Instructions
Please read these instructions carefully.
The submission time is Tuesday 10th of June 11:59pm.
This is an open-book examination which should take no longer than
2 hours to complete. You should set aside 15 minutes for reading
time in addition to these 2 hours. The total time therefore should be
2 hours and 15 minutes (as in a standard written examination).
You have the freedom to spend more than two hours on this
examination, so long as you submit it to the unit’s MyLO
assessment portal before the deadline of Tuesday 10th of June
11:59pm.
The expectation is that you will be drawing from memory, rather
than preparing responses like an essay. As much as possible, you
should endeavour to approach and complete this examination as a
traditional examination. However, it is open-book.
Your task is to complete the two fictious scenarios/role play
questions.
Your responses to each scenario should be no more than 750
words in length. Your responses should collectively thereby be a
total of 1,500 words.
Each question is equally weighted.
You are not required to reference, only if you use quotations must
you please cite with in-text and provide a reference list in APA7.
Please note that the same rules for assessments will apply here:
Wordcount: The total wordcount for your submission must not fall
outside of the 10% leeway. The same penalties will apply to those
which do exceed or are under the 10% leeway. Reference lists do
not add to the wordcount.
Collusion: You are to complete your examination individually and
not in pairs or groups.
Academic integrity: You must use your own words and not use AI,
as your examinations will be submitted via Turnitin.
Lateness: The same penalties outlined in the unit outline will apply.
Please note the following presentation and submission requirements:
Please use sub-headings to indicate the questions you are
answering, e.g. Question 1
Please have your answers in size 12 Times New Roman or Calibri.
Please submit your examination in a word document on the MyLO
assessment portal. Please do not submit as a pdf or any other file
format.
Part A: Child Protection
You must complete one question from this section.
Question 1
You are a social worker working within child protection, where you have
been based for the last 5 years. This is the first full-time role that you
acquired since graduating from university, having previously worked part
time for several years at another non-government organisation. Due to
the length of your time at the department, you have seen people come
and go, including some of the peers you studied with at university. Over
the last year you have had a set of emotionally difficult cases within your
workload, and as of late you are noticing some of the signs of compassion
fatigue, and that you are becoming uncharacteristically short tempered
with those who work “normal office jobs” who “complain” to you about
their work. You have discussed this with your boss, partner, and GP, and
have taken some leave.
Earlier in the year you had accepted an invitation from your old university
lecturer, Professor Smith, to come and speak to the first-year social work
students on a panel titled ‘Social Work: Practitioner Perspectives’. You are
dreading it given the circumstances as of late, but you really liked your
classes with Professor Smith during your studies, and are passionate
about mentoring the next generation of social workers. The professor
explained she wanted to have you speak about your experiences of being
a social worker because of your time in the child protection department.
During the question-and-answer session, one student named Alex comes
to the microphone and candidly asks:
“I want to work in child protection, but my parents are worried
about my decision because they hear stories about how hard
working in child protection is, and I do not know what to do. I have
managed in my studies so far, and I have watched some Youtube
videos on self-care. What do you think I should do or be mindful
of?”
The speaker sitting to your left hands you the microphone.
Instructions
Drawing from unit content in Weeks 2, 3, and 6, provide a response to
Alex, mindful of the circumstances that your character is in. Your 750
word answer is to be written in the style of a formal verbal response (that
is, how you would respond at a panel event).
Part B: Juvenile Justice
You must complete one question from this section.
Question 1
You are a Project and Policy Officer working within the Department of
Social Services and Justice. At the Monday staff meeting your boss
informs the team that he had received a formal e-mail from the Minister
asking for advice about sentencing options and crime prevention for an
upcoming meeting with other Ministers of Justice, on the topic of youth
crime. This does not come as a surprise, given the recent positions being
advanced on “cracking down” on youth crime in two other jurisdictions,
and the media attention to, and press-releases on, youth crime in a
nearby jurisdiction. Your boss has a hunch that the Minister may be under
pressure to follow suit with other jurisdiction, and that a recent media
statement from a neighbouring jurisdiction may be discussed at the
meeting. He says:
“Police responses are important, though I want you to prepare a brief for
the Minister discussing how considerations of the population in question
and the research would lead us to consider there are also other options
available to a government aside from the Queensland model”.
