It is not the job of pre-qualifying social work courses to train social workers in specialist areas of practice, academic leaders have said.
The Joint Universities Social Work Association (JUSWA) issued the statement in response to a BBC investigation that found that 37% of courses in England did not deliver specific training for students on coercive and controlling behaviour, in the context of domestic abuse.
Coercive and/or controlling behaviour, such as dictating what a person does or wears or preventing them from accessing their finances, is common in domestic abuse, and often a driver of serious violence by perpetrators (source: Home Office domestic abuse statutory guidance).
Lack of coercive control training ‘baffling’ – commissioner
The BBC’s findings were described as “baffling” by sector watchdog the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, who called for such training to be made mandatory on pre-qualifying courses.
Nicole Jacobs told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (28 August 2024) that social workers had told her that they were “not entering their roles with the kind of training they need to feel confident to support child and adult victims of domestic abuse because they are not getting it in their course work”.
She added: “Social work in England and Wales today is such that, from day one, you’re going to be really thrown into the deep end. It’s not as if you’re going to have some prolonged period of induction and training that gives you that kind of confidence.”
Jacobs added that social workers being unable to recognise the signs of coercive control could lead to victim-blaming, an experience shared by a domestic abuse survivor interviewed by the BBC.
In response to the story, JUSWA chair Professor Janet Melville-Wiseman said the BBC article “drew attention to some critically important concerns about how well coercive control is understood by those intervening with children and families that are affected by domestic violence”.
University remit ‘does not cover specialised practice’
However, she criticised its focus on pre-qualifying social work education.
“Initial education does not claim or have a remit to prepare newly qualified social workers to be “thrown into the deep end” of what should be regarded as highly specialised practice,” said Melville-Wiseman.
Courses’ role was to prepare students for all areas of social work practice as part of a generic approach, including by covering underpinning theories, the law and concepts such as discrimination and intersectionality, including in relation to domestic abuse, she added.
Following this, graduates would continue their learning and be protected from “high-risk work” during their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).
“For that reason, we believe that being fully trained in coercive control is specialist practice and should be primarily delivered as part of post-qualifying study. The issue is too important to think it can be adequately covered at pre-registration level.”
Resources on domestic abuse
You can find resources on domestic abuse in child protection on Community Care Inform Children’s domestic abuse knowledge and practice hub. We have also made a guide to identifying coercive and controlling behaviour free-to-access, so all social workers can benefit from it.
A spokesperson for the Domestic Abuse Commissioner clarified that she wanted to see coercive and controlling behaviour “to be a part of pre-qualifying training courses as well as post-qualifying training to maintain a high level of knowledge”, though stressed that the BBC story was focused on initial social work education.
What existing social work standards say
Social Work England’s education and training standards, which higher education institutions are required to meet, do not cover particular practice areas but state that courses should “enable students to develop the required behaviours, skills, knowledge and understanding to meet the professional standards”.
The professional standards themselves are also generic, for example, requiring practitioners registered with Social Work England to “demonstrate good subject knowledge on key aspects of social work practice and develop knowledge of current issues in society and social policies impacting on social work”.
By the end of their ASYE, practitioners in England are expected to meet the post-qualifying standards for child and family practitioners or the knowledge and skills statement for social workers in adult services, as relevant. Both require an understanding of the impact of domestic abuse on children and families or adults, but neither goes into further detail nor references coercive and controlling behaviour.
Forthcoming Social Work England guidance
Social Work England is due to shortly publish new guidance for education providers on the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of students at the point of qualification to ensure they are practice ready.
Chief executive Colum Conway said the readiness for professional practice guidance would “make clear that social workers will need to be able to “understand signs of harm, exploitation, neglect, abuse, domestic abuse, and coercive or controlling behaviour, recognising their impact on people, families, and communities”.
He added that the guidance had been informed by feedback from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner.
In relation to the regulator’s education and training standards, Conway added: “Our current standards were set out in 2019, but we are committed to routinely reviewing them to ensure they are fit for purpose. We are undertaking a comprehensive review and public consultation on these standards in 2025, where issues such as the placement of coercive and controlling behaviour could be considered for more explicit reference.”
‘Increasing demands’ on social work course providers
In its response to the debate, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England raised concerns about the pressures on social work course providers relative to their resource levels.
“Social work education courses provide a theoretical foundation and placement-based experience for students in diverse settings, including a focus on statute, social policy, critical analysis, research, ethics, values and relationship based social work,” said national director for BASW England Maris Stratulis.
“There are increasing demand across the HEI sector to deliver more and more within a context of under resourcing and non-equitable social work education funding streams.”
This is likely a reference to the superior levels of public funding for students on fast-track courses Approach Social Work (run by Frontline), Step Up to Social Work and Think Ahead, compared with those on university courses.
“The regulator, government, employers, the HEI sector and other stakeholders have a responsibility to provide conducive education and progressive learning environments for students and qualified social workers – this does not happen without sustainable funding and investment,” Stratulis added.
For the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, workforce policy committee chair Nicola Curley said ongoing training and practice development was necessary to enable social workers to meet the needs of children and families and prevent harm.
“Sadly, all forms of domestic abuse are a significant feature of this work with children and families and ADCS will continue to collaborate with the Department for Education on its reform programmes to enhance the skills of our workforce in the best interests of the children and families we serve,” she added.
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I agree, social work student neepd to be trained or made aware of HR and disaplinary practices as they can be brutel. I am suffering and have suffered for over two years because I followed the mental heath act and welsh mental health act code of practice. I was then sacked and am taking LA to an employment tribunal.
I would never imagine being treated so badly by a porfession. They say employees leave their manager not their job. In my case I definitely left my management
I have also had a challenging experience and raised it with relevant organisations with support now from a number of them. I agree that management practice was my issue too.
I would urge anyone experiencing any form of this at work to raise a formal grievance. The citizens advice website has an excellent grievance letter generator. Only positive path of highlighting poor management.
But is it a social work practitioner role and Adult Social Care to manage control and cohersion of an individual if the resident does not have eligible needs under the Care Act?
In these cases, should it not be central government to fund a whole different department in local councils?
Every single domestic from LAS and Merlin refers to Children’s or adults Social care, without the slightest evidence it is a social care issue.
People live, they have lives, and as soon as one professional becomes involved, they are perceieved as requiring state intervention. Remember, that word? Think it is called autonomy?
Excellent clear thinking there Jim – also one of recognition SWs deal with the whole package and would refer to a specialist agency, not trying to ‘fix’ it as part of the referral unless specifically instructed by MARAC for example. Worked in DA for years and poor intervention can escalate a situation with terrible consequences.
I worked in CP for my LA….after getting a job based on my work there impeachment..I completed my AYSE I was overloaded during a Restructure as so many good staff left ..my caseload was 36 when it should have been 15 protected in my first year they sacked me wrongly for GMC and Although my work record was faultless and I had had a diagnosis for my mental health after breaking down ththat was not considered..This Sacking was overturned to health by the then HCPC…rightly . But I was placed on the DBS barred list 6 years ago which then led to my suspension.
I was a victim of DV and my former employers colluded with my abuser to bring a false case against me of Neglecting the care of my children…THEY ARE PERSECUTING ME ..
People without Empathy and perception should not be running services for families full stop .
I’m still in it and cannot describe how very difficult it gas been but I’m fighting still unable to work treated like a paedophile or rapist…and I was a good social worker.
If they do that to their own employees then I ask you…what chance does a victim have?
If you want to know what is wrong with the Social care take a hard look at the people managing it!
I am not the only person mistreated by SCC.
There are others who have experienced their regime.
I’m really struggling to understand why we are calling coercive control and domestic abuse “specialist” as sadly they are commonplace. If we are training social workers to make decisions and judgments around thresholds to remove children, why are the causes for concern now deemed to be specialist.
On my MA in Social Work, we have to complete a number of additional short courses in order to complete our course and DV was one I chose to do, but not everyone will. There seems to be a move to label things as “specialist” in order to manage caseloads, an indictment of the overloaded system, not the social workers who are just trying ti achieve the best outcomes for their children and families
No offence to anyone but my take on social work as a profession is after dealing a few sw’s that sided with my abuser, who also had a fondness for invalidating, gaslighting, etc, I think the whole enterprise needs to shift into 2024, and accept the fact that da is more than likely at the root of most child welfare cases. For a start, BASW, or whomever it is that set such things, they could add knowledge of the da crime acts to qualifying exams. Then at least SW would know how to respond when they are informed about service users’ experiences of being a victim of crime.
i naively thought social workers would be informed about domestic abuse and cc, plus all the other offshoots – stalking, harassment, etc. seeing as it must be a factor in at least 75% of caseloads, if not more.
But surely domestic violence is an issue that impacts on every single area of social work child protection adult protection mental health all of it.
Coercive control is a significant issue it’s part of NHS mandatory training in safeguarding with an expectation social workers are the experts
It seems standards of skills for those experts is very low in a number of areas.
I have experience as a (1)social work academic, in (2) rural child protection and my first role was with (3)children with disabilities. 1. University admissions are known to overall admissions interviews (for financial reasons?) and allow unsuitable people on to courses. 2. In teams that struggle to recruit I have met openly racist people and people who manipulate and coerce service users/colleagues. 3. The degree I did barely mentioned disability – which should not be mentioned as a specialist area, it should be taught to adhere with the Equality Act or just because it is the right thing to do. ADHD and autism training is a must. I am sure the research into eating processed foods, vaping, smoking etc during pregnancy, a child’s diet and the toxic effects of plastic in our food and the links to autism and adhd will reach us one day. That’s if governments can overcome the pressure from those industry big wig billionaires.
“Social work education isn’t to train you to become social workers competent to do the minutea of the job on day one but to equip you with conceptual skills to critically reflect on what being a social worker means and develop your confidence to appraise problems and seek solutions. Practice skills and education are two very different things.” As recounted by a newly qualified worker.
Sadly I see in today’s society more need for help from social services.
I see and hear about social workers ineptitude with handling domestic situations. Leaving mothers with abusive partners and children living with them, the mother often unable to be free of the aggressive controlling male. Social workers ignore obvious signs, often return children to the home where the aggressor lives. Social workers need more vigorous training. Should be continually doing development courses as therapists must. Have more interaction with therapists and police.
In other words better and more in depth training, for more years.
I qualified as a social worker 13 years ago and worked for a long period in adult social work.
After losing all belief in the system I am retraining as a psychotherapist and the difference in the quality of the training offered is so much higher than on my social worker MSc
The involvement of people with lived experience is vitally important here – in the training of social work students, in the ASYE year, and as part of ongoing CPD after that. I deliver training on Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control to all these cohorts – Worcester University is a real leader in this field, and this learning is now being transferred to the West Midlands Teaching Partnership.
Social workers should beware the unexpected consequences of their academia bashing. Social workers love to regale us about how social work is a profession. If it is then expecting to be taught the nuts and bolts of their jobs begs the question why a profession needs such extreme artisanal training? Being taught the mechanics can just as easily and perhaps be better learnt through apprenticeships and not attending venerable academic institutions. Personally I’ve never bought the profession argument on the simple fact that anything useful a social worker learns to become competent learnt while doing the job. Often under the informal tutalige of a colleague. I loved my time on my course. It taught me how to think more critically, it taught me how to organise that thinking, it taught me how to listen, it taught me how to refine my empathy, it taught me resilience, it taught me how to interact with people I might not like or want to be with. And so on. It didn’t taught me about ‘assessments’, it didn’t taught me how to avoid answering the phone, it didn’t taught me about the prevalence of forms, of the burden of mainly useless bureaucracy that passes for SWE approved social work. I’m thankful that my course didn’t prepare me for the realities of how mundane, spirit crushing, angst inducing and isolating being a social worker can be in this time. If it did I probably would’ve dropped out. But then I was never seduced by being a ‘Masters’ student either. Teaching us how to learn is what the role of academics are. If you think they are useless at preparing you for social work, ask yourself why you need to have a degree to do a job in reality you only get to do well after you qualify. Stop fetishing degrees and you’ll be liberated and happy. Resent your employer, resent inadequate resources and perhaps resent your manager but never resent your tutor because without you realising it they have prepared you for some of the idiocy that passes for ‘professionalism’ in social work.
I trained as a social worker late in my career after years as working as a public health practitioner in the field of violence against women and children. I think domestic violence is inadequately covered in undergraduate social work practice in the UK (compared with amazing social work practitioners that I worked with from Canada and Australia). This needs to be urgently addressed. Coercive and controlling behaviour can be covered in social work undergraduate more than it is – and it may well be that it is a speciality area in postgraduate – but where are those courses in the UK – they are not necessarily set up for social workers. There are some great IDVA courses around. However, my bigger concern is that social workers who have been in the field for years are missing coercive and controlling behaviour and are not mentoring younger social workers who are newly graduated. This is more of my concern. It is not OK to say that this is a speciality area when it is the reality that new social workers are facing and inadequately prepared to deal with in early practice and they are not being adequately supervised to do so in their role. Women who needs the support of social workers are being denied best ands safe practice time and time again because social workers are not addressing this. This is unacceptable.
My children and I all reported abuse from their narcissistic father…I naively assumed that surely social workers would be aware of perpetrator characteristics’ , consummate Jeckyl & Hyde, dark tetrad con artists. But then I came to understand that child protection, family court, and the various ‘professionals’ that do BI assessments – these folks only listened to the perpetrator, after I tried to advocate for my kids, who felt distinctly unseen and unheard, my speaking truth to their power led to the most horrific suffering for my children and I. I lost my access to my kids, who now live with the perpetrator. The LA used my distress caused by their collusion with the perpetrator as justification to take me to court. It felt like everyone involved in the case was still in 1982 – DV= physical, and ‘historic’. Bruises fade but the fear does not, especially now that the perpetrator’s power and control has been enhanced by the State. Terrifying.
At Hull university the master course, we did specialise in domestic abuse and other areas such at loss. I mean if it’s not the job of the university to train then whose job, there is of course your own personal development, like I have specialised in suicide prevention, I did feel armed with knowledge and understanding of loss and suicide from both the mental health module and the loss module I did. Maybe I was lucky to have experienced tutors on the course,
If they don’t teach specialise areas and it’s broad then ok l, you have directed studies to research deeper into areas of interest, for example my work on. AI in social worke and learning disabilities was fascinating to learn about 🙂