Published: March 2020, updated April 2021
The Research Methods Programme has been available to social workers in Northern Ireland since 1992 and was updated in 2016 to reflect the requirement of Northern Ireland’s Social Work Research and Continuous Improvement Strategy.
This Strategy was reviewed in 2019 and a new strategy launched in 2021.
This is a post-qualifying, postgraduate programme offered through partnership arrangements between Ulster University and local social work employers provided in a modular format spread over three academic years. These include:
- post-qualifying modules for social workers
- postgraduate modules for people who use services, carers and others involved in social care research.
There are two different paths for this programme: one for social carers, and one, recently opened, for people who use services and carers:
- social workers complete three modules that lead to the MSc in Professional Development in Social Work
- people who use services and carers complete three modules leading to the MSc in Development and Co-Production in Social Care Research.
The academic entry requirements for these parallel modules are the same, and the content is essentially the same so both people who use services and social workers complete classroom training together. The only difference in the assessment is that social workers need to ensure that their assessed work also ‘maps against’ the appropriate requirements set by the professional regulatory body, Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC).
The work students carry out during the various evidence modules and research and evaluation projects contribute to the social work and social care evidence base in Northern Ireland. You can read the narrative review abstracts from 2018 and 2019.
The work students carry out during the various evidence modules and research and evaluation projects contribute to the social work and social care evidence base in Northern Ireland. You can read the most recent abstracts at:
Read about Sonia’s achievement and about co-production approaches in Northern Ireland social work and social care research.
For more information about the course, contact the University post-qualifying social work office with pqresearchmethods@ulster.ac.uk, or contact anne.mcglade@hscni.net to discuss service user and carer involvement.