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Unit of Study SWRK5003 - Social Policy and Law for Social Work (2025)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Unit type

    PG Coursework Unit

  • Credit points

    12

  • Faculty/College

    Faculty of Health

  • Placement

    No

  • Enrolment information

    N/A

Unit description

This unit introduces the social policy and legal contexts of social work practice. It examines how policy and law can both enable and constrain the professional objectives of social work with regards to meeting people’s needs, advancing human rights, and achieving social justice. Through examination of policies and legislation influencing key areas of contemporary social work practice, this unit develops students’ knowledge and skills in policy development, analysis and advocacy.  

Unit content

  1. Social work, social policy and the law: an introduction
  2. Engaging with policy and law: professional responsibilities, roles and interventions 
  3. Critically analysing policy and legislation: a social work perspective
  4. Advocating for change: reforming policy and legislation to advance human rights and social justice
  5. Key social policy and legal issues in contemporary social work: First Nations peoples and decolonisation
  6. Other key social policy and legal issues in contemporary social work

 

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Gold Coast
Summer Term
Term2
Summer Term
Term2
Online
Summer Term
Term2
Summer Term
Term2

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

examine social policy and legal contexts of social work practice

discuss social workers’ professional responsibilities, roles and intervention methods in relation to policy and law

critically analyse the effects of social policy and legislation on disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable groups

propose policy and legislative reforms to advance human rights and social justice

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.
Prescribed Resources/Equipment

  • The materials for this unit of study are presented  via the Blackboard site for the unit.

Prescribed Texts
  • Prescribed text information is not currently available.
Prescribed Resources/Equipment
  • Prescribed resources/equipment information is not currently available.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.