Best Practice on law teaching in practice settings

Best practice on law teaching in practice settings

As Practice Educators, we may have developed specialisms, and become immersed in local practice, but our students still need a generic understanding of law that will stand them in good stead anywhere in the country. This Masterclass therefore starts by exploring how to confidently navigate the boundaries between law and local practice, in particular around what we can versus cannot do; can versus must do; and whether the law is prescriptive about the processes we must follow or only the goals we must achieve. Then, building on Preston Shoot's* (2000) four C's model of the need for practitioners to be confident, credible, critical and creative, the session will seek to build:

• • confidence in terms of challenge to unnecessarily prescriptive, risk-averse or legally incorrect practice;
  • credibility in terms of exercising professional judgement and recording the rationale for decisions convincingly;
  • criticality in terms of being conscious of the impact of decisions and processes on people's lives, so as to maximise benefit and minimise harm; and
  • creativity in terms of maximising the scope the law offers for imaginative and innovative interventions

Masterclass delivered by Allan Norman who is qualified as a solicitor (non-practising) and is registered and in independent practice as a social worker. He specialises in the law relating to the practice of social work. He is a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Chester, Birmingham and Sheffield. This session is delivered through South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership

*Preston-Shoot reference is to Preston-Shoot, M. (2000) ‘Making connections in the curriculum: law and professional practice’, in R. Pierce and J. Weinstein (eds) Innovative education and training for care professionals: A providers’ guide, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers"