What’s happening at Council? February 2018

What’s Happening at Council?

ASWEAS

Following the last meeting of Council, the Executive wrote to the AASW expressing concern about the new ASWEAS and urging that the implementation of the new standards be suspended until key issues could be resolved. The Executive have had a number of discussions with AASW, reiterating the Council’s concerns and advocating for change. At the February meeting full Council met with the AASW and presented a prepared statement recommending the suspension of the 2017 ASWEAS and committing to work with the AASW in the preparation of revised Standards.

 

Succession Planning

Dr. Sonya Stanford, UTAS was voted in a Treasurer as Professor Lesley Cooper stands down after three years in this role. Professor Cooper was thanked for her service to the Council and in particular for her work on the fee structure. Professor Marie Connolly will stand down as President of Council later this year. Nominations for incoming President and Secretary were considered.

 

Capacity Building Project

This Council funded national project is progressing well against its year two objectives. The literature review is complete, the ethics application has been submitted and approved and the data collection has commenced. The project focussing on mid-career social work academics seeks to gather data on current leadership support and sustainability, succession planning and leadership development needs in social work education across Australia in order to develop a national strategy for ongoing leadership development. The research is being led by Associate Professor Amanda Howard, Sydney University and Professor Charlotte Williams RMIT.

 

National Field Education Network

The Council received an update of the work and research priorities of the National network. A key priority is to determine practices and processes of the assessment of students’ ‘fitness to Practice’.

 

Key discussion papers were presented on:

  • Professional Accreditation: Mapping the Territory Report (2017)
  • Joint Statement on the Principles of Professional Accreditation
  • Key Trends in Higher Education (Ass/Prof Lorna Hallahan, Flinders University)
  • Professor Clare Tilbury (Griffiths) presented research findings on ‘A comparative study of Australian Social Work Research’ BJSW 47,2217-2227
Next Meeting

Friday 19th June 2-4pm Online

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