Course Description:

This module can be taken as standalone or as a core module of the MSc Advanced Social Work Practice.

This dynamic and thought-provoking module is designed to equip experienced social workers and healthcare professionals with the confidence and skills to navigate complex safeguarding situations in a variety of practice settings. You will critically explore the tensions between risk, protection, and empowerment, while enhancing your ability to make sound, ethical, and evidence-informed decisions that make a real difference in people’s lives.

The programme(s) this module can be linked to/contribute towards:
HSASWPM - MSc Advanced Social Work Practice

Key learning areas include:

• Understanding and applying key legislation and guidance to practice, including the Children Act 1989, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018), the Care Act 2014 and related statutory guidance.
• Exploring professional roles in safeguarding processes, including information sharing and support for carers.
• Critically analysing the impact of your own interventions and judgments - and how these are shaped by personal values, biases, and the wider practice context.
• Examining how diversity and identity (e.g. ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity) intersect with safeguarding decisions, and how to promote inclusive, anti-discriminatory practice.
• Theories of risk, positive risk-taking, and person-centred approaches to service design and delivery.
• Reflecting on the lived experience of those at the centre of safeguarding - ensuring their voice remains central to your professional responses.
• Navigating ethical dilemmas and practice tensions, including issues like disguised compliance, cultural sensitivity versus cultural relativism, and domestic abuse dynamics.
• Strengthening collaborative working across disciplines and professional boundaries.

How you will learn:

You’ll engage in lively in-class discussions, case-based analysis, and online learning activities. Course content is delivered through a blend of class-based activities, online resources, and reflective exercises, with one-to-one tutor support available throughout. You'll be encouraged to draw directly from your own professional context, making learning immediately relevant and applicable.

Why take this module?

Whether you work with adults or children, this module will develop your reflective capabilities and enhance your practice leadership in safeguarding. You’ll leave with a solid understanding of risk, intervention, and empowerment, equipped to contribute to safer, more person-centred services.

Assessment Details:

The assessment for this module is made up of two components:

A short practical presentation, and
A case study (2,500 words) 

All individual elements of assessment must be passed.

Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge and Understanding

Successful students will typically:

• Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to synthesise the key principles and different approaches to safeguarding in relation to working with vulnerable people.
• Have critical understanding of the impact of risk and safeguarding strategies within one's professional role, the relevant legal frameworks and evidence including cultural awareness and recognition of diversity.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to address power & knowledge imbalances in personal situations of people with lived experience, and with professionals.

Intellectual, Practical and Transferable Skills

Successful students will typically:

• Gather, analyse and review complex and/or contradictory information quickly and effectively, using it to reach professional decisions that are fully informed by the principles of person-centred care.
• Work collaboratively with the person or people concerned, their carers and other professionals to evaluate possible options and outcomes, to assess how they might understand what is happening and to ensure that as far as possible they are fully involved at each stage of the safeguarding process.
• Recognise and promote people's rights to autonomy and self−determination, willingness to support and challenge as appropriate with a clear understanding of when to intervene, when not to, and how to account for this, within positive risk-taking approaches.
  
  

What our students say:

"This module has been one of the most impactful parts of my postgraduate journey. It challenged me to think deeply about how I make safeguarding decisions and what influences my judgement in complex cases. I particularly valued the focus on diversity and lived experience—it gave me new insight into how to navigate cultural sensitivity while upholding professional standards. The tutors were supportive, and I’ve taken away practical tools that I use in my everyday practice".

"Completing the Safeguarding module was a turning point in my career. The critical reflection, in-depth legal knowledge, and focus on diverse experiences really strengthened my confidence and professional judgement. Shortly after completing the module, I secured a senior role within my organisation. I’m now continuing with the MSc Advanced Social Work Practice and currently studying the Practice Educator Module. The programme’s flexibility has allowed me to balance work, study, and personal commitments while progressing in my career. I highly recommend it to any social worker looking to step into advanced or strategic roles".

This module can contribute to the following programme(s)

HSASWPM: MSc Advanced Social Work Practice