So, you have submitted your final assignment, finished your final placement and you are ready to begin a challenging and fulfilling career in social work.
I remember submitting my final essay on the social work degree and then having an overwhelming panic that I needed to, and waves of excitement that I could apply for a job… yet I wasn’t exactly sure what an Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) was, what it entailed or how to find information on it.
If this is you, do not panic! This post will give you a crash course in:
a. What the ASYE is,
d. 10 top tips
So, lookout for links throughout.
What is the ASYE? An overview
As you start searching for a post qualifying position, you will see that social work graduates undertake a protected ‘ASYE’ programme as a Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) before becoming a ‘fully fledged’ - to help me understand this, I thought of it as similar to a teacher training year.
As a NQSW, you should ideally begin the ASYE within two years of graduating (for me this was one year and four months after graduating).
If it has been longer than two years since you graduated, do not panic, communicate this with your employer, and they can over-rule this if they are satisfied that your skills and knowledge are up to date. Equally, you can undertake continual professional development course or a step-up course to re-fresh your skills - this information can be found on the BASW website.
The ASYE is a tailored programme devised by Skills for Care and provided through employers (local authority or organisation) to support and facilitate NQSW’s to enhance their skills and apply their learning in practice - really, the clue was in the name! The programme also gives you an opportunity to apply and test your learning whilst being protected by your employer and programme provider for 12 months. This protection includes a capped case load, increased supervision, low complexity work. The ASYE year is also a perfect opportunity for you to develop your confidence and capability as a social worker.
Each organisation may have a slightly different set-up for the ASYE year- for example one of my peers did their ASYE support through a university, whereas I did not.
In theory, the ASYE is supposed to be a middle-ground between education, qualification and practice- it is meant to be a chance for you to find your feet before you are required to work with a greater number of families who are experiencing increasing complexities.
Some local authorities have a social work academy’s dedicated to learning and development. They work with NQSW, deliver the ASYE program and explicitly protect learning opportunities. When applying for a job, look out to see if the organisation has one, it will detail what the ASYE program entails and the support they provide. A great opportunity to see if the organisation is right for you, I have provided a few links in this sentence as examples for you to look at.
However, some NQSWs from my cohort, especially those working in local authorities requiring ‘improvements’ from Ofsted or who do not have an established ASYE programme, struggled, as they found their ASYE year was not protected or established- this something to keep in mind when looking for a job, if you cannot see the ASYE explicitly mentioned, email their recruitment team and see if it is something they offer.
Now, what should you expect on the program?
What should you expect
For the ASYE programme, you will be paired with an ‘assessor’ who will supervise you (every other week), observe your practice, help you seek development opportunities and review your written portfolio. They will be a main avenue of support over the year, and they should give you the time and space to reflect critically on your practice. Of course, you can also speak to your team manager or other colleagues if you need support or advice!
As briefly mentioned, you will compile a portfolio evidencing your ability to practice alongside the professional capabilities’ framework (PCF) and the knowledge and skills statement (KSS)… not too different from the portfolio you created on placement. I will provide a mapping document within the resources section so you can see the PCF and KSS alongside one another.
These frameworks set clear guidance about what skills, knowledge and capabilities NQSW’s are expected to gain in this year. The Framework helps to breakdown the different stages of career development.
You will have scheduled reviews at points throughout the programme (typically every three months), where your assessor will complete a holistic assessment of your work, based on the KSS and PCF. Between these reviews, you will be responsible for arranging and recording evidence, training opportunities and for collecting service user/professional feedback. Keeping your portfolio updated throughout the ASYE will help you to prepare for reviews and ensure you can provide good pieces of practice evidence, which demonstrate what you have learned over the ASYE year. Please see the diagram I have created below, which illustrates the ASYE timeline, followed by a table, which exemplifies the work to be undertaken throughout the year.
Figure 1: ASYE Review Timeline
Table 1: ASYE Expectations and Support
Reflective models
Critical reflection is paramount to writing your portfolio, practice, learning and development. Reflection is a difficult one to perfect on the first try, so please do not beat yourself up about it- you will find the more you practice critical/reflection the deeper your analysis and learning will go!
Reflection within the ASYE year is so important as it will help you understand how you practice, the impact of your practice and what you need to change moving forward to benefit the families and children you work with. Here are some reflective models that I used during practice and within my written portfolio, I have popped a link in to help you learn about the reflective models:
- Schon’s (1991) Reflection on Practice and Reflection in Practice
- Atkins & Murphy Model of Reflection [1993]
I found using a range of reflective models within the portfolio useful, as they enabled me to reflect on different aspects of my practice. Find what reflect model works for you and in what reflective situation- I tested the reflective models I used within supervision and when I would critically reflect with other social workers, this helped me get a sense of what part of practice, learning and development the model supported and made a note of this so I could employ it in a similar way next time.
I also found speaking into my work phone recorder after most visits about how I felt emotionally, about what was achieved and what might be happening for the child, and what informed this helped me quickly establish reflective skills. It also helped me keep the child at the centre of my practice, assessments and decision making as I would often ask myself ‘how would [child] have felt if I felt [scared/sad/intimidated/happy/nurtured]?’.
What else could help you complete your portfolio?
10 Tips and tricks for completing the ASYE portfolio and gathering evidence
Here are some tips that I collated over the year for other NQSWs within the local authority I worked. There are also other websites with tips too, so make sure you look around and also ask your colleagues for any advice, they will have been where you are now…
1. It is important to show progression in the complexity of your work with children and families at each review point. I tried to do this by using evidence from early help cases in 0-3, child in need at 3-6 and child protection 6-12.
2. You do not have to evidence the KSS and PCF in every piece of work (ie: prof feedback, DOs and CRLs), but instead, at each review point (03,3-6,6-9,6-12). I created a table of both PCF and KSS on excel so I could visually see what I needed to evidence and subsequently helped me focus on a few specific PCF and KSS in each individual piece. This stopped over evidencing and I think makes the evidence piece stronger. You can then tick them off as you go along to make sure you have got them all.
3. I also got feedback from both children and their parent’s. To show variety of support, different interventions and demonstrate relationship-based work with both children and adults. It is also really important to adapt your feedback if it is not constructive enough, otherwise it is hard to reflect and improve practice. I did this by writing a statement on the feedback form or which I read out to families explaining that it’s important to get constructive feedback to help improve what they may not have liked working with me to improve experiences for other families I work with in the future. I also offered the option for a colleague to take the feedback if they felt more comfortable.
4. Ensuring holistic evidence- Try not to re-use the same theory and models or apply them in the same way within your written work. Otherwise, you will not show development, it will not enable you to understand what is happening for that individual and unique family and it will not help you share that understanding with the family. Also, I can remember being advised by my assessor to ‘stay away’ from the theories and used at university. They said, it is good to signpost to the theories that are the foundation to your practice (strengths based and anti-oppressive practice), however, demonstrating a holistic knowledge of research, theories and models of practice will enable you to develop your practice and learning beyond what you were taught at university.
a. However, if you do wish to use a theory or model that you have previously reflected upon, demonstrate how this has been developed further (ie: how was the application in a different context? How did the family respond? If different, why do you think this was and what impact did it have? What have you learned that was different?). I made a list of the theories and models used at each review point to make sure I didn’t repeat any too often- an example of this table can be downloaded from the resources section below.
5. I wish I had completed my professional feedback reflection at the end of the review period. That way I could have had a collection of feedback and picked the stronger piece of evidence. However, I wrote my reflection too quickly after I received the feedback and then I did not have the time to reflect on the feedback I preferred due to time limitations.
6. When gaining professional feedback, ask a range of professionals- not just other social workers. Show who you are working with and how- demonstrating multi-agency working.
7. I explained what I did on my study days where the dates were listed. In particular, on days I did not complete written work on the portfolio, I explained what I learnt from other study. For example, I would explain what I had learned from training taken on that day and reflected on where I could employ the new learning in practice moving forward- or I would reflect on a piece of research I had found, again reflecting on the impact of practice with families moving forward.
8. Make sure you have the opportunity to critically reflect and reinforce learning with colleagues, ASYE peers and/or your assessor. This is the last year of getting 1:1 support and it is so important to make sure you exploit your assessor’s skills and knowledge.
9. Be honest with your assessor about how you are feeling in regard to the learning opportunities you’re accessing and discuss how the learning environment feels- learning should not trump case work and if you do not feel as though you are getting enough learning opportunities let your assessor know.
10. Take ownership of and have confidence in your knowledge of relationship-based practice and apply this to building a strong working relationship with your team and assessor/educator. I found having strong working relationships - and nurturing these through creating a ‘safe space’ WhatsApp chat to offload and pick one another up. This made me feel supported and helped me build resilience. Building working relationship with your educator/assessor I have found key to honest and open communication/reflection. Feeling as though you won’t be judged for mistakes or a lack of confidence was key for me- I also found, having a working relationship enabled me to be assertive and honest when I felt I was not getting the right learning opportunities.
Resources and links
Throughout this post, I have made reference to templates I created in order to make compiling evidence and learning easier. Below are some of these examples and more. Also see some links to twitter feeds, podcasts and YouTube channels that helped me.
1. Example of theory Excel sheet- This can also be adapted to be used for evidencing the PCFs and KSSs.
2. PCF and KSS mapping document
During the ASYE I also branched out into social media to find ASYE and social work peers. Not only did this make me feel a part of a community, but I also found (on twitter) pages that are explicitly for student and newly qualified social workers. This enabled me to access articles I would not have found otherwise, webinars and also direct tools that I could take into my own practice. See below some links and have a little explore for yourself- there is also a resources page on this website that will provide you with more general examples.
Twitter Handles for the ASYE year
a. Social Work Action Group- @swactionuk
b. Social Work Tool Kit- @socialworktools
c. Siobhan Maclean- @SiobhanMaclean
d. The Sociable Social Worker- @SociableSocialW
e. Social Work Stress Prevention & Reduction- @SWStress
f. The Student Social Work Hub- @SWbohemians
g. Social Work Student Connect- @SW_student_con
h. Social Work News- @myswnews
i. Social Work Tutor- @socialworktutor
YouTube and Podcasts for the ASYE Year
In addition to twitter, I have found some social workers have created podcasts or YouTube channels, which detail their journey into social work, introduce different practice models and theories and give helpful tips for general practice. This has helped me reflect on personal skills needed within social work. Please see below some examples:
3. Lucky
4. Sisterhood
6. I am Shells
7. Masked AMHP
Other Websites
There are also other general websites and resources that I have found useful in the ASYE and also now that I am out of the ASYE. Please see below.
a. Skills for Care
g. Social Work Tools- FREE
The ASYE is an emotionally and physically demanding year, it is so important that you make use of the resources and support that are out there… and make use of your social work peers. It is an amazing journey, which can be very high-pressure at times, so please be compassionate towards yourself and remember, you are still learning.
Good luck and thank you for reading!
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