| CODE | SWP3508 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Strategy and Planning in Social Policy | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 6 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Social Policy and Social Work | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | One skill that is in high demand yet often missed by social, public and welfare policy employers is the skill to plan and to help formulate strategy at various levels. This unit is designed to equip students with such abilities, through a focus and an approach that is especially suited to exercise strategy and planning, whether in government, non-profit or for-profit agencies and departments. A rather broad range of component aspects will be covered. The different stages of planning will be considered, through a structure that will see the students move from the planning of a service offered by one agency, to more complex projects that involve the use of government powers to legislate, regulate or sanction as tools of policy. They will also move from simple in-house service provision to outsourcing, the use of market competition mainly through issuing of competitive or the bidding for and running of such competitive projects. This exercise will also throw up the challenges of inter-sectoral collaboration, a further aspect of project planning and implementation which will also be reflected on. The progressive building up of a project and the ongoing feedback from the lecturer will be a major learning tool. Study-unit Aims: This unit aims to afford students the opportunity to gain know how of the key components that go into successful planning and strategy for the government, non-profit and for-profit organizations, mainly but not exclusively, in fields related with social welfare. Besides receiving and participating in lectures about the subject, students will be directed and given ongoing feedback while they prepare projects that put into practice the knowledge and skills gained from or introduced through the lectures. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate an understanding of the main theories of planning, their rationales, their comparisons and their critiques; - Show appreciation of different approaches, and the circumstances or aims for which some of these are more appropriate than others; - Move from a grasp of the essentials of agency social program planning to an understanding of more complex planning, such as planning and strategy within competitive and/or for profit environment, projects that are pluralistic and complex in their aims and/ or in the stakeholders of various statuses that participate in them. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Pave the way to, as well as exercise planning, in governmental and non-governmental, non-profit or for-profit, unitary and multi-participant environments, in areas and ways appropriate for fields of social welfare; - Effectively carry out the various stages in the strategy planning process, in its main varied approaches; - Relate in a wise, sensitive and constructive ways with other partners and stakeholders in the exercise of consultation, cooperation and partnership during planning and plan implementation; - Use some creativity methods to generate alternatives to be considered for action. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main text: Bryson J M (2011). Strategic Planning for Public and Non-profit Organisations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Supplementary texts: Benveniste, G. (1989). Mastering the politics of planning (pp. 56-86). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Burch, H. A. (1997). Basic social policy and planning: Strategies and practice methods. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press. Gilbert N & Specht H (Eds.) (1997). Planning for social welfare: Issues, models, and tasks. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Joyce P (1999). Strategic Management for the Public Services. Buckingham: Open University Press Bryson J M (1995). Lashbrooke, G. (1991), A Project Manager's Handbook, L and A ... to Project Planning, Kogan Page, London. Whittington R (2001). What is Strategy? Does it Matter? London: Thomson. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Independent Study and Project | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Charles Pace |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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