The Degree Partnership is an unincorporated association of education institutions and employing agencies – statutory and voluntary.  Its main purpose is to facilitate regional policies and approaches in areas such as student selection, course content, delivery and practice learning provision.  The Degree Partnership is built on a framework of collaborative working within NI.  This promotes and develops co-operation to ensure equity and high quality standards are delivered across courses to meet the expectations and requirements of social work employers.

The Partnership is accountable to the Northern Ireland Social Care Council and reports to it on any aspect of course provision, including collaborative arrangements, resources, curriculum content and delivery arrangements, practice learning, future plans, evaluation and statistics.  In consultation and collaboration with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, the Partnership, in exercising its operational role in continuous improvement of course delivery, contributes to the review and development of course provision together with key stakeholders.