Part1:
Choose one of the following organisations which have been featured in the online materials for this subject
- Benevolent Society –https://www.benevolent.org.au/Links to an external site.
- ANTAR –https://antar.org.au/our-work/about-us/Links to an external site.
- Centre for Multicultural Youth –https://www.cmy.net.au/Links to an external site.
- Every Australian Counts –https://everyaustraliancounts.com.au/Links to an external site.
- Women with Disabilities Australia –https://wwda.org.au/Links to an external site.
- VCOSS or ACOSS –https://vcoss.org.au/Links to an external site.https://www.acoss.org.au/Links to an external site.
You are a social worker in the policy team of your selected organisation. You have been asked to prepare a policy briefing on a social issue relevant to your organisation, which you feel would benefit from policy reform. Your policy brief needs to be clear and persuasive, with the aim of convincing your organisation to implement advocacy in this area.
Your policy brief should include:
- Analysis of how a current social policy and the inequitable lived experience of that policy is contributing to the social issue chosen
- A critical explanation of the policy identified using the Policy Triangle framework
- A proposal and example of policy advocacy to be conducted by your organisation
- A justification of the advocacy setting out how what is proposed will be effective at changing policy and reducing the inequity described.
Part 2:
After submitting the briefing paper to your organisation, you have been asked to reflect upon your proposal and policy practice in a supervision session with your supervisor.
Prepare a short reflective piece using the Gibbs Reflective Cycle to take with you to the session, you may want to reflect on issues such as: the skills you have developed and how you might develop them further, how policy practice might be incorporated into your social work professional identity, other practice issues you have experienced that could lend themselves to policy practice, the next steps for role/professional development to develop your practice.
Suggestions for basic structure for the assignment:
The word counts set out here areNOTcompulsory but are provided as a guide for you to consider. This guide is also linked to the marks allocated to each section in the Marking Criteria/Rubric.
- A critical analysis of how a current social policy and the inequitable lived experience of that policy is contributing to the social issue chosen (900 words
- A critical analysis of the policy identified using the Policy Triangle framework (600 words
- A proposal and example of policy advocacy to be conducted by your organisation and a justification (1200 words
- Reflection using the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, to guide discussions about the proposal with your supervisor (300 words)
Policy advocacy proposal
Various forms of policy advocacy will be discussed in this subject. In this assessment you will need to prepare a proposal and an example of advocacy which reflects the analysis you have conducted, the policy area you have chosen and your organisation. An example of advocacy is a piece you have created and could include a letter to the editor, a protest and online media plan (eg, a Change.org petition etc), an opinion piece for a newspaper or online news service, a submission to an inquiry etc. With your example you will be able to directly demonstrate how you are being persuasive in your advocacy.
Critical Analysis
Your paper should demonstrate critical analysis of the policy you are examining, and not be just a description of area, policy documentation or proposed policy advocacy.
References
Your assignment should include references to any policy documents you discuss and to other relevant readings, resources, materials. The number of references you need to include will depend very much on what particular area and aspect of social policy you are examining, so we are not prescribing a certain number of references. You should reference using the APA style. If you are unsure there is a guide to referencing styles you can access through the library website.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in assessment tasks
With the increasing availability of AI based software and tools (eg. ChatGPT), it is important to be aware that use of AI as part of assessments may be deemed to be a breach of academic integrity if it has not been approved for use in a specific subject. The University currently has software that can detect AI generated content and future detection software will become more sophisticated. You can find out more about AI detection software at University of Melbourne here:Advice for students regarding Turnitin and AI writing detection (unimelb.edu.au)
For this subject/assessment it is permissible to use AI for generating ideas. If you do use AI for this purpose, you must include a declaration within your assessment submission that outlines how you have used AI. Your declaration must include all the information outlined at:Acknowledging use of AI tools and technologies (unimelb.edu.au)
Please be aware that AI detection software is also likely to detect content that has been prepared using digital applications, services and plugins. This includes translation apps and grammar checkers like Grammarly. Our Department of Social Work policy is that limited use of translation apps is permissible (eg. using the app to check your work and making minor edits to words or a phrase) but substantial use may be deemed a breach of academic integrity (eg. writing your assignment in a language other than English and then using a translation app to reproduce the whole assignment in English). Limited use of grammar checkers such as Grammarly is permissible for basic editorial assistance to check grammar, clarity and spelling (eg. similar to grammar and spelling check functions in word processors such as Word) but more substantial use may be deemed academic misconduct. When you do use a translation or grammar checker app you must include a declaration within your assessment submission that states the application used and how you have used it. Your declaration must include all the information outlined at:Acknowledging use of AI tools and technologies (unimelb.edu.au)
This is in line with the University of Melbournes statement on the use of artificial intelligence software in the preparation of material for assessment and?Student Academic Integrity Policy?(MPF1310)