Bridging perspectives: a collaborative approach between social work and primary education

Multi-agency work is a long-established practice in social work (Morris, 2008). Collaboration with partner agencies is established in law in numerous areas of practice (Guthrie, 2011). Children and families working frequently involves multi-agency meetings and conversations with partners in schools but students are unlikely to encounter the challenges of working with partner agencies with different priorities until they are on placement or employment. Research also indicates that collaboration in practice does not always work as well as it could (Abbot and Taylor, 2013).

This lightening talks aims to showcase a collaborative project between social work and primary education students and educators which we developed as part of a module for preparing our social work students for placement. Through a shared case study, students from both disciplines came together to explore their perspectives, fostering interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration.

During online teaching we used breakout rooms to partner student social workers with student primary teachers. They were given only the information that they would have as their respective profession and asked to discuss the case.

The positive feedback from participants underscores the value of this innovative approach in preparing our students for effective teamwork and holistic problem-solving.

Our intention is to continue to develop and expand this session for future cohorts.