ICE7033 - Leading and Managing Family Support

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Explore leading and managing family support practice, developing the ability to compare, contrast and analyse
critically outcomes of leading and managing integrated practice with children and families.
Demonstrate critical engagement with issues associated with the leadership and management of family support practice.
Critically evaluate theoretical approaches to leadership and management of intervention in family support provision from an international perspective.
Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of, and analytical approach to, leadership and management in a multi-agency context, including a knowledge of and reflection upon the evolving legal and policy framework.

Content:

This module aims to develop students' knowledge and understanding of a range of national and international approaches to the leadership and management of family support practice. In reflecting upon a range of case studies brought by students, learners will be encouraged to 'make the familiar unfamiliar' and critically reflect upon their own practice from this perspective. Students will be supported to apply critical analysis to modes of practice within a range of family support situations. They will focus on identifying gaps in current practice knowledge, enabling them to frame family support themes for further systematic enquiry.

Topics covered will be as follows:
- Examination of the leadership and management issues associated with processes and outcomes in family support
- Critical analysis of the process of engaging family support workers and other professionals in reflection and supervision
- Examination of leadership and management in complex decision-making.

Learning and Teaching Information:

The module is taught through seminars, group work, group and individual tutorial support, personal study time, provision of multi-media resources via the University VLE and electronic communication both student to tutor and peer to peer. Throughout the delivery, students will be expected to relate theory to practice through personal research. They will be expected to undertake a wide range of personal reading. Much of this will be self-sourced, with 'starter' readings provided through Moodle.

Students will engage in research activity, which will be both tutor and peer reviewed on an ongoing basis. At the mid-module point, they will work in small groups to create a comparative analysis of family support processes and outcomes. This will be used to develop a series of blogs. At the end of the module, students will complete an essay on a related title.

Seminars Hours: 12
Intended Group size: 24

Action learning sets
Hours: 6
Intended Group size: 6-10

Group and individual tutorial support
Hours: 6
Intended Group size: 1-6

Guided independent study
Hours: 276