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Career Development
SACCS / NEWI Foundation Degree in Therapeutic Child Care
SACCS AND the North East Wales Institute (NEWI) have great pleasure in announcing the launch of a new Foundation Degree in Therapeutic Child Care.
Building on SACCS’ reputation for excellence in delivering recovery for children and young people traumatised through abuse, neglect and deprivation, the award of this degree, recognised nationally will demonstrate the expertise in therapeutic parenting, therapy and life story within the field of therapeutic child care.
The new qualification is the result of a lengthy planning process designed to raise national standards of practice through an innovative and rewarding learning experience. Staff from both organisations have worked together to produce a degree in providing enriched work-based learning, underpinning theoretical knowledge and practical skills at the highest level, for all practitioners working directly with children.
Staff will obtain a Foundation Degree in the first instance, with the hope that many will continue into a third year of study to gain an Honours Degree in Therapeutic Child Care and then onto an MA Degree.
Programme Aims
- Develop the generic professional and practical skills which are fundamental to working as an effective practitioner in child care
- Contribute to the development of transferable skills
- Develop skills in working with traumatised children and young people
- Contribute to the provision and development of safe care
- Provide a suitable basis for progression to an Honours Degree in Therapeutic Child Care
Programme Learning Outcomes
By the end of the Degree students will be able to:
- Identify and interrogate key theoretical and conceptual frameworks from the social sciences that inform working with traumatised children
- Identify and explain the key issues relating to the impact of trauma and abuse on young children
- Develop an understanding of the knowledge-base surrounding attachment, grief and loss
- Demonstrate an understanding of the normal child and adolescent development
- Demonstrate an understanding of the regulatory and legislative frameworks around child care
- Demonstrate an appreciation of the ethical and value issues associated with working with children, including those of equality of opportunity and working with diversity
- Analysis of literature that underpins effective child care practice
- Show an appreciation of social, economic, political and historical factors that impact on child care
- Develop knowledge in relation to assessing and planning individual programmes of intervention and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the regulatory and legislative frameworks for child care
Programme Structure
The programme is structured around the 24 Outcomes of Recovery from the SACCS Recovery Programme. SACCS and NEWI have identified 10 modules that provide the basis of the Foundation Degree:
| Year 1: 120 Level 4 credits | |
|---|---|
| Induction and Foundation Practice | 40 |
| Delivering Recovery | 40 |
| Developing Knowledge and Practice | 40 |
| Year 2: 120 Level 5 Credits | |
|---|---|
| Child Development | 15 |
| Attachment, Grief and Loss | 15 |
| Social Development and Communication Skills | 15 |
| Understanding and Developing Emotional Intelligence | 15 |
| Identity and Diversity | 15 |
| Sexual Development and Sexuality | 15 |
| Critical Professional and Personal Development | 30 |
Work-based Learning
Over the last few decades there has been a discernible shift of emphasis in higher education away from a classical focus on knowledge for its own purposes, to focus on knowledge in action.
Modern educational philosophy stresses that knowledge is not absolute but conditional, contextually dependent and liable to transformation over time. Today's approach is based on students taking charge of their own learning and learning takes place largely outside the lecture theatre, with students encouraged to develop skills in reflectivity and self-directed learning in specific contexts.
SACCS current programme and the approach to teaching and learning it adopts, embrace this new learning method. Within the SACCS programme there is a commitment to the principle that all genuine and relevant learning, however acquired, is deserving of credit towards a qualification, provided the learning can be clearly identified and evidenced at the appropriate level.
While each module is partly taught, learning is then developed by reflection and activity by the student in the workplace. Following on from the face to face element of each module, students will be given bespoke reading materials and required to undertake activities which engage them in further work-based reflection or activities designed to promote and develop relevant knowledge and understanding. These activities will be directed by reading and activity materials produced jointly by SACCS and NEWI. They underpin and facilitate reflective practice, and provide a focus for each module leader in directing non-classroom based learning by the students.
October 2007 will be a landmark month as SACCS experiences the graduation of its first cohort of practitioners. Following this, in 2008, it is the intention of SACCS and NEWI to launch the Foundation Degree and the new BA in Therapeutic Child Care nationally, as leading qualifications in the field.
Enquiries
If you would like to make an enquiry about career development opportunities within our organisation, please contact us.
