Social Work
Prepare to empower lives and become a qualified social worker through academic study and comprehensive practice learning opportunities hosted by Welsh local authorities.
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
L500
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Start Date
September
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Location
Newport
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Campus Code
C
Fees
Home students
£9,535*
International students
£16,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
Through placements, you’ll gain invaluable real-world experience and develop the skills required for professional practice in various settings. In the third year, you’ll have the chance to specialise in areas such as children, adults, or mental health, further enhancing your employability prospects.
DESIGNED FOR
Those who wish to work with individuals to improve their lives and well-being. You’ll empower others to achieve independence while understanding the challenges and injustices in society. If you’re ready to confront these issues head-on, this course is for you.
Accredited by
- Social Care Wales
Skills taught
- Procedures and legislation
- Assessment and planning
- Communication
- Reflective practice
- Emotional resilience
Career paths
- Social Worker
- Support Worker (social work, mental health, learning disabilities)
- Counselling
- Care Home/Nursing Home Worker
- Supporting children with additional needs
Course Highlights
Module Overview
Blending theoretical learning with hands-on practice, you’ll explore key areas that include child welfare, adult services, and mental health while developing the skills to support diverse individuals. Rooted in social justice and current research, the programme prepares you for a rewarding career.
Get a thorough grounding in the frameworks, theories, legislation and skills involved in social work. Undertake a 20-day placement where you’ll observe experienced social workers and begin to translate theory into practice.
Foundations of reflective and applied practice
Study the Social Care Wales Code of Practice and examine and develop your knowledge and beliefs around social work.
Law and Social Policy
Explore the legal systems, legislation and policies relevant to social work, and their influence when working with individuals, children, young people and families in Wales.
Communication Skills in Social Work
Learn how to hold co-productive conversations and build effective, reciprocal relationships, including communicating with people whose first language isn’t English.
Social Science for Social Work
Understand the psychological and sociological theories applied to social work, looking at life course theories and examining research methods used in social sciences.
Introduction to Social Work Assessment
Explore the models, methods and processes of assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation, considering anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice.
Perfect your skills, develop your knowledge and learn how to become a reflective practitioner in preparation for your 80-day placement. This is a step up where you’ll take on some casework and start to apply your skills to do assessments and make decisions.
Outcome-Focused Practice in Social Work
Develop key skills in line with SCW, including outcome-focused assessments and conversations, and assessing a person’s needs, risks and circumstances.
Development of Critically Reflective and Applied Practice
Grow your social work identity as you adopt the essential values, ethical principles and applied skills required for effective practice.
Research Skills in Social Work
Understand the processes involved in social work research and how to translate this research to practice, looking at hypotheses, data collection, interpretation and more.
Application of Legislation and Social Policy
Critically examine how the legal frameworks, particularly the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, underpins your practice.
Show your eagerness to enter social work as a responsible professional with a 100-day placement where you’ll take on more complex cases and make more autonomous decisions. Your time on campus is spent developing the skills and resilience to succeed on placement.
Social Work with Individuals, Families and Communities
Apply social work theory to complex cases, enabling choice, independence and empowerment and overcoming discrimination, oppression and inequality.
Competence in Social Work Practice
Consolidate your professional identity and develop emotional resilience as you face challenging aspects such as critical incidents and working with resistance.
Inter-Professional Working and Co-production
Learn to work with different agencies, using advanced communication, accountability, and supervision to achieve positive results.
Integrating Research and Enquiry in Social Work
Advance your understanding of how research informs practice by critically evaluating contemporary studies and exploring ways to apply them.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
To prepare you for life as a social worker, you'll spend 200 days on placement – that’s half of your course.
Between placements, you'll develop key knowledge through interactive lectures and tutorials featuring case studies, discussions, and role-play. Guest speakers often include service users and various professionals involved in their care.
You'll also give evidence in our mock courtroom and simulate real-world scenarios in our Hydra suite.
With no exams, your assessment will be based on observations, feedback, and critical reflection on your placements, as well as presentations, debates, diagnostic assignments, and group projects.
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Teaching staff
Your lecturers are still currently in social work and have a lot of experience with both adults and children, including in areas like child protection, disability support, and mental health. They’ll help you with both academic learning and practical skills, such as building emotional resilience and finding your strengths. You’ll also hear from different professionals and service users in interactive guest lectures.
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Placements and work experience
When you start the course, you'll be assigned to a local authority and complete 200 days of placement.
In your first year, you'll spend 20 days mainly observing to get familiar with the role.
In your second year, you'll have an 80-day placement where you'll begin taking on casework under supervision.
In your final year, you'll work for 100 days, focusing on developing your independence and specialising in an area of interest.
You'll also work with professionals from education, healthcare, and the police in integrated teams, and you might have opportunities for additional experience through voluntary placements.
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Facilities
You’ll spend 50% of your time on placement off-campus, but while you’re here, you'll benefit from USW’s excellent facilities.
The Hydra suite offers advanced simulation software to work through real-world scenarios and enhance your decision-making skills. You’ll also practice giving evidence in our mock courtroom.
Based at the Newport City campus, a modern and vibrant community, you'll have access to computer and IT resources, as well as an extensive library service.
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS points: 96 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: CCC
- BTEC: Merit Merit Merit
- Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate: C and CC at A Level
- Access to HE: Pass the access obtaining a minimum of 96 UCAS points.
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent.
Equivalent qualifications considered are Essential Skills Level Two in Communication or Functional Skills Level Two in English.
An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on the Child & Adult Workforce and Child & Adult Barring List and subscription to the DBS Update Service is required. (Overseas equivalent required for non-uk applicants).
An interview is required. This will consist of a written task and an individual interview.
At least 10 weeks’ work experience (approximately 360 hours) carried out in a supervised social care setting or agency with a reference from the supervisor submitted at point of interview confirming you have completed the required hours. This work experience must be completed prior to your interview, and you must clearly reference that you are undertaking a minimum of 360 hours in your personal statement. If you have previous experience that you feel could contribute towards these hours then please contact the course leader [email protected] to discuss further. Instances such as these will be assessed on a case by case basis.
We do not accept deferred applications for the Social Work degree.
Closed for International applicants
Unfortunately, this course is not currently open to international applicants, please visit our course pages where you can find an alternative course choice.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,535
per year*£16,200
per year*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
Students will be expected to pay for a DBS or certificate of good behaviour from their home country. The DBS fee includes £49.50 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee
Cost: £64.74
Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £16. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate
Cost: £16
These can be claimed back if the student has been allocated a Social Care Wales bursary. Cost is dependent on placement location.
£10 per year
Social Work Interviews
Everything you need to know before attending your Social Work interview.
Read our Interview TipsUniversity Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
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