There is widespread concern that social work students are not well prepared for the emotional demands of the profession. Nonetheless little in know at a national level about the extent to which the curriculum reflects the need for students to develop the inter-personal skills required to manage the emotional demands of practice and enhance their resilience to stress.
Building on previous work conducted by the authors this study aims to inform the development of an evidence-based "emotional curriculum" for social work students. The study explored the perceptions of course leaders of qualifying social work programmes in England about emotional resilience and its importance in enhancing self-care and wellbeing in their students. More specifically it examined the extent to which resilience (and the competencies that have been found to underpin it) currently feature in their curricula and the learning and teaching strategies currently utilised to support the development of personal wellbeing.
