Introduction to Social Policy for Social Care Practice CA 2 Essay Assignment 2026

CA 2 Essay Assignment

Choose one of the following essay titles and submit a completed 1,800 word short academic essay. The essay must be submitted electronically, via the CA 2 submission link on the Introduction to Social Policy for Social Care Practice Moodle page. The CA 2 Submission link will open on Friday 27^th March 2026.

Essay 1

Discuss the role of the state in responding to some of the challenges experienced by non-government organisations involved in the provision of social care services in Ireland post 2020. In your essay include discussion (500 words) on the impact the government response has had on social care practitioners working for non-government organisations.

Essay 2

Discuss the role of the state in responding to the presence of educational disadvantage or homelessness in Irish society post 2020. In your essay include discussion (500 words) on the impact your chosen topic (educational disadvantage or homelessness) has had on the provision of social care services by non-government organisations who work with individuals experiencing either educational disadvantage or homelessness.

Essay 3

Discuss the role of the state in responding to the presence of poverty in Irish society post 2020. In your essay include discussion (500 words) on the impact the presence of poverty has had on the provision of social care services by non-government organisations. Students may focus on one area of poverty with which they are familiar in writing up essay.

Essay submission date: 29^th April 2026 (note confirmation of submission date)

Essay content

All essay submissions should contain a clear introductory paragraph. In this paragraph students should provide a clear outline of the structure/content of the essay. This opening paragraph should also clearly indicate the approach taken in writing up the chosen essay. All essay submissions must also have a clear concluding paragraph which summarises the key points raised in the main body of essay. A complete reference list should also be provided.

See moodle page for sample plans and recommended/supplementary readings

Grading of Essay:

The essay has a credit weighting of 70% of the overall module mark. The grading of the essay will be in line with current academic conventions in SETU Waterford. You must present the essay in a discursive format and not bullet points. Use clearly defined paragraphs when writing up.

Outline of structure of essay

• Short Introduction (200 words)
• Main body (1,300 words)
• Conclusion (300 words)
• Reference list (not included in word count)
• AI Acknowledgment where used (not included in word count)

Turnitin Draft Coach

Students may use Turnitin Draft Coach in writing up the CA 2 essay assignment. Turnitin Draft Coach is a learning tool which will assist students in writing the essay before submitting the final draft for grading.  Turnitin Draft Coach does not make any changes to your essay.  Use of Turnitin Draft Coach in typing up assignment provides an opportunity to receive immediate feedback on similarity, citation and grammar. It is safe to use Draft Coach as it does not create a similarity match when the final draft of your assignment is submitted via the Turnitin module submission link (Turnitin 2026).

Turnitin Draft Coach is only available in Microsoft Word Online through your SETU student Microsoft 365 account. See moodle page for additional information on using Turnitin Draft Coach.

To help with evaluation of this online learning tool, students using Turnitin Draft Coach are asked to please insert a sentence indicating that they used the learning tool at the end of their reference list. For example, ‘Turnitin Draft Coach was used in writing up this CA 2 assignment.’ Students can also if they wish include a short comment indicating if they found the Turnitin Draft Coach useful as a learning resource tool.

Use of AI

Where Generative AI (such as, Chat GPT; Bard; Microsoft CoPilot; Grammarly.com; word spinners; etc.) is used in any capacity in completing the CA 2 essay assignment students must clearly acknowledge their use of the AI tools used.  Students should provide details of the name of the AI tool used and a brief description of how the tool was used and where relevant include details of prompt(s) used. This information should be included as an additional page after the reference list. Students should retain an exact electronic copy of all AI prompts and responses generated in the event that they may be required to discuss the content of the essay and their use of AI with Anne O’Reilly on submission of final draft for grading. Where an AI tool is used to proofread and/or edit the CA 2 assignment, students should also retain an electronic copy of the draft essay prior to uploading to the AI editing platform.

The SETU Student Guidelines on the use of Generative AI is an essential reading.

All submissions must adhere to SETU Student Guidelines on the use of Generative AI.  A copy of the guidelines is available in the module assessment folder. The guidelines clearly state that the “Misuse of AI can include: Presenting AI-generated or modified work as your own; Not declaring or acknowledging the use of AI in the completion of coursework of assignments; and Relying on AI as a replacement for your understanding, opinions or thinking”.

Please note that penalties can be imposed for submissions deemed to have an inappropriate level of AI generated text and/or which do not clearly acknowledge the use of Generative AI. If you are in doubt about your use of Generative AI in completing the CA 2 assignment you should make contact with Anne O’Reilly.

Please see tutorial folders for more detailed advice on use of AI and practical examples of how the use of AI should be acknowledged in the CA 2 assignment.

Assessment of CA 2

The essay assignment will be assessed under four main categories, these are

• Structure
• Clarity of discussion/analysis
• General content
• Use of literature/referencing

Essay should be typed using Times New Roman font, font size 12 and 1.5 line spacing. Page numbers should be inserted in the page footer.

The essay discussion must be supported by the inclusion of relevant citation and example. Draw on suitable published and reputable sources. Do not cut and paste from documents and/or online resources. See moodle page for module recommended and supplementary readings and links to reputable online sources.

A minimum of five (5) academic references is required. Do not use Wikepedia, the journal.ie and/or non-academic blogs in support of discussion.

You must use the Harvard Referencing System – please refer to Cite it Right to ensure correct referencing. A copy is available on the moodle page. Students may also find the ‘Cite Them Right’ Bloomsbury database accessed via the SETU Library page useful. Ensure all direct quotes, partial quotes and paraphrases, where used in the writing up of the assignment are clearly identified in the discussion and in the reference list. Direct quotes and partial quotes should be enclosed in quotation marks with in-text citation provided

A complete reference list must be provided at the end of essay. Students should also provide, where used, an acknowledgement of all AI sources/resources used in completing the CA 2 assignment. This should be inserted after the reference list. See moodle page for practical examples of how to acknowledge the use of AI.

Please adhere to the word count of 1,800 words. The essay submission is subject to 10% over or 10% under the actual word count. Essay assignments greater than 10% over or under the word count may be subject to a deduction of marks. Please insert the word count at the end of your discussion. The reference list and AI acknowledgment are not included in the word count.

Spelling, grammar, punctuation errors and poor sentence structure in writing up essay will incur penalties. Use of the spelling and grammar check on your device will assist in identifying spelling and poor grammar/sentence structure. The use of the show/hide button on the Word tool bar will help to identify spacing errors. The presence of in-text citation and citation errors in reference list may also incur penalties.

Use of Turn it In Assignment Link

The accepted similarity percentage should be below 12%. It is important to note that the repetitive inclusion of the names of social policy documents and/or the names of Government Departments in writing up the Introduction to Social Policy essay may occasionally result in a higher similarity return. It is therefore possible that you could have a similarity return of between 14% and 16% for the Introduction to Social Policy for Social Care Practice essay assignment.

Careful proof reading of the similarity report generated by Turn it in prior to submission for final grading will allow you to identify if this is the case. Please note that on the first submission of essay to Turnitin you should receive your similarity report within 24 hours of submission. It is important to note that Turnitin may occasionally return a similarity percentage lower or higher than the actual percentage similarity of your essay due to the online source bank used by Turnitin.

In some cases, a high similarity may be returned as a result of the use of unreferenced direct quotes and partial quotes; not enclosing direct quotes and partial quotes in quotation marks; and using incorrect and/or incomplete in-text citations. This includes the omission of page numbers in direct quote citations provided, and on occasion the incorrect placement of punctuation. A high similarity can also be returned by attributing a direct quote/partial quote to an incorrect author/source.  Students should allow sufficient time prior to the submission of final draft of essay for grading to undertake a careful review of the Turnitin similarity report generated.

CA 2 Workshops

CA 2 workshops will be held during the course of the second hour of lectures and in all tutorials in weeks 10 and 11.  These workshops will provide an opportunity for students to avail of in class supports in writing up essay assignments. Students should bring their own device, remember there are limited power points to plug in devices in lecture/tutorial rooms, so devices should be fully charged.

If students encounter difficulty in understanding the immediate feedback received when using Turnitin Draft Coach and require further support, they should take a screenshot of the feedback received. This will assist in providing additional support in the CA 2 workshops.

Students with concerns about the CA 2 assignment should not leave their request for advice and support to the last minute.

Submission of final drafts for grading

The final draft of essay must be submitted for grading using the Turnitin Assignment link on the Introduction to Social Policy for Social Care Practice module page on or before 11pm on Wednesday 29^th April. No submissions will be accepted by email attachment or by share-point.