OUR SERVICES
Social Work Services
There is a dynamic and ever growing voluntary sector in Northern Ireland, providing a range of services across many areas of need. Bryson Care has historically provided significant social care services in its own right. We have played a key role in contributing to the direct provision and development of social work placements across the voluntary sector. We have been involved in this since 1915, when as the then Belfast Council for Social Welfare in partnership with Queen’s University, set up the School of Sociology to train and offer placements to social work students, or almoners as they were then known.
Since 2007, we have been approved as a Designated Practice Learning Provider (DPLP) by the NI Social Care Council (SCC). We are the leading organisation providing social work placements across Northern Ireland. We have two practice learning centres; one located in Belfast and one located in Derry-Londonderry enabling us to be accessible to organisations across the province.
Our team consists of three highly experienced social workers who are qualified practice teachers. Our staff have a wealth of practice experience working in both the Statutory and Voluntary Sector. The team consists of:
- Caoimhe Harkin-Mac Dermott, Assistant Director for Social Work Services
- Judith Mayne, Practice Learning Centre Manager based in our Belfast office
- Michael Mc Crossan, Practice Learning Centre Manager based in our Derry-Londonderry office.
Within our Practice Learning centres, we pride ourselves in developing learning communities of practice for social work students, practice teachers, onsite supervisors and newly qualified social workers. We encourage social work students to access opportunities to get involved in their local communities and apply their social work skills and knowledge to tackling real issues. This form of collective activism contributes to establishing the students’ sense of professional identity as social workers. For students, these opportunities promote active engagement, encourages problem solving and participation to create safe, healthy, and sustainable communities.
Social Work Education and Practice Learning
Our Practice Learning Centres provide a range of internal and external social work placements. Through our support, social work students are provided with exceptional learning experiences and have opportunities to engage with service users who are in the greatest need and living with complex issues including; homelessness, poverty, addiction, mental ill-health, Learning Disability and Domestic Violence and Abuse. We have developed superb relationships with external partners who provide high quality social work placements across Northern Ireland.
Our external partners are known as Associate Practice Learning Providers (APLP’s). We ensure our APLP’s are fully supported through our regular catch up sessions, standardisation meetings and training. We continue to strive to develop new placement sites and refresh choice for students in the voluntary sector. We work closely with key industry partners to extrapolate strategic developments around practice teaching and social work placements within the voluntary sector. We ensure we work towards a best practice model and to keep abreast of all that is happening within practice learning provision in the voluntary sector.
We offer a blended approach to practice learning support aligned to current trends across HEIs with digital literacy and fluency identified as graduate qualities for 21st century social work practitioners. Employer expectations dictate that graduates demonstrate competence in working within and across a range of emerging digital technologies. Our blended approach ensures we align to the ‘Learning and Improvement Strategy for Social Workers and Social Care Workers 2017-2027 – strategic point 6 – Practising in a Digital World.
We continue to participate in all regional forums to ensure representation, co-ordination and information dissemination are delivered to enable the voluntary sector to maintain its contribution to professional social work training. We are a centre of excellence for social work education in Northern Ireland working collaboratively with key stakeholders to innovate and transform approaches to professional learning. In 2021, we collaborated with Ulster University to create the Peer Learning Bubble Model which is a conceptual framework bringing social work students, practice teachers and experts by experience together in a hybrid learning model.
In 2019, we designed and created the Shared Stories Narrative Model which employed a participatory approach. The model is included in Social Care Council’s Good Practice Guidelines for involving Service Users in Northern Ireland (2020).
In 2019, in collaboration with Ulster University we shared our experiences as academics and practice educators of using digital storytelling with social work students in Northern Ireland. We continue to work with students to develop their digital stories capturing their placement experience. The use of digital stories has been excellent to promote social work placements across the voluntary sector.
In 2019, in collaboration with Ulster University we shared our experiences as academics and practice educators of using digital storytelling with social work students in Northern Ireland. We continue to work with students to develop their digital stories capturing their placement experience. The use of digital stories has been excellent to promote social work placements across the voluntary sector.
Links to the publications are included below:
The Peer Learning Bubble Model Journal Article Link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09503153.2021.1904868
The Shared Stories Narrative Model Journal Article Journal Link:
Co-Producing a Shared Stories Narrative Model for Social Work Education with Experts by Experience Journal Article Link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09503153.2019.1704235
Before and After: Digital story telling with social work students in Northern Ireland Journal Article Link:
Assessed Year in Employment
We provide professional supervision to qualified social workers who need to complete their Assessed Year in Employment (AYE) for the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (SCC). We provide AYE support across Northern Ireland. For further information please contact the team.
Oversea Students
Over the years we have developed excellent, innovative placement partnerships with universities in the UK and internationally including hosting students from Liverpool Hope University, UK and the University of New South Wales, Syndey, Australia. We continue to build and develop these partnerships to provide oversea students with opportunities to complete their work based learning placement in Northern Ireland.
WANT TO HELP?
If you would like to discuss funding, donating to, or working with us to develop new initiatives to help reduce fuel poverty and deliver positive social impact to households across Northern Ireland, please contact us.