Assessed Readiness for Practice

Assessed Readiness for Practice (ARDP) days are highly informative and I believe everyone enjoyed the interactions the days offered. You are required to attend them, otherwise you will end up playing catch-up, potentially travelling to other campuses to obtain the certificates.

ARDP days offer interactions with service users, social workers and various organisations. It gave me an insight into both the difficulties and accomplishments a social worker may experience in working practice. Most importantly, ARDP days gave us a privileged view into how service users felt, along with their personal experiences of working with social workers.

These days help you gain transferable skills that will improve your practice while offering you a more in-depth knowledge base. They give you the opportunity to reflect on the potentially very complex situations you may face when working.

You are required to submit a complete portfolio, comprising of 20 signed certificates and 20 tasks that are set for each of the days. Do not put off writing up your tasks, or by the time you need to submit your portfolio you will be racing to write 5,000 words with very little recollection of what the key points were on the day.

At the end of the first year, your completed portfolio combined with an observational examination, and lastly a written report are required in order for you to pass and continue onto Year 2 and your placement.

Start preparing early for your observational exam, your study group will help you prepare. You could set up various scenarios and take it in turns being a service user, social worker and observer. Give feedback to one another in order to improve your skills and critically reflect on areas you can improve on.

It’s always good to start early and become familiar with the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) and the BASW Code of Ethics.