Learner experience of regulated social work programmes

IntroductionOur Education Quality Assurance (EQA) Team approves, monitors, reviews and inspects the quality of regulated social work programmes in Wales. This includes qualifying and post-qualifying social work programmes.Most programmes are a partnership between education providers (primarily Higher Education Institute) and employers (primarily local authorities). Details about regulated programmes are available on the Social Care Wales website.The functions of the EQA team are undergoing a period of review and development, and there is the need for a greater focus on the voice of learners on regulated social work programmes. The outputs from this contract will inform future developments in this area.What is required / ‘The Requirements’Social Care Wales want to:- review what we know about learners on regulated social work programmes- map how both Social Care Wales and regulated programme processes capture the learners voice and experience- explore how the learner voice and experience may be more effectively and routinely captured by Social Care Wales as part of data collection processes- explore how the learners voice and experience can be used to inform our understanding of social work education and learning- explore education providers perspective of learner voice and experience (this includes those employed by education providers, local authority/employer partners, and other relevant education providers)- review how approaches to capturing the student voice and experience can help Social Care Wales to be actively anti-discriminatory in line with the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan and the LGBTQ+ Action plan (as well as other equality actions plans) by understanding the lived experience of students with protected characteristics on social work programmes.- Produce a report to answer the following research questions:~ How can we engage with learners?~ What mechanisms are most effective for capturing the learner voices/experiences?~ How might Social Care Wales and regulated programmes strengthen routine processes for capturing learner voices/experiences?Learners are students enrolled on regulated social work programmes. The research must cover all programmes of studies. The Supplier will explore the different learner voices which will inform the revision of Specific Named Course Requirements (SNCRs) and wider rule/guidance development (as previously outlined to the Social Care Wales Board by EQA team).The work will be split into three parts:- Part one delivery timeframe: contract award date -August 2023- Part two delivery timeframe: September - December 2023- Part three delivery timeframe: December 2023 -1 March 2024Please see Specification for more information