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Students and Refugees Together:Towards a Model of Practice Learning asService ProvisionAvril ButlerPublished online: 22 Oct 2010.

To cite this article: Avril Butler (2007) Students and Refugees Together: Towards a Model ofPractice Learning as Service Provision, Social Work Education: The International Journal, 26:3,233-246, DOI: 10.1080/02615470601049792

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Students and Refugees Together:Towards a Model of Practice Learningas Service ProvisionAvril Butler

Between 2001 and 2003, 14 assessed placements were provided for social work students

through students creating a ‘virtual’ agency offering a service to refugees and asylum

seekers. Drawing on research in progress regarding a unique project in South West

England, this paper explores an inclusive model that creates a context for students to

integrate theory and practice at the cutting edge of professional practice.The START project is a service to refugees and asylum seekers, a group that experience

acute social exclusion and media-induced hostility, provided for two years entirely by

students as part of their professional course requirements. Holistic, needs-led assessment,

cultural sensitivity and advocacy by students allow families and unaccompanied minors

to access otherwise inaccessible resources.In the current context of changing arrangements for practice assessment, emphasis on

multi-disciplinary learning and service user involvement, this offers an alternative to the

‘apprenticeship’ model for students in developing a secure professional identity. Student

learning is framed as contribution rather than burden in the organisational and

employment arena and service-user outcomes have been dramatic. The focus of this

paper is on the educational impact from the perspectives of students and practice teachers

and an alternative model of practice learning.

Keywords: Social Work; Practice Learning; Refugees; Innovation

Social work is historically and internationally characterised by a capacity to findcreative ways of supporting people who are marginalized or dispossessed inclaiming their human rights. (Stelmaszuk, 1998)

Correspondence to: Avril Butler, Principal Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work and Primary Care, Faculty of

Health and Social Work, C408, Portland Square, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA,

UK. Email: A.Butler@plymouth.ac.uk

Social Work EducationVol. 26, No. 3, April 2007, pp. 233–246

ISSN 0261-5479 print/1470-1227 online # 2007 The Board of Social Work EducationDOI: 10.1080/02615470601049792

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Introduction

This paper describes research undertaken as part of a Teaching Fellowship awarded to

the author by the University of Plymouth. The research seeks to evaluate the practice

learning experiences of students and practice teachers in an innovative project that

provides a service to refugees and asylum seekers through student placements. At the

time of writing, the project has grown into a funded, staffed service with students

from a range of professional disciplines offering services to refugees, asylum seekers

and vulnerable Black and minority ethnic people. The focus of the research and of

this paper, however, is on the first two years of operation when there were no paid

staff in post and when only students staffed the service. The absence of a formal

agency structure or existing staff meant that students were unable to learn through

the traditional ‘apprenticeship’ model (Rogoff, 1990; Whittington, 2004) assumed in

much of the literature about professional placement learning.

In this paper I will look at an inclusive model for providing practice placements;

one that provides students with opportunities to link theory and practice at the

‘cutting edge’ of professional practice. In offering this model, my intention is to

stimulate debate about different approaches to placement finding. I also offer insights

and reflections that may be helpful to others wishing to replicate this model. The

structural, educational and practice context is followed by an account of the project,

how it was set up and some examples of the work that students carried out. Student

and practice teacher responses are reported in the context of the research questions

and process and the beginning of an alternative model for student learning. This has

been an exciting and challenging learning process for all concerned and reflections on

the factors important in replicating the model are offered followed by a brief

summary of more recent developments.

The Context

In reviewing existing models for practice learning it is clear that the social work

profession in Britain has taken a lead in developing practice teaching as a highly

skilled and research-based activity. Whilst many students are placed with

practitioners in order to develop their practice skills, there has been a recognition

by the Central Council for Social Work Education (CCETSW) that teaching and

assessing students requires additional pedagogic knowledge and skills. A professional

organisation (NOPT1), a journal (Journal of Practice Teaching) and the Practice

Teaching Award, a nationally recognised qualification (CCETSW, 1996), are

indicators of this status. Whilst models of ‘off-site’ practice teaching (Maidment &

Woodward, 2002) have enabled some students to take up placements in small

voluntary sector agencies, the literature on practice learning (Thompson et al., 1994;

Shardlow & Doel, 1996; Parker, 2004) largely assumes that students are learning from

expert professionals. Building on this assumption, Dave Evans rejects the simple

‘apprenticeship model’ for social work. His concept of ‘reflective apprenticeship’

critiques the knowledge and skills transfer through modelling and instruction and

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emphasises the importance of relationship and fostering critical reflection in the

practice context. In this model students do not simply learn from ‘expert

practitioners’ but through techniques like direct observation they are enabled to

critically evaluate the practice of themselves and others. Nonetheless, there is an

assumption that students have access to experienced workers on site and can begin

the learning process by watching the practice teacher.

Specifically in respect of socially excluded groups, relying on the availability of

‘expert practitioners’ from whom students can learn poses a difficulty. The

development of social work as an aspect of state function in which statutory

responsibility is to those who are citizens, entitled to provision within the welfare

state (Christie, 2003), can actively exclude work with some socially excluded groups.

Funding for asylum seeker support is administered directly through the Home Office

and social workers may find themselves in ethically challenging positions in

responding to their situations (Humphries, 2004). Thus there are few models of good

social work practice with asylum seekers and refugees within mainstream

organisations and, for students in the South West, they are not easy to access. A

commitment to enabling students to develop good practice in work with asylum

seekers and refugees led to the development of the Students and Refugees Together

(START) project in which the strengths and resources of both groups were harnessed

to the benefit of the community (Butler, 2005). In the first two years of the START

project, students were the staff and had to develop their own understanding of good

practice in relation to the identified unmet needs of service users. Consideration of

the strengths and limitations of this alternative model for professional learning may

be a timely contribution to current practice knowledge.

Developing a different practice learning model has particular relevance currently

due to the increased demand for placements (Department of Health, 2001), the

reduced availability of qualified experienced practice teachers and social work’s

responsibility to champion social justice ‘by finding imaginative ways to promote the

social inclusion of those on the margins’ (Bamford, 2004, p. 14).

Global perspectives suggest alternatives to the conventional placement and there

are international examples in which academics take a proactive role in creating

mutually beneficial community involvement by students. Specifically these include

Hong Kong University’s social work students working with socially excluded groups

(Chan, 2005) and the law centre for Roma people in Bulgaria set up by social work

lecturer Diane Videva with students from the Free University of Bourgas (Videva,

1998). In these projects, students provide a real service to socially excluded people

and are both challenged and engaged by their capacity to make a difference to

people’s lives.

Post-modern perspectives on the adult learning process support the notion that

learning is neither incremental nor linear (Usher et al., 1997) while research into

developing professional competence indicates that:

… expert practice is something which might presumably be attained withoutprogressing through all the earlier stages in a linear way. One might, presumably,

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be able to engage in ‘‘expert’’ practice without having long experience. (Fook et al.,2000, p. 185)

The Project: Origins and Description

At Plymouth there has been significant change in the way placements are organised

with the majority of placements having off-site practice teachers and a significant

number of site supervisors who are from disciplines other than social work. For

example, students were routinely placed with a police officer in a Domestic Violence

Unit placement, a nurse on a substance misuse assessment team and an under-eights

worker in a community project as well as community care workers in statutory

teams, residential and day care centres. Employment of freelance practice teachers

and a minimum standard of the Practice Teaching Award (CCETSW, 1996) for all

protected the quality of professional learning for students and enabled the

programme to place students in a wide variety of agencies.

This particular project originated in 2001 as a result of collaboration between the

City Council and the University in response to identified unmet need.

Under the Home Office provision for Nation Asylum Seeker Support Service

(NASS) Plymouth is a dispersal area for families as well as single people.

Accommodation providers are all in the private sector and there is no policy of

‘clustering’ people with the same nationality or even language. Initially many families

with complex needs were unable to access services because of the combined barriers

of ignorance and fear, language and cultural barriers and the rapidly changing legal

and policy frameworks. The Education Department was unique in receiving a small

income related to the number of school-aged children dispersed to the city and used

this to employ a specialist teacher in an Ethnic Minority Achievement Service

(EMAS) to support those children’s integration into school. This teacher had the

trust of families and a strong alliance with the Social Services referral co-ordinator

who shared her frustration in being unable to access an appropriate level of support.

Although neither service was able to offer accommodation for students, the two

workers were released for half a day each week for two years to allocate work to social

work students and to supervise them jointly on that work. The total budget for the

two years was £3,800 from a Home Office grant and small donations. Other resources

were provided ‘in kind’. Temporary, serviced office accommodation was provided by

the City Council and the University provided freelance practice teachers, stationery

and support.

Students worked with between two and five families in a placement. Although this

might seem a small workload in comparison with conventional placements, students

have had no difficulty in demonstrating their competence in the full range of practice

and value requirements (CCETSW, 1995) owing to the complexity of families’ needs.

Students are expected to adopt a ‘strengths’ approach (Saleebey, 2002; Nash et al.,

2005), as opposed to a deficit model, emphasising the strengths and resources of

individuals, groups and organisations.

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The Service

START’s Mission is:

To work in partnership with families, individuals and organisations to facilitate thetransition of refugees from people in need to self-reliant contributors to their localcommunity. (START constitution, 2003)

Students offer a home-based, holistic, needs-led service to refugee families and

unaccompanied young people by:

N making an assessment of the complex difficulties experienced by multi-generational

families and unaccompanied young people;

N giving information and practical support to help them to access existing services and

to integrate into the community;

N identifying barriers in existing agency practice to this group;

N addressing those barriers and reporting on the need for policy and procedural change;

and

N working constructively with other resources in the city and nationally to promote

cost-effective and integrated services.

Between September 2001 and June 2003 a total of 21 refugee and asylum seeking

families were involved with the service comprising 35 adults and 68 children. These

families came from 10 different countries of origin and used 11 different first

languages. Needs worked with included housing and related issues, education and

work training, health and specialist therapy, income support, legal issues,

immigration, access to leisure and cultural services, combating racial harassment,

emotional distress and low self-esteem. None of the work undertaken fell within the

criteria for social services referral. The following are examples of student work.

N Mrs B, a Polish Roma single parent with four children who now has refugee status, was

enabled to access regular swimming sessions for her son with cerebral palsy, as

recommended by his consultant. The student’s proactive support at the time of Mrs

B’s Home Office decision appointment, prevented a missed appointment and the

resulting automatic negative decision.

N Students successfully challenged an illegal practice by an agency linking payments to

full-time attendance at an English course.

N Students set up a group for 16–19-year-olds from the Czech Republic to encourage

social interaction, language skills and to celebrate Czech music and culture.

The Research

The research, undertaken as a University Teaching Fellowship, built on the author’s

familiarity with practice learning, a commitment to feminist research methodology

(Butler, 2000, 2003) and was subject to ethical approval processes. In the period of

the research, 14 students and five practice teachers took part in completed placements

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and all have now graduated. These form the potential respondent group for this

research. As a result of an initial approach all five practice teachers and 10 of the 14

students agreed to participate. One student refused saying that the experience had

been so negative they did not wish to be part of it. Three did not respond. All

placements require the production of assessment report packs containing the

student’s report of their experience and the practice teacher’s evaluation of the

student’s work. Whilst these data are recognised as flawed, since they are pro-

duced for assessment purposes, they do offer a rich resource for contextualising

findings and have been used where students gave their permission. Respondents

were asked to complete an anonymous brief questionnaire to elicit their views about

their experience. Questions were asked about: what was different about this place-

ment from others; what was good about it as a placement; what was not good about

it as a placement; and anything else respondents wanted to say. Themes emerging

from these responses are presented here and will form the basis for individual

interviews as the research continues to explore how students actually learn in this

placement.

The profile of students who staffed the project is as follows:

N two students from DipSW/Dip HE intermediate level;

N five students from BSc & DipSW intermediate level;

N five students from BSc &DipSW final level; and

N two students from MA & DipSW final level.

Thirteen students self-defined as White British and one as Black British, aged between

20 and 40, one man and 13 women.

Of the five practice teachers, all self-defined as White British and were four women

and one man.

Responses: Negative Factors

Unsurprisingly the key difference that all respondents cited was the lack of

organisational structure and this provided the context for many of the positive and

negative factors identified.

As the project was still in its formation there was no formalised administrativepolicy or large organisational structure.

The difficulties identified were in four main areas.

First was the lack of resources as a consequence of the ‘virtual’ nature of the

organisation. Students referred to the practical difficulties of:

No budget for basic stationery;

and

lack of ring-fenced interpreter budget.

Practice teachers also expressed concern:

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Students having to work in difficult circumstances such as not having adequate ITequipment.

Second was student vulnerability and potential isolation. Restrictions on the

availability of supervisors meant that a maximum of three students could be in the

project at any one time. Because of placement overlap, this meant that some students

were sole workers for significant periods of time. Practice teachers raised this more

than students

Potentially isolating for students;

and

Health and safety potential difficulties, e.g. students working in isolation;

and recognised the need for additional support to be provided:

Needs a lot of practice teacher support partly due to absence of a more experiencedsupervisor in placement.

One student assessment pack included an account of the difficulties the individual

had experienced due to isolation together with the strategies that had been helpful in

dealing with these.

The third theme primarily identified by practice teachers was that students would

need confidence and experience to undertake the placement. This appeared to be a

general rather than specific concern and related to potential students rather than actual:

Students need to be very self-motivated and have very good time managementskills;

A first placement student would need to be confident and skilled or service users’vulnerability would be heightened;

and

For a first placement it would be difficult for those who had no experience of socialcare work. It may also be difficult for those who lack confidence or who feel morecomfortable working within set boundaries.

Finally the issue of there being no qualified worker on site was raised by students:

There was no on-site placement supervisor so I needed to be proactive. This didnot pose a problem because I was confident in my own practice.

There were two students who would have preferred to have had a qualified social

worker on site:

I suppose the only concerns I had were the fact that as there were no other qualifiedworkers it was difficult to compare the standard of my work or learn throughobservation;

and

I was unsure of myself when I first started and a qualified social worker would havebeen very helpful.

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Responses: Positive Factors

Whilst not minimising the negative aspects of the arrangements, the tone of the

responses was significantly positive. There were four main themes.

First, the lack of organisational structure was seen as offering potential for student

autonomy, initiative and creativity which may not otherwise be available. Students

were enthusiastic about this opportunity:

… I enjoyed being able to work on my own initiative. It was nice to be able to bemore creative about the work being done;

For me the START placement gave me the opportunity to work in a creative wayand focus on a far more therapeutic approach of social work as opposed to caremanagement;

I think it demands but also furthers one’s ability to work innovatively, usinginitiative and life experience;

and

For those less experienced it would offer a unique chance to work with the humaninterface of a topical and challenging social issue.

Practice teachers also commented positively on the learning opportunities

provided:

It gives opportunities for creative social work and breaking out of statutory sector;

and

Students learn how inadequate western European social work theories and methodsmay be in working with those who do not fit this description.

Secondly students referred to the necessity of integrating values and knowledge with

practice. The lack of organisational structure means that students are unable to rely

on agency criteria, procedures and forms to tell them what they should do. Instead

they have to start with the needs of the service user and the student’s own

interpretation of the social work role and task. The students and practice teachers

refer to the use of knowledge:

The project caters for the needs of vulnerable service users and in exchangestudents take from the project all the valuable wealth of information to succeed intheir placement. I personally gathered as much information that was available andonce I had a snippet of information I was hungry for more;

and

… in quite an intangible way the placement serves to build workers’ confidence andknowledge base almost by virtue of the unpredictable nature of the daily work.

Assessment packs refer to students seeking knowledge in order to provide a service

rather than primarily to satisfy academic requirements.

Practice teachers referred to the students’ need to seek out and use knowledge:

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Students are required to be aware of legislation and policies beyond those usuallytaught, for instance housing and benefits legislation.

Thirdly, both students and practice teachers identified challenging racism and

developing cultural competence as an area for major learning in a geographical region

where students often work exclusively with White colleagues and service users (Butler

et al., 2003). In particular, practice teachers commented on this:

It provides an excellent opportunity to develop ARAD practice and developunderstanding of the harsh realities of racism;

and

The project offers a unique opportunity in the far south west for students to workcross-lingually and cross-culturally.

Students also referred to the opportunities offered by the placement:

It is a wonderful opportunity to work with minority ethnic groups and tounderstand or at least try to understand the many issues following these groups ofvery vulnerable people;

and

I have learned so much from this placement—particularly anti-discriminatorypractices and racial issues and how to communicate with service users whose firstlanguage is not always English. Learning to work with interpreters, I havequestioned my own values and values of others.

Finally what is communicated through the responses is an energy, excitement and

appreciation of being involved in something so directly impacting on service users’

lives. Each respondent included something about this. Examples from practice

teachers include:

I loved working with the project finding it a stimulating environment given theenergy and commitment of those involved.

I have worked all over the country and rarely experienced such clear client-centredthinking as you offer.

The students working in this project make a real difference to people’s lives.

Often help needed would not be available to families and individuals from anyother sources.

Examples from students include:

As I finish a placement where care management ‘‘rules supreme’’ and go onto a statutory team which again may focus on the care management process, Ifeel that the understanding and skills that the START placement gave me isinvaluable.

It is a fantastic placement. Although I only had 50 days I felt I could have stayed alot longer.

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This placement gave me the opportunity to undertake ‘‘real’’ social work, enablingme to form good working relationships … It also gave me the opportunity to valuediversity and reinforced my belief that communication, mutual respect and a senseof cohesion can cross cultural boundaries.

Replicating the Model

This model for providing services through student placements is not exclusive to

work with refugees and asylum seekers. It could be applied equally to other socially

excluded groups. Before exploring the issues raised by students undertaking this

work, the following factors are offered as learning from experience to anyone wishing

to replicate the model. In setting up such services, some of the factors that need to be

considered include:

N People who can act as a ‘bridge of trust’

Socially excluded groups often have a well-founded suspicion of ‘helpers’

because of previous poor experiences of agency responses. Students in the

START project were introduced to families by the EMAS teacher. It would

seem important that students work alongside professionals or others who have

the confidence of the service user group.

N Agency investment

People with the most complex needs often receive no service at all and are

seen as ‘difficult to reach’. The work of supporting these groups to access

services can be challenging and is politically sensitive since it highlights gaps in

service provision. There is a need to build protective links through securing

ongoing agency investment. Students need to be supported to work with the

strengths of agencies as well as individuals, modelling a high degree of inter-

agency collaboration and overcoming differences of perspective, values and

agendas.

N Clarity of function

Students should not be taking on work that is the responsibility of any other

agency or ‘mopping up’ the under-resourcing of statutory provision. Using the

Interactional Approach (Shulman, 1999) students can work with situations to

seek to remove the obstacles between service users and the services to which

they are entitled.

N Students who volunteer

It is clear that this type of placement demands significantly more from everyone

involved than conventional arrangements. Students and staff must be

enthusiastic volunteers who can take responsibility for developing the

organisation, inducting new colleagues and ensuring that service users do

not have unrealistic expectations.

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N Robust systems of teaching and assessment

The availability of qualified and experienced freelance practice teachers was an

essential aspect of the placement’s success. Students needed to be supported in

identifying what they were doing as social work, in accessing appropriate

knowledge and in resolving dilemmas and value conflicts. The DipSW

competencies provided a very helpful framework for this. Students had an

unusually direct access to both academic and practice teaching staff and were

seen as colleagues in a learning culture who were contributing to teaching as

well as learning.

N Clear value base

Whilst the values of social work (BASW, 2001) are integral to all placement

practice, a focus on the strengths of all involved and recognition of the

importance of shared learning, were key features of the project’s success.

Reflections

Whilst acknowledging that we have a duty of care to students, as social work

educators we also have a responsibility to promote social justice (IFSW, 2001). In this

risk-averse society it is ironic that some of the most vulnerable people are exposed to

the greatest risk. There is no doubt that the lack of a formal structure in this

placement model was risky. Students were formally part of the Ethnic Minority

Achievement Service with combined supervision from the teacher there and the

Social Services referral co-ordinator; however, students were providing a needs-led

social work service that was outside the remit of the former and outside the service

eligibility criteria of the latter. The lack of organisational structure meant that

students had to initiate procedures, forms, data storage and communication systems

and to consider the ethical and practical consequences. Whilst this led to some

incidents of confusion or duplication initially, students developed a critical and

dynamic relationship with bureaucratic necessity. Students also responded to the lack

of resources by seeking potential funders and were instrumental in achieving a grant

for computers, mobile phones and a fax/answering machine to enable the office to

function in the different temporary offices.

The absence of agency criteria meant that students approached service users with

an open mind. In the words of Derek Clifford: ‘A holistic understanding of the

complexity of real lives has to begin by placing them within a real social and historical

context within which various forms of domination structure the experiences that

people have at that particular time’ (Clifford, 1998, p. 11). This open-minded

approach resulted in many assessments of need being significantly different from that

identified in the initial referral. For example, an unaccompanied young person,

referred because of attempted suicide caused apparently by traumatic experiences in

his country of origin, was found to be desperately hungry having insufficient money

to buy food and being given a ‘full English breakfast’ by his accommodation provider.

As a Muslim he was unable to eat the sausages and bacon in this only hot meal of the

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day. Jane Derges & Fiona Henderson (2003) identified cultural misunderstanding as a

significant factor impacting on the long-term mental health of refugees.

Student isolation and vulnerability was a cause of significant stress and there is no

doubt that some students struggled with this more than others. Peer support was very

important, as was the ability to access practice teachers and academics at short notice.

Each of the four temporary offices provided for the project had a system for booking

in and out which students used but the ‘host teams’ took no responsibility for the

work of the project and relationships between students and workers at times were

difficult, mirroring the experience of service users.

Because of the need for confidence and experience, students were unusually invited

to request the START placement. This motivation appeared to be more important

than the amount or type of previous experience. Similarly, comfort working without

clear structures, and a capacity for self-motivation and creativity seemed important

to the success of the placement. Some students were shocked by the level of racism

expressed about this group both by people at work and in their personal lives and this

was an area in which they needed to be able to access additional support.

An Alternative Model

Rather than modelling their behaviour and responses on others or following

bureaucratic processes, in the START project the students are the service. In common

with international examples cited by Shardlow & Doel (2002) students are well aware

that in their work with service users their individual strengths and resources will have

a substantial impact on outcome. This is in contrast with many students who

experience their practice learning as placing a burden on the professional

community, where overstretched professionals identify relatively simple tasks for

students to learn from. This negative view is also applied to refugees and asylum

seekers who are seen as placing a ‘burden’ on the host community when instead both

are groups in transition who have a potentially substantial contribution to make

(Butler, 2005).

As the project has no resources of its own, students have to focus their efforts on

removing obstacles between service users and the agencies that should be meeting

their needs in what Lawrence Shulman calls the ‘Interactional approach’ (1999).

Rather than being a problem or deficit, it may be that the absence of a qualified

social worker can be an advantage to students. Placed in mainstream teams, students

are likely to learn the constraints imposed by employing agency structures which

increasingly undermine employees’ opportunities for initiative and creativity (Clarke,

2000, p. 15). There are potential conflicts between the nature and function of social

work in the UK (Woodcock, 2003) and the adoption by the British Association of

Social Workers of the International Definition of Social Work (IFSW, 2001) which

places an obligation on programmes to offer students more than an apprenticeship

into existing agency procedures.

Instead of modelling their behaviour or responses on others or being guided by

bureaucratic processes, students at START have to engage with needs and

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expectations in a way that uses their particular resources and is congruent with social

work values (BASW, 2001). They have to actively seek knowledge in a rapidly

changing legal and policy framework, often educating other professionals with their

current expertise.

In practice learning situations where students follow the reflective apprenticeship

model, the experienced practitioner gradually transfers responsibility to the student

as confidence in their capacity develops. In this model, it is the service user and other

agencies who decide how much responsibility the student can be allowed to have and

their professional identity is refined through intersubjectivity, a process of mutual

exploration and developing trust (Duelli Klein, 1983, p. 94). This may be a useful

rehearsal, particularly for graduates joining multi-disciplinary teams where they may

be in the minority.

Students encounter the cultural dislocation between service users’ situations and

the expectations of agencies and others. Drawing on specialist knowledge and their

understanding of social work, in which the practice requirements provide a

framework, students have to draw on their personal resources within a values

framework to make judgements about what to do and how. These frameworks

provide a professional context for students within which they can use their creativity

and initiative in the learning process (Weissman, 1990). Further research is currently

being undertaken to explore this process and to identify a model for learning that

incorporates this ‘boundaried creativity’.

Postscript

At the time of writing, START has become a registered charity with a budget in excess

of £250K, funded principally through the Supporting People Programme and Big

Lottery. It maintains a balance between the service and educational agendas

employing multi-professional student supervisors to respond holistically to a

widening range of referrals.

Note

[1] The National Organisation for Practice Teaching is a membership organisation which

promotes ‘field education’ as a distinct professional activity through annual workshops,

quarterly newsletter, lobbying and consultation.

References

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Accepted August 2005

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