Mr Robert Bennie

• Legal Aspects of Social Care
• Skill Development and Professional Communication
• Social Work Practice 2
• Professional Consolidation
• Practice Learning Interventions
• Social Work Practice 2

Currently I am the module lead for 5 undergraduate modules at both levels 4 and 6. These involve different modes of teaching and learning including; didactic, group work, practical sessions and the active involvement of various stakeholders. This role includes giving both formative and summative feedback to the students which can be via both tutorials and/or written feedback. I have supervised several students who were undertaking their undergraduate dissertations.

In all my roles, I have received consistent positive feedback from the students, other members of academic staff and our stakeholders about my contact with them. I was very pleased to be told that one of my modules had been nominated by the students for module of the year at the 2016 awards.

I have contributed to the following research: Emotional Intelligence and Self-Determined Behaviour Reduce Psychological Distress: Interactions with Resilience in Social Work Students in the UK.

I'm a Fellow of the HEA. In addition to the usual university exam committees in my role as placement lead I’m a member of other committees, including Social Work in Practice and Practice Education Group. I’m a registered as social worker with the HCPC and a member of BASW the professional association for social work, the Social Work Law Association and have a PEPS level 2 qualification. 

I’m Chair of the Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire regional Social Work Education Group. This group of universities and local authorities meet 3 times per year to share best practice, horizon scan and work in partnership to try to improve the quality of the social work workforce. I also attend the 4 programmes meetings which are joint meetings between 3 local and 1 national HEI providing social work courses and 3 local authorities. This forum shares best practice and aims to ensure that resources, such as placements are allocated equitably. 

In addition, I am part of the regional PEPS panel which ensures the quality of social workers training to assess social work students. I attend the London and South East ASYE best practice forum which aims to share current developments in the social work workforce. I play an active part in this forum which has involved feeding back to representatives from government departments on their proposed changes to social work education and training.

8th European Conference for Social Work Research: Social Work in Transition, University of Edinburgh, 18th-20th April 2018.

I studied at Ruskin College Oxford where I graduated with a BA in Social Work in 2007. I worked as Youth Offending Service Officer in Oxfordshire between 2007 and 2012 where I worked with young people involved in all levels of the criminal justice system. I also specialised in working with young people who committed sexually harmful behaviour. During this time I spent a year seconded as a Senior Practitioner with responsibility for supervising a multidisciplinary team. Whilst working with the Youth Offending Service I supervised and assessed social work students placed with the YOS and was awarded Practice Educator Professional Standards (PEPS) Level 2 in 2014. In 2012 I began working with Oxfordshire County Council’s Skills and Learning Service helping to provide placements for social work students and supporting supervising newly qualified social workers completing the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment.