Foundations for social care and social work practice
Are you interested in social care or social work? This module helps expand your understanding of how to work with others while developing your knowledge of the key skills required for working within social care and/or social work. Learning and practising these skills is a requirement of this module. It is a compulsory element of this module that you are either working in a social care setting or have a confirmed voluntary role in an appropriate setting to study. KZNI123 is an alternative version of this module for students in Northern Ireland.
What you will study
This key introductory module will develop your understanding of key social care and social work skills. Throughout the module, you’ll cover the following topics:
Block 1 – Contextualising social care and social work
You’ll be introduced to the role and purpose of social care/social work and the role of the social care professional. You will explore what it means to live and work in our society and consider different people’s lived experiences.
Block 2 – Engaging with people
You will examine in detail communication skills, how to build rapport, and how to actively listen to the life experiences of the people you work with. You will also explore how you may need to be creative and responsive to the specific communication needs of others.
Block 3 – Reflecting on our practice
You’ll look at anti-discriminatory, anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice - examining how we respond to discrimination, oppression and structural disadvantage. You will explore the importance of diversity in human identity and experience and consider ethical principles and values in practice and their impact on practice.
Block 4 – Assessing needs and risks
You’ll look at the role of assessment planning and intervention in social care/social work, including an introduction to your role in risk assessment and safeguarding, personalisation, and care planning. You will also consider evaluating outcomes of social care and social work interventions.
Block 5 – Being a professional
Finally, you’ll look at what it means to be a professional, including leadership, continuing professional development and personal development planning. You’ll explore emotional intelligence, wellbeing and the importance of resilience and self-care. The block concludes by looking at moving on to the next stages of your studies and/or career.
In addition to passing the assessed tasks for this module, which cover a variety of topics and require you to reflect on your learning throughout, you are also required to complete the following:
A minimum period of verified practice learning in a social care/social work setting (10 days if you practice in England or Scotland, 20 days if you practice in Wales).
It is a requirement that you have work-based learning arrangements in place before enrolling for this module. A manager or appropriate person in your social care/social work setting must verify that this practice learning has taken place - they are signing to say that you are ready or prepared for further practice if/when you continue to train as a social worker and undertake longer assessed placements.
To carry out this practice experience, you may be asked to provide a current Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) certificate. If you don’t have a certificate and one is required, it will be your responsibility to negotiate and fund it.
You will be required to complete a practice e-portfolio evidencing your readiness for practice. This is mapped against the standards required for practice in the nation within which you work.
Actively participate in 10 x 2 hour online workshops and 5 x 1 hour consolidation sessions.
You’ll be required to participate in all of the online workshops as they build towards the tutor-marked assignment tasks and act as the link between the module materials that you study and your ongoing practice learning experience in the workplace.
If exceptional circumstances mean you are unable to attend a workshop, an alternative piece of work is required to compensate for this.
If you plan to study towards a social work qualification, please note that passing Foundations for social care and social work practice (K123) does not lead to automatic entry onto a social work degree course. For more information, visit our Social Work degrees.
Entry requirements
There are no formal entry requirements for this module. However, you will need access to a social care/social work setting to complete your verified practice learning. This can include voluntary work or through your employing agency. In Wales, your completed practice experience must have taken place within the last six months.
To register for this module, please contact us.
BA (Hons) Social Work
To study this module as part of a social work degree, you must:
have registered for the honours degree in social work in your location – England, Scotland, or Wales – or have declared it as your qualification intention
be sponsored by your employing agency
be currently working in a practice context.
Your sponsoring agency will provide you with appropriate practice learning opportunities and undertake to allow you one day a week study time for 120 credits study while you are on the programme. (There will be a pro-rata reduction in the entitlement of study time allowed if you are studying less than 120 credits per year). Sponsoring agencies should speak to an adviser for further information.
Studying social work is demanding; if you would like to discuss the suitability of the module, please contact us.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You'll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module. They'll help by:
facilitating your regular online workshops to bring the module materials to life, including facilitating discussions, setting small group work tasks and activities, and encouraging you to share and reflect on examples from your own work experience and practice
marking your assignments (TMAs) and offering detailed feedback to help you improve
guiding you to additional learning resources
helping you consolidate your learning and consider practice in your own nation and locality
supporting you to collate the evidence for your e-portfolio
providing individual guidance, whether that's for general study skills or specific module content
facilitating online discussions between your fellow students in the dedicated module and tutor group forums
Module tutors will also support a forum, allowing students to post and respond to comments and reflections throughout the module. Online tutorials run throughout the module. Where possible, we'll make recordings available.
Assessment
Course work includes:
5 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
What's included
All study materials are provided. The main mode of delivery of the teaching is through the module website, which includes:
a week-by-week study planner
module-specific materials
audio and video content
assignment details and submission section
online tutorial access
regular facilitated online workshops.
You will need
This module is an interactive learning experience. Consequently, it is an essential requirement that you have a working headset, microphone and webcam so that you can participate in online workshops.
You should have access to Microsoft Office (Microsoft Word and Excel) for the duration of the programme, and we strongly recommend that they are run on a Microsoft Windows-based computer.
Computing requirements
Primary device – A desktop or laptop computer with at least 8 GB of RAM and a quad-core processor (2.4 GHz minimum speed). It’s possible to access some materials on a mobile phone, tablet or Chromebook; however, they will not be suitable as your primary device.
Peripheral device – Headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone for online tutorials.
Operating systems – Windows 11 or the latest supported macOS.
Internet access – Broadband or mobile connection.
Browser – Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are recommended; Mozilla Firefox and Safari may be suitable.
Our OU Study app operates on supported versions of Android and iOS.
Software – Any additional software will be provided or is generally available for free.
If you have a disability
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying K123 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Future availability
Foundations for social care and social work practice starts once a year – in February.
This page describes the module that will start in February 2027.
We expect it to start for the last time in February 2030.