Newly-qualified Social Workers: A Practice Guide to the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment

The first year of practice can be a particularly challenging time for NQSWs. The Assessed and Supported year in Employment (ASYE) is primarily concerned with supporting NQSWs to establish you on the first rung of your professional career. The expectation is that knowledge and skills gained in qualifying education are consolidated and that new knowledge and skills are developed in practice relevant to the employment setting.

Focusing in on the transition from study to work and what professionalism looks like in practice, this book has been designed to help you get a true sense of what it’s like to work within today’s health care system. It’s been written in conjunction with Social Work Managers, Service Users and NQSWs themselves to provide a detailed and balanced assessment of what it’s like to work as a social worker and tests you on key areas you’ll be assessed on throughout the ASYE. 

Prof. Dr. Jonathan Parker of the Health Sciences University, UK, is Professor Emeritus at Bournemouth University, Professor Emeritus at the University of Stavanger, Norway, Visiting Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Doctoral programme team member at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan. He was one of the founders and director of the Family Assessment and Support Unit, a placement agency attached to the University of Hull and Head of the Department of Social Work.  He was Chair of the Association of Teachers in Social Work Education until 2005, Vice Chair of the UK higher education representative body, the Joint University Council for Social Work Education from 2005- 2010, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He has published widely (over 200 scholarly papers and chapters and 43 books): on disadvantage, marginalisation and violence, Southeast Asia, social work and welfare education internationally. He is author of the best-selling book Social Work Practice (Sage, 2025) and series editor for the highly successful Transforming Social Work Practice series (Sage).

Sally is lecturer and Programme Lead for social work at Bournemouth University. She is also undertaking research on a variety of projects including mental capacity, adult safeguarding and sexual well-being. She completed her doctoral research in 2016 exploring social work practice, physical disability and sexual well-being. This work continues and she is currently developing learning materials (including a short film) around sexual well-being for social care and health practitioners. Sally brings to her academic role extensive social work practice experience built up during more than 25 years of working in diverse practice settings and services. Her research interests focus on often marginalised populations including investigating the experience of financial abuse and the detriment to individuals and society beyond financial loss.