctrines will underpin your practice. You will also cover topics including:

• Service users autonomy
• Social justice and values
• Equality and diversity
• Safeguarding and protection
• Evidence-based relational practice

The School of Health and Social Care is proud to work closely with our Service User Reference Group (SURG). SURG is made up of service users, carers, and volunteers who generously share their first-hand experiences of health and social care. We work collaboratively with SURG to design our courses to ensure that we truly are putting the needs of patients and clients at the heart of what we do. SURG are involved as part of our course application processes and often form part of our interview panels. This helps us to be confident that we are selecting the right applicants for the course and their future careers. SURG members also support the delivery of our teaching sessions and research activity, which means you’ll benefit from an insight into their lived experiences of living with a diagnosis, health condition, or circumstance. You’ll find that not only does your clinical knowledge expand, but your empathy, compassion and ability to advocate develops also. You can find out more about SURG by reading their blog here.

Placement Opportunities

Within the School of Health and Social Care, we value the experience and opportunity that a placement can give you. It is an intrinsic part of many of our courses. You will do at least 170 days in practice placement during your time with us.

Whilst on placement, your week will be divided between four days on placement and one day dedicated to academic work with significant input relating to critical, reflective and human rights based practice. Our partnerships with placement providers ensure you gain effective, high-quality training, allowing you to gain experience working with children, adults, families and communities.

When you are on placement, the placement provider is expected to meet the travel costs incurred as a result of work carried as part of that placement (i.e. travel to meetings, etc). However, you will be expected to meet the costs of travel to and from placement.

Social Work students may be eligible to apply for the NHS Social Work bursary, which can be put towards paying for tuition fees, maintenance costs, or travel to placement. More information is available on our funding pages.

DBS and Occupational Health Checks

This course requires a satisfactory Occupational Health Check and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) - both of these are organised by the University. Please contact our DBS team or Occupational Health team if you have any questions in relation to these checks.

You will also be required to register for the DBS Update Service (information relating to this service can be found here). You will need to register for this within 30 days of your DBS certificate being issues. The Update Service costs £13 per year, which the University will reimburse. You will need to keep the subscription to this Service active for the duration of your course. If you do not register for the Update Service within 30 days, or your registration lapses, and you later attend placement where this is a requirement, you will have to pay for a new DBS check, which will enable you to sign up to the Update Service. Please contact our DBS team if you have any questions relating to this.

A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS Check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more. Further information about how to obtain an Overseas Criminal Record check can be found on the Gov.uk website.

Mandatory Vaccinations

As you may be aware, the UK government has now revoked legislation that requires all health and social care staff working in sites regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Whilst vaccination is not essential, we encourage our applicants and students to be fully vaccinated. Find out more about what this means for applicants to this course.

Professional accreditation

Approved by Social Work England for the purpose of providing eligibility to apply for registration as a social worker in England.

Our expert staff

You’ll join our Centre for Social Work and Social Justice, which is a vibrant learning community that strives to address issues of national and international concern. We pride ourselves on our commitment to social justice, and on giving our students opportunities to participate in activities promoting social justice.

Our staff continue to work within social care, and other local agencies which enhances our grasp of the contemporary links between academic research, and the issues of current social work practice. We also work closely with experts by experience at all levels of teaching and research to ensure our teaching is innovative and well-informed.

The Centre for Social Work and Social Justice is host to the International Social Work Journal, which is one of the oldest and most widely read academic journals in the field of Social Work.

Specialist facilities

The School of Health and Social Care is located at two sites; in the Kimmy Eldridge building at our Colchester Campus and in the Gateway Building at our Southend Campus. This course will be delivered at our Colchester campus.

We offer excellent physical and online resources in terms of libraries, computer labs, datasets, archives and other research materials. Take advantage of our links with the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), which conducts large-scale survey projects, many for government, EU and other public agencies, and has its own library.

The UK Data Archive is also based at our Colchester Campus and stores national research data.

Your future

We are first university in the UK to sign a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). This creates internship and research opportunities for our postgraduate students and is based on our long-established expertise in international humanitarian law.

We also work with the university’s Employability and Careers Centre to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.

With 91% of our postgraduate graduates are in highly skilled employment (Graduate Outcomes 2022), we're confident that this course will be just the start of great things for you. As a qualified Social Worker, you'll be able to work with a variety of client groups in various settings, and it's likely that no two days will be the same.

Successful completion of this course leads to eligibility to register with Social Work England as a Social Worker, but please note that other criteria also apply. See their website for further information.

UK entry requirements

You should have:

• A 2:1 or above (or international equivalent) in any discipline. Applications from students with a 2:2 or equivalent will also be considered where applicants also have significant vocationally relevant experience.
• Hold GCSE Maths and English grade C/4 or above, or equivalent at the time of application.
• Have some paid or voluntary work experience in health or social care in a relevant social care or child care/education setting.
• Successful performance at interview and sucessfully pass a English language assessment.

You must also have:

• One satisfactory reference (either academic or professional).

Don't worry if you cannot provide your reference when you make your application, as if we make you an offer you will be able to provide this at a later stage. References should be recent and verifiable, on official institution paper, signed and dated by the referee.If a referee wishes to provide an email reference, it must be sent from the referee’s email account.

You must also have a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) this is organised by the University.

For this course, you will be required to register for the DBS Update Service (information relating to this service can be found here). You will need to register for this within 30 days of your DBS certificate being issued. The Update Service costs £13 per year, which the University will reimburse. You will need to keep the subscription to this Service active for the duration of your course.

If you do not register for the Update Service within 30 days, or your registration lapses, and you later attend a placement where this is a requirement, you will have to pay for a new DBS check, which will enable you to sign up to the Update Service. Please contact dbs@essex.ac.uk if you have any questions relating to this.”

A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more. Where it is not possible to obtain an Overseas Check a relevant professional reference may be accepted

The following documents should be submitted with your online application:

• A personal statement
• A current CV detailing your work/voluntary work experience
• Academic transcripts

Interviews

Interviews will take place from November 2021 for the October 2022 intake.

Interviews will be via Zoom, details of which will be provided in advance.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, we require IELTS 6.5 overall, or equivalent, with a minimum of 6.0 in reading and writing and 5.5 in all other components.