BA (Hons) Social Work Bachelor's degree at the University of Suffolk

This Level 4 module prepares you for safe and effective direct social work practice by assessing your readiness for first placement as outlined by the Professional Capabilities Framework. It introduces the core foundations of professional behaviour, including ethics, integrity, anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice, communication skills and the maintenance of appropriate boundaries. You are supported to develop self-awareness and reflective capacity, enabling you to begin integrating

This module will introduce you to the key laws and social policy developments that shape contemporary social work practice in the UK. You will explore how law, policy, and ethics work together to protect people's rights, guide professional judgement, and ensure accountability. Throughout the module, you will critically reflect on the links between law, power, and structural inequality, and consider how social workers can challenge oppression and promote social justice from within these systems.

The individual moves through various stages of the lifespan, and this module offers you the opportunity to examine the implications of developmental processes and life stages for the individual's behaviour. The module introduces you to the conceptual frameworks of human development from pre-birth to old age, encompassing both 'normal' and atypical development.

This module enables you to examine how personal, professional, and societal values shape social work decisions, in line with Social Work England's requirement to reflect on values and ethics. It introduces key frameworks on professional values, human rights, oppression, and discrimination, helping you to recognise ethical dilemmas, understand the impact of prejudice and inequality, and begin to develop integrity and anti-oppressive practice in their emerging professional role.

This module explores how political, economic, and legal contexts shape definitions of social problems, social needs, and the rights of adults who use services. It introduces you to key legislation, policy processes, and ideologies that influence adult social work. This will enable you to analyse how law and policy can both marginalise and protect particular groups, and to apply this knowledge critically to frontline practice with adults and their carers.

This module examines how social workers provide support and protection for children within legal, political, and organisational frameworks. It places particular emphasis on children's rights, wishes, and emotions. The module covers essential laws, procedures, research, and lessons learned from serious case reviews. It also focuses on direct work and interprofessional skills, enabling you to examine the factors that contribute to children being marginalised, abused, or neglected. You will learn h

This module aims to introduce you to the importance of research in social work practice. It will enable you to examine various research methods that can provide evidence on effective interventions, shed light on people's experiences, and inform policy and practice. The module will also help you develop a sense of curiosity and confidence in designing, evaluating, and analysing research. You will also learn how to use research findings ethically and collaboratively, and begin to formulate ideas f

This module introduces key sociological theories and concepts to explain how social structures, institutions, and power shape people's lives. It develops your "sociological imagination" to move beyond common-sense views, explore oppression, inequality, and social justice, and apply these insights to everyday social work practice and your emerging professional identity.

You undertake supervised and assessed practice learning in real social work settings, gaining experience of statutory tasks and contrasting areas of practice (for example, working with adults and with children and families). The module offers you the opportunity to develop and demonstrate your professional capability over 70 placement days at Level 5, integrating theory, research and learning from other modules with the Professional Capabilities Framework and Social Work England's Professional S

This module explores contemporary issues shaping social work policy and practice, allowing you to analyse how current legislation, policy initiatives and social trends affect service users, practitioners, and organisations. It introduces conceptual, ethical, and legal frameworks for making sense of real-time debates, enabling you to apply theories of rights, justice, equality, and anti-oppressive practice to emerging challenges in the UK and beyond.

Through this module, you will spend an extended period in practice settings. The module offers the opportunity to consolidate and demonstrate your professional capability over at least 100 days of assessed practice. The module enables you to apply and integrate knowledge, skills, and values from across the degree in contrasting and often statutory social work contexts, working to the Professional Capabilities Framework and Social Work England's Professional Standards while developing a clear sen

This module enables you to design and conduct an independent, small-scale investigation into a topic relevant to contemporary social work, thereby strengthening your research skills and critical thinking. It introduces key stages of the dissertation process, from refining a question and engaging with literature to choosing methods, addressing ethics, analysing data, and presenting findings, so that you can produce an empirical or non-empirical study that links theory, policy, values, and practic