Rationale: The presence of school social work in government schools varies across Australia. School social work is an innovative pathway for supporting children and young people’s psychosocial wellbeing and educational aspirations and provides a setting for social work field education. However, concerns have been raised regarding the effectiveness of supervision of social work students undertaking field education in Australian schools.

Background: There is evidence of a social work in schools across Australian states and territories, and specifically in New South Wales state schools from the 1970s and a contemporary presence in Victoria and Tasmania. Research to date has focused on the role of social work, with little mention of what is required for effective social work field education supervision in an Australian school setting. A systematic scoping review of the literature revealed only four contemporary sources relating to social work field education supervision in schools. This study develops an understanding of what is required for effective field education supervision in a state school setting in Australia.

Method: This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with six experienced social work field education supervisors in Australian schools. Participants were drawn from three Australian states, and from urban and regional locations. Reflective thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase framework (2006, 2019) revealed three main themes.

Results: Analysis revealed three main themes indicating for effective field education supervision, the following must be considered: (1) the school context, (2) the supervisor’s competence, and (3) supervisory teams in schools are complex.

Discussion: This study demonstrates that the school context for field education is unique and complex, that supervisors allocated to school placements should be experienced, and that there are a myriad of relationships to be navigated and maintained for effective social work student supervision in school-based field placements. Together, these themes highlight a knowledge base and skill set required by supervisors for effective field education supervision in school contexts.

Recommendations: To address the unique supervisory challenges, recommendations are provided for consolidating a knowledge base and skill set focused on school social work field education for current and future field education supervisors.

Due to the impact of natural and human-caused disasters, for example, climate change, social workers are increasingly needed at the frontline of disaster management. However, some social workers feel unprepared to respond to the needs of vulnerable communities experiencing a disaster. Alongside this, many rural communities that experience disasters also live with social disadvantages, resulting in added layers of difficulty. In response to a gap in social work curricula, the authors residing in both Ireland and Australia decided to conduct a student-led, rural-focussed co-operative inquiry into the research question: How can social work curricula support emerging social workers in developing their competency for working in disaster-affected rural communities to enable resilience? In addressing this question, we propose that social work education include learning the four phases of disaster management (prevention, preparation, response and recovery) through the lens of social work ethics. We posit that social work students need to graduate with an awareness that disasters can exacerbate the issues of distance and social isolation, especially in rural communities. Further, students interested in rural practice would benefit from the cognizance of the factors that increase community vulnerability and the acquisition of strateg.

The extent to which social work education prepares students for the challenges they will meet at the workplace has been discussed with particular concern about turnover and retention in child welfare {Healy, 2009). A common theme in studies where newly qualified social workers are followed from education to work transition, reports early career unpreparedness, especially their knowledge about how to meet with clients in acute crisis and how to handle a demanding work situation has been underlined {Tham & Lynch, 2014; 2017). As working conditions for social workers in many countries are described as demanding, with high turnover rates, recruitment difficulties and where many social workers suffer from burnout and psychological illness, the importance to prepare the students forth is seems important. At the same time, knowledge about how and what social work students are taught about the need to develop coping skills, appears to be limited across and between countries. We know little about a common social work curriculum around 'how to handle emotionally demanding situations' or 'how to recognize burnout and develop resilience habits' and in general, 'how to manage the demands of the job' which seems to be a pedagogical gap.

We invite participants to share their knowledge, experiences and reflections about the situation in their own country making it possible to learn from each other. To improve the preparedness of social workers' and increase the possibility for them to stay at the workplace means an increased quality of the support and help vulnerable clients will receive and is a way to create inclusive practices, increase the students' awareness of human rights, diversity and gender issues. Initially, short presentations from researchers/teachers from Spain, Northern Ireland, Sweden, UK, Finland and Australia will be given followed by small group discussions and a concluding summary in the whole group.