Entry requirements
Applications are invited from those employed in the police, prison and probation services, the voluntary sector and statutory settings working in the community safety and criminal justice field. You are normally expected to have an Honours degree, or comparable professional qualifications. You should also have significant professional experience in a community safety or criminal justice setting, and ideally will have progressed to a middle-management role. Those without a first degree are assessed by interview and review of prior written work (eg professional reports, drafting of protocols, etc). You will also be expected to have critically evaluated, in 1,000–1,500 words, a document in the public domain that bears directly or implicitly on your practice to support your application; the document will be provided by the course leader.
Course description
Introduction
Length of course 2 year part-time, one day per week; PG Dip and PG Cert are also available
The course has been developed within a complex context, with multiple stakeholders. The major community safety and criminal justice agencies – police, probation and the prison service – are engaged in accelerated change at present. They are large, public-sector organisations, subject to both party-political and public scrutiny, and to national and, in some cases, international legislation. The agencies’ work takes place within a backdrop of the commitment to partnership working that is, by now, an established feature of political and social policy across the board. In addition, current government policy is oriented to civil renewal, the Respect agenda, and community engagement and accountability – all have a bearing on the work of community safety and criminal justice professionals.
Criminal justice agencies – and the professionals working in the sector as a whole – do not work to a legislative or criminal justice agenda alone, they deal with some of the most difficult and disturbing forms of human behaviour on behalf of the wider society. This course offers a combination of modules addressing sector-specific policies and practice; it also develops the tools of reflection and observation practice, with group and organisational understanding, to enhance your professional practice. The modules explore the relationship between agencies and communities, trends in diversity policy, issues of statutory and informal power and authority, and the subjective impact, on professionals, of work with offenders.
Course Content
You will learn alongside students from health, social work and community development settings. By providing a space in which those who work in the voluntary agencies linked to the criminal justice system can learn alongside those in the statutory sector, the course will also foster constructive reflection on the wider societal dynamics impinging on each sector.
Core modules
-Critical Inquiry in Practice
-Dissertation
-Interprofessional and Interagency Dynamics
-Partnership Working and Risk Management
-Policies and Culture
Options include
-Community Work: Principles and Practice
-Domestic Violence: Power and Control
-Learning in the Workplace
You may also choose from:
-International Perspectives on Change
-Managing Change
-Power and Empowerment
-Research and Evaluation
-Translating Policy into Quality Care
-Free choice module
Teaching and Assessment
Critical awareness and analytical skills are developed across all modules and assessed through written assignments and (in some modules) panel presentations. Group-working, communication and self-evaluation are developed through critical reflection during small group work, reading seminars, sessions with visiting speakers who are expert-practitioners, observational studies, experiential work in group dynamics, and work-related projects complemented by self-directed learning.
