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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on December 5, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2006 36(6):1037-1058; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch403
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

College Based Placement Co-ordinators in the United Kingdom: Their Perceptions of Stress

Stewart Collins and Saija Turunen

Stewart Collins is an Honorary Research Fellow and Saija Turunen is a Teaching Associate, both at the University of Wales, Bangor.

Correspondence to Stewart Collins, 19 Milton Hill, Milton, Dumbarton G82 2TS, UK. E-mail: stewartcollins{at}blueyonder.co.uk

Placement co-ordinators on college-based social work courses have a demanding task, liaising with students, tutors and agency training sections in order to provide appropriate practice learning opportunities. They cope with long established limitations on the quantity and quality of placements. Therefore, the role would appear to be a stressful one. This research examines job satisfaction, pressure and constraints, psychological well-being, the impact of the host institution, and some changes that might alleviate stress. A postal questionnaire was sent to all placement co-ordinators on college-based social work courses in the UK. The findings indicated that small numbers of placement co-ordinators experienced high levels of stress to the point of suffering from ‘borderline’ anxiety and depression. Stress scores for placement co-ordinators as a whole, however, were lower than those of the general UK population. The co-ordinators enjoyed considerable autonomy and a reasonable amount of support. Generally, they had positive attitudes towards the institutions where they worked. Males tended to emphasize the importance of the institutional context rather than females. However, around half of the placement co-ordinators had considered giving up their posts; only about a quarter liked their work. Respondents enjoyed only limited job satisfaction, felt pressurized, subject to excessive demands and were ambivalent in attitudes about managers, colleagues, students and practice teachers.

Keywords: social work, placement co-ordinators, stress


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